Before the term “nepo baby” was created, Jamie Lee Curtis was following in the footsteps of her famous actor parents, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. She made her first big mark on screen as scream queen Laurie Strode in the Halloween films. In the 1980s and 1990s, Jamie Lee showed off her comic chops and sex appeal in A Fish Called Wanda, True Lies and more.
Now in her 60s, she’s reinvented herself as a deft character actress who can literally disappear into a role. In the past few years, her impressive work has won her both an Oscar and an Emmy — and she’s not done yet. Jamie Lee can currently be found on Prime Video playing a hitwoman on the limited series The Sticky. Her latest film, The Last Showgirl, in which she costars as a Las Vegas dancer-turned-waitress, opens wide in theaters on January 10.
The actress admits she’s grateful to be this busy at age 66. “I’ve done some awful movies, and I’ve done some stupid things. But I’m also patient,” she says. “That to me is the beauty of being [older]. I’ve been patient long enough; I’ve suited up and shown up for anything I do long enough with the hope always that there would be an opportunity to do my thing.”
Jamie Lee is also serious about creating opportunities for other women. She cold-called actress Margo Martindale to offer her the lead role in The Sticky when another commitment wouldn’t allow her to play maple syrup farmer Ruth Landry herself. “She’s a real smart, clear thinker, and she’s extremely, extremely supportive,” says Margo. “And when she came [on the show], she came to play.”
Jamie doesn’t appear in the series until episode 5 — but she’s unforgettable. “Mommy did not travel all the way to Montreal in the frigid tundra to be passive and uninteresting,” she jokes. “I was going to show up with some spirit.”
Under her production company, Comet Pictures, Jamie’s also producing Scarpetta, a Prime Video series based on Patricia Cornwell’s novels about a Virginia medical examiner, who will be played by Nicole Kidman. Jamie, who will costar, is also in talks to play Jessica Fletcher in a Murder, She Wrote movie based on the beloved Angela Lansbury TV series.
Jamie Lee Curtis Encourages Creativity
Jamie confesses that she’s living the most “creative time” of her life. In addition to her acting, she’s the author of nearly a dozen books for children. “If you’ve lived life at all, you pick up life lessons along the way,” she explains of her desire to hand down wisdom to a younger generation. “If you’re an artist, you utilize those life lessons in the work you do.”
She’s most grateful that she’s heeded the call to learn and grow over the years. “I’m very much in acceptance of what I look like, and I own what I think and feel. And that, to me, is what maturity is,” Jamie explains. “I mean what I say. I try not to say it mean. And that’s a way then to grow into my old age.”
She calls herself “pro-aging,” and it’s an attitude she’s tried to pass down to her daughters, Annie, 38, and Ruby, 28, whom she has warned about the empty promises of plastic surgery. “Walk a mile in my shoes. I have done it. It did not work,” says the actress, who says that Botox injections made her look “plastic.”
Jamie’s found it easier to accept herself in all ways because she knows herself better. “My goal in life now as an old lady is just to say, ‘Relax, you are enough. You are enough. This is a perfect moment right now.’”
