Jamie Lee Curtis thought 2003’s Freaky Friday would be the end of her career, but at the time she believed it was coming to an end because she was in her 40s, had gray hair and was “a little chubby”.
Little did she know that exactly 20 years later, in 2023, she would win an Oscar for her role in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Mr Curtis, now 67, said his career began to change once he took the reins.
“You know, I didn’t have the responsibility of creating my own work until recently,” she exclusively told Page Six at Tuesday’s Scarpetta premiere. “I was always at the mercy of whether someone would hire me.”
But everything changed when she reprized her role as Laurie Strode in the 2018 hit horror sequel film Halloween.
“(It) gave me enough of a foundation to start a business where I could be my own boss,” she explained.
The “True Lies” star added that growing up in the industry gave her a keen eye for Hollywood intrigue.
“I’m a practical person,” she said. “I’ve known this industry for a long time. My parents were in an industry that I have been and will continue to be more famous for, but at some point the industry rejected them.”
Her father was Tony Curtis, a screen idol who appeared in more than 100 films, including 1959’s Some Like It Hot and 1960’s Spartacus, and her mother was Janet Leigh, most famously stabbed to death in the 1960 film Psycho.
Ms Curtis said she was a “realist” who understood that she was in a business that was “ageist” and “misogynistic in many ways”.
Nevertheless, she has managed to build an impressive post-“Freaky Friday” resume, including not only an Oscar but a recurring role in the “Freaky Friday” sequel, “The Bear,” and now starring opposite Nicole Kidman in “Scarpetta.”
The Amazon Prime series is based on the book by Patricia Cornwell and stars Bobby Cannavale, Simon Baker, and Ariana DeBose.
After the screening, the cast headed to Café Zafri at The Twenty to New York.
