The film Jamie Lee Curtis called “a piece of shit movie”
Over her five decades working in film, Jamie Lee Curtis has gained a reputation as a “genre queen”. That usually related to her iconic work in the Halloween franchise, but Curtis was also well-known for her adaptability as a dramatic and comedic performer. Still, the “genre queen” tag was somewhat derogatory, as “genre” films were often seen as lesser productions compared to large-scale dramas.
Curtis’ recent Oscar win for Everything Everywhere All At Once put to bed the idea that “genre” actors couldn’t put in award-worthy performances once and for all. But Curtis had to slog her way through a ton of bad movies to get to that point. Between regrettable Halloween sequels and forgettable kid’s schlock like Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Curtis has a couple of major stinkers across her career. But what film was the worst of them all? That would be the 1999 sci-fi flick Virus.
“That’s a piece of shit movie,” Jamie Lee Curtis said about the film in a 2010 interview with WENN. “It was maybe the only time I’ve known something was just bad, and there was nothing I could do about it. It’s an unbelievably bad movie, just bad from the bottom.”
The attempt to mould Curtis into an Ellen Ripley-type of character crashed hard both critically and commercially when it was first released. From poor lighting to laughable acting choices, Virus is the kind of film that can truly only be enjoyed ironically. Curtis herself pointed to one particularly ridiculous scene as being emblematic of the entire film’s failure.
“There’s a scene where I’m running away from this alien, and I actually hide under the stairs,” Curtis remembered. “I come down some stairs and then duck up underneath them, and I’m quivering, and this big thing comes down the stairs, and I’m freaking hiding under the stairs. This is something that can open walls of steel, and I’m hiding under stairs!”
Virus came at a low ebb in Curtis’ career. After 1994’s True Lies, Curtis spent the rest of the 1990s rehashing older material, including a spiritual successor to A Fish Called Wanda, Fierce Creatures, and another Halloween sequel, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. She found a foothold after the 2003 remake of Freaky Friday, which caused her to angle into children’s movies and broad comedies for a short period, but Curtis wouldn’t find a high-quality role again until Rian Johnson’s 2019 murder mystery Knives Out.
