One of many unique “Scream Queens,” in addition to a reputable intercourse image by a lot of the Nineteen Eighties and ’90s, Jamie Lee Curtis had managed to slot in one field or one other all through most of her profession, a truth made all of the extra clear when one learns she was born into Hollywood royalty because the daughter of display legends Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis. Nonetheless, as Curtis turned the nook on 60 a couple of years again, she realized she wanted to cease assembly everybody else’s expectations and go after the form of work that actually fed her creativity.
“I blew up the temper boards as a result of I’m not who you assume I’m,” Curtis stated in a latest interview with Empire. “That’s in all probability the largest crux of it: I’m not who you assume I’m. Let me present you. I’m far more than you assume I’m.”
This shift in her profession resulted in her going after the position of unstable matriarch Donna Berzatto on “The Bear,” for which she gained a Primetime Emmy for Excellent Visitor Actress, and her Oscar-winning flip as a demented tax auditor in “Every little thing All over the place All at As soon as.” Most just lately, her supporting efficiency in “The Final Showgirl” earned her a nomination on the 2025 SAG Awards. These had been elements that allowed Curtis to embrace her genuine, weird-self whereas nonetheless mining the inventive challenges every character introduced and had been taken on out of a need to make her ultimate working years her most vital ones.
“Once I turned 60, I actually hit that second of considering that I used to be going to die quickly,” stated Curtis. “I seemed on the actuarial desk, and I used to be like, ‘Whoa! Shit!’ And I spotted that the one tragedy about my eventual dying — as a result of I’ve had a stunning life — is the creativity that I’ve saved inside me that I by no means introduced out.”
Along with all of the on-screen work she’s finished over the previous few years, Curtis has additionally taken to screenwriting and producing, having fashioned a take care of Jason Blum and Blumhouse Productions with the hope of directing her personal work in the future quickly. She additionally introduced him “Scarpetta,” an upcoming TV collection adaptation of Patricia Cornwell’s books starring Nicole Kidman, “The Misplaced Bus,” which depicts the aftermath of the 2018 wildfires in town of Paradise, California (Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera are at the moment hooked up with Paul Greengrass set to direct), in addition to two different tasks that stay beneath wraps.
“Jason Blum gave me a deal as a result of I’m hungry for this,” Curtis advised Empire. “I’ve been wanting to do that my entire life. I’ve been writing scripts since I used to be first an actor. It’s a rare second for me.”
As a lot as she’s been having fun with this profession renaissance, there are evergreen elements of the leisure enterprise Curtis nonetheless struggles to bend to.
“I don’t just like the fantasy a part of show-off enterprise,” she stated. “Each crimson carpet is a trend assertion that completely terrifies me, as a result of it’s this fantasy — as if these folks personal these garments, as in the event that they seem like that. That concept that we put that out into the world. That posturing is one thing that I’m not comfy with.”
Even so, there’s one thing in regards to the work she’s been capable of tackle in recent times that has allowed her to embrace her true self as nicely. As an actor, she doesn’t at all times wish to need to lean on the fake.
“Recently I’ve been capable of grow to be characters which have freed me from any vainness, which then frees me as an artist – as a result of then it doesn’t matter, as a result of then I’m simply doing the work,” stated Curtis. “And I’ve at all times needed to do the work.”
“The Final Showgirl” is at the moment in theaters from Roadside Points of interest.