Jamie Lee Curtis names the movies she hates most: “I loathe them”
Back in 1978, Jamie Lee Curtis announced herself as the original scream queen after she starred in John Carpenter’s iconic horror film Halloween as the babysitter Laurie Strode, who is tragically hunted down the night before the titular celebration of all things spooky, and by playing Strode many times throughout her career, she became one of scary cinema’s most enduring icons.
Not only did Curtis establish herself on the horror scene in a significant way throughout the 20th century, but she also offered her services once again to the spine-tingling movies when the modern David Gordon Green sequels arrived, beginning with the first in 2018. But, even so, Curtis seems to harbour some regrets about the way the sequels have gone down.
Reflecting on her career, Curtis once told Entertainment Weekly, “Now, to this day, I regret that I didn’t say to everyone, ‘If Debra Hill’s not the one producing this movie, I’m not doing it.’ But what ended up happening was, she wasn’t part of it, John [Carpenter] wasn’t part of it, and I was still part of it, and it was a machine going down the road,” she said.
“If you see that movie, it’s not a great movie, it’s a good movie, and that emotional intent is in the movie,” the Hollywood icon added. “But it was never what I hoped it would be for all these reasons that ended up being things that were out of my control.”
Interestingly, the troubled relationship Curtis holds with the Halloween movies actually goes way back to the originals, and it all comes down to the way that the actor does not like the experience of being scared, which is not exactly ideal for starring in a series of horror movies.
“I scare easily,” Curtis once told Silver. “I know it’s a silly thing to say, but I am an untrained actor. I’ve never been to acting class. I prepare emotionally, but that’s my job. I scare easily. And I hate these movies, I loathe them, I do not like to be frightened. I think that genuine, emotional connection to being afraid… you are watching what is happening in real life, on-screen.”
The reason for Curtis’ distaste of being scared seems to be biographical in nature, but the actor admitted to using her previous experience of fear to channel her acting performances. “There is no psychological preparation,” she added. “It’s just… I’ve been traumatized, I’ve had sad things happen, and I’ve had violent things happen. So all of these reactions are just natural manifestations of my own experience.”
Check out Curtis in action below to see the real sense of fear she embodies through Laurie Strode.
