Jamie Lee Curtis is part of Hollywood royalty. After more than forty years in the entertainment industry, the daughter of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh knows all the rules of the game and she knows perfectly what her effect is on her interlocutors every time she enters a room. 44 years after becoming the original scream queen with the premiere of the seminal The halloween nightthe John Carpenter classic, the actress is in Madrid to promote Halloween: The Endhis theoretical farewell to his most famous character, the one he has played up to seven times.
Laurie Strode is not the only Curtis character who has been talked about in 2022. The protagonist of Risky lies appeared this year in All at once everywherean instant cult classic now threatening to make its way to Oscar nominations after becoming the biggest financial success in the history of independent production company A24.
While we wait for the camera to start rolling, SERIES & MÁS asks the actress if she has seen what The Hollywood Reporter has just included her among the favorites to get the Oscar nomination, the first of his career, for his work on the film directed by four hands by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, known in the industry as Daniels. “He starts recording,” he jokes to the technician. “As you say? You can repeat it? I’m kidding. I have seen it. Me hesitate? Of course I’ve seen it.”she admits laughing. The topic will come up again at the end of the interview.
[5 películas clave en la carrera de Jamie Lee Curtis y dónde verlas en streaming]
the saga of Halloween has always been a pioneer. John Carpenter’s film made fashion the slasher and the new trilogy has restarted another fashion that they have followed scream either The Exorcist. Do you think the saga is given the respect it deserves?
I’m afraid that horror will always be seen as a subgenre, a minor genre. I think it was Rodney Dangerfield who said “well, it seems they will never respect me”. I think horror movies get a certain amount of respect when they’re successful at the box office. The film industry is, above all, a business. It is what matters most to them. I think as long as horror movies work, they will get attention. The hardest thing for me is to imagine that at some point there will be real respect. I can’t remember the last time a horror movie was nominated for an Oscar. Within that realm of hypocrisy that decides what is legitimate or illegitimate, I think we still have a long way to go. In the end I think that, as long as we make money, there will be horror movies.
Halloween: The End closes the David Gordon Green trilogy. What do you think will be his legacy in the franchise?
Much. I think David and Danny [McBride, el coguionista de Gordon Green] they were prophetic. They managed to get ahead of the feminist movement with their version of Halloween night. They made a movie about female empowerment and a woman saying “I’m not going to take this anymore” before the women’s movement started saying #MeToo. They also anticipated the violence in the streets. They were among the first to see that the people felt that the system was broken and that they had to regain power. In Halloween: The End they talk about the town being almost as monstrous as Michael Myers himself. I think it actually has a lot to do with social media and the way we’ve all become monsters in our own way. The word troll is really another way of saying monster.
Neve Campbell announced this year that she would not scream 6 because she did not feel valued and well paid. You have worked 50 years in a sexist and discriminatory industry. Have you always felt justly rewarded when working on the Halloween saga?
(The actress reflects in silence for seven long seconds) Yes Yes. The truth is that I don’t know what other actors were paid, but actors are very well paid. Neve Campbell is a wonderful person and I respect her decision. when we did The halloween night in 2018 they paid me a scale salary [Jamie Lee Curtis cobró el mínimo que establece el Sindicato de Actores a cambio de recibir un porcentaje de los beneficios en taquilla de la película, si es que los hay: en ese caso fueron enormes, pero no todas las películas de la franquicia habían ganado dinero]. That is the agreement we reached. For me this is not about money, I have never done this for money. Never.
In this film we see how Laurie confronts her life and her ghosts and writes a book about her life. With such an impactful life and career, do you see yourself writing your memoirs?
No. I would never make a memoir. It is something very personal. You betray people by telling your stories. You betray your lovers. Betray your friends. You betray your relatives. I would not do it.
If they nominate me for an Oscar, if they nominate someone from this film, I will be the first person screaming for everything that it represents ‘Everything at once everywhere’
Halloween: The End It closes the saga in theory, but nothing really ends in Hollywood. Do you see a possible path to play Laurie Strode again?
I had ended my relationship with her in 2002 [Laurie Strode llegó a morir en pantalla en la película Halloween: Resurrection, pero David Gordon Green y Danny McBride decidieron ignorar todas las secuelas y que sus películas fueran una continuación directa de las dos primeras películas de John Carpenter] when David conquered me with this idea for this trilogy. I can’t imagine a scenario where I go back to do another Hollywood movie, but never say never. Although I can’t imagine how we would return.
You stayed at the gates of the nomination with A fish named Wanda and above all, Risky lies. You’re now in the awards season conversation thanks to All at once everywhere. How are you experiencing what is happening with this film?
Do you know something? It’s curious. The conversation around awards season is like a horse race. Someone shared with me yesterday what you said before. There is a quote, apparently from Wayne Gretzyky, that a very young friend of mine told me when she was telling him that she had interested me in a movie and that they had wanted to have me. “You have a 100% chance of failing if you don’t try.”
What I feel when I think about the Oscars and our little movie that we made for very little money, during 38 days in Simi Valley two and a half years ago, a story about love, kindness and the reunification of an Asian family… For something like that to have a chance of winning and getting more attention because of the Oscars, or whatever, my reaction is to say, “Come on!”
No one has celebrated this film more than me. If they nominate me, if they nominate someone from this film, I will be the first person screaming for everything it represents All at once everywhere. For me it has been like a mixture of art and alchemy. This movie came when the world was still suffering from a pandemic and was still being torn apart by it. And suddenly a movie comes along that blows your mind, which also has love at the center of its story. To be a part of something like that and to play such a great role in a movie where no one expected anything other than the art is exciting for me. Simply exciting.
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Jamie Lee Curtis: “I’ve always felt well paid, but I’ve never done this for money”