How Jamie Lee Curtis’ mother helped her land ‘Halloween’ role
Jamie Lee Curtis has appeared in all sorts of projects over the course of her stellar career, but she has never been able to surpass the impact of her iconic debut role in John Carpenter’s Halloween. It launched her acting career and transformed her into an iconic “scream queen”.
Carpenter’s 1978 slasher starred Curtis in the most iconic role of her career, a young girl named Laurie Strode who becomes the target of an obsessive serial killer named Michael Myers. The film didn’t just help Curtis become a star, but it also cemented Carpenter’s status as an innovative filmmaker within the landscape of cinema.
One of the major reasons why Curtis was considered for the role was because of her mother. In fact, Curtis’ parents – Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh – are considered to be Hollywood royalty but primarily, it was Leigh’s legacy which helped Curtis get her name on the sheet.
Although Curtis initially studied law at the University of the Pacific, she dropped out after one semester because she wanted to pursue her acting career. It turned out to be the right decision since her starring role in Halloween brought her unprecedented fame and success.
In an interview, John Carpenter admitted that he did not know who Curtis was before the casting process. The filmmaker said: “Jamie Lee wasn’t the first choice for Laurie. I had no idea who she was. She was 19 and in a TV show at the time, but I didn’t watch TV.”
It was screenwriter and producer Debra Hill’s idea to cast Curtis because she wanted to generate buzz about the daughter of Janet Leigh – Alfred Hitchcock’s star in Psycho. Hill said: “I knew casting Jamie Lee would be great publicity for the film because her mother was in Psycho.”
Although she was favoured during the casting process, Curtis rose to the occasion and became instrumental in the success of the film. Since then, she has become an integral part of the franchise and recently starred in the latest sequel, Halloween Ends, where she reprised her original role.
