“I don’t think I ever had any ambitions,” says Curtis, 63, over Zoom.
“I don’t think I looked at it that way.”
That changed after Curtis played beleaguered babysitter Laurie Strode in 1978’s hugely successful horror landmarkHalloween.
Jamie Lee Curtis.Matt Sayles/Invision/AP/Shutterstock
“I now get to go off and do my own thing.”
“I remember how much I loved being part of that group of young filmmakers,” she says.
It was just beautiful."
Entertainment Weekly/Scream Queens cover.EW
The actress has fond memories of working with Carpenter.
“John is such an interesting guy,” she says.
“He’s sort a gentleman he says ‘darlin’' a lot.
Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode in ‘Halloween Ends’.Ryan Green/Universal Pictures
My experience with him was that he was quiet and very focused on what he needed.
There was a lot of working.”
“John Landis had chosen me against everyone’s feelings, advice, whatever,” says Curtis.
“Danny was amazing, I probably had a little crush on him.”
The movie also starredEddie Murphyin only his second big-screen role after appearing in the previous year’s48 Hrs.
“He was sweet, he was funny,” Curtis says of the comedy-icon-in-the-making.
So, you know, he was young."
While the result would be hailed as an instant classic, the actress has less-than-fond memories of the shoot.
Curtis did give her co-stars gifts, although it could be argued they were really gifts to herself.
“I bought toothbrushes because we were going to be swapping spit.”
“You know, there are a moments of logic disbelief that actors have toact,” Curtis says.
“Jim gave me the freedom to create something,” the actress says of the shoot.
“I think he saw what I was doing and just was like, keep going!
Go, go, go, go, go.
More, more, more.
I loved that feeling, because it was really a new feeling for me.”
“You know, there are those moments where you go,wow.
I mean, I’m having a lot of wow moments, but that was awowmoment.”
“Freaky Fridaywas a fabulous movie, also very freeing creatively,” says the actress.
“You know, being a teenager again, it was super fun.
I had a good time with Lindsay.
She was terrific.”
“I’ll be like, ‘Prove it.’
If she answers correctly, then I know it’s Lindsay.
If it’s somebody fishing, pretending to be Lindsay, they won’t know that answer.
So, for all you fake Lindsays out there, that’s going to be your question!”
Alas, Fox would cancelScream Queensafter just two seasons.
I’d never been part of something that had that much lift-off.
It actually felt like it was going to break television, the way it was teed up.
But the lift of it before it hit was something I’ve never experienced before or since.
I mean, every single news magazine had picked it as its No.
1 show of the year and it was so interesting to be a part of that."
But the result was an Oscar-nominated critical sensation and box office hit.
“I was actually quite isolated,” Curtis says of the shoot in Massachusetts.
I was alone for a lot and it was a very tough time.
It turned out to be this fantastic movie.
I would never have known that the movie we were making was the movie that we made.
We had no idea.
We’d just do our little thing and then go home.
It was just such a delightful surprise."
“They don’t want all those other people to go to CinemaCon?
Because I really felt like I was this tiny, tiny,deliciousbut tiny little part of the puzzle.
It just was so fun to actually become its head cheerleader.
“That film had so little expectation,” says Curtis.
“It was made for so little, so fast, in Simi Valley, California.
I saw that movie for the first time at South by Southwest and my mind was literally blown open.
I was in shock because it’s spectacular.”
Watch the full video version of Jamie Lee Curtis' Role Call at the top of this post.
Halloween Endspremieres in theaters and on Peacock Oct. 14.
See an exclusive image of Curtis in the film below.
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