The crucial 1980s domino effect that gave Jamie Lee Curtis a career: “That grouping of films”
Despite initially wanting to become a police officer, Jamie Lee Curtis couldn’t resist the pull of her last name.
As the daughter of the great Tony Curtis and the legendary Janet Leigh, a Hollywood career was always on the cards. At the tender age of 19, she made her first appearance as Laurie Strode in John Carpenter’s Halloween, which kick-started a career that has included an Oscar, $2.5billion worth of box office success, and countless classic movies.
In 1983, Curtis had a major role in one of the most beloved comedies of all time. She played Ophelia, a sex worker, in John Landis’ quasi-Christmas film, Trading Places. She comes to the aid of Dan Aykroyd’s character, Louis Winthorpe III, a big-time stockbroker forced to swap places with a street hustler (Eddie Murphy). Curtis received high praise for her performance, including a Bafta for ‘Best Actress in a Supporting Role’.
Speaking to CBS News over 40 years on from the movie’s release, Curtis revealed just how much she still admired Trading Places. In her words, it might just be the most important film of her life.
“If I’m not in Trading Places, John Cleese does not write A Fish Called Wanda for me,” she explained, “If I’m not in A Fish Called Wanda, Jim Cameron does not write the part in True Lies for me. And that grouping of films gave me my career, for sure.”
Paramount Pictures had initially been hesitant to cast Curtis in a comedic role. She was very much still in the horror box at the time, and this was an era where the label of ‘scream queen’ was very hard to shake.
Landis, who had previously worked with Curtis on a documentary called Coming Soon, pushed hard for her involvement and eventually got his way, while she took a major pay cut to be involved, earning just $70,000 for her work; for comparison, she had then recently been paid $1million for her starring role in Halloween II.
As Curtis explained, her performance in Trading Places caught the eye of a certain John Cleese, who was looking for an actor to play the titular character in his upcoming movie A Fish Called Wanda, which was about a highly seductive thief who attempts to squeeze the location of some stolen diamonds from an uptight lawyer (Cleese). The movie was once again a hit, and so funny that somebody literally died laughing while watching it.
Six years later (and 11 years on from Trading Places), Curtis took on another comedic role, albeit one with a tint of action about it, playing Helen Tasker in James Cameron’s underrated romp, True Lies. Once she discovers that her husband Harry (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is living a double life as a spy, Helen becomes embroiled in a scheme involving stolen nuclear weapons. Once again, Curtis was showered with adulation for her role and took home another major award, this time the Golden Globe for ‘Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical’.
