Jamie Lee Curtis on how Oscar win changed her life
Last year at the 95th Academy Awards ceremony, Jamie Lee Curtis picked up her first ever Oscar for ‘Best Supporting Actress’ for her role in Everything Everywhere All at Once. Having begun her movie career in the late 1970s in John Carpenter’s Halloween, such success had been a long time in the making.
At the 96th ceremony on March 10th, 2024, the actor discussed her achievement as a life-changing moment as she hit the red carpet to praise a new round of winners.
“In really incalculable ways,” Curtis told Variety, discussing how the Oscar win changed her life. “I’m making a movie with James L. Brooks right now. I’ve been asked to work with people that I never thought I’d get asked to work with. James L. Brooks being one of them…it’s hard to put into words. But the good feeling that I’ve had from all over the world has changed me.”
“I’ve been around a long time,” Curtis continued. “That movie changed people. That movie had an impact. That’s what movies do. That’s the beauty of movies; they have an impact, and they change the way we think and the way we feel and shift us. I’ve had that shift. The unexpected moment last year has just kept growing and rolling, and it’s been beautiful.”
Curtis explained that, without her Oscar win last year, she “never thought I’d get a call” from a director like Brooks. Curtis has also enjoyed a small role in an episode of the Disney+ series The Bear as Donna following her Oscar win. However, she admitted that she was unsure whether her character would return to the series.
“They haven’t talked to me,” Curtis said. “Obviously, I felt like Donna’s story was very complete in a way. You really saw what happened, and you saw what happened afterwards…the beginning, the middle, the end. In a way, Donna’s story is complete. She doesn’t want to ruin their lives, so she stays away. Maybe it’s better.”
“The reason why I think it’s so profound is because we all know Donna,” she added. “Some people have been raised by a Donna. Some people work with a Donnas every day.”
Watch Jamie Lee Curtis accept her Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once below.
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