9 minute read
24 Feature
from Cove magazine
BEHIND THE SCENES
Jamie Lee Curtis is the ultimate scream queen – and she likes it. In this interview she talks about her career and the importance of ‘Halloween’, her gratefulness for John Carpenter and why she would never consider writing a biography.
WORDS PETE CARROLL / THE INTERVIEW PEOPLE
So Jamie, how do you feel about being considered the ultimate scream queen? I have zero problems with it. How could I have a problem with it?
It’s like in your industry, you’re a journalist, if you were around a long time and somebody called you the king, writer king, you know what I mean?
It just means that you’ve reached a level of acceptance and appreciation.
It’s not something I wear.
I don’t wake up in the morning and look in the mirror and say, ‘Hey, queen. You’re looking good queen.’
It’s not what I do but I understand and appreciate what that means from an entertainment standpoint of a fan base, of course.
These last three ‘Halloween’ films have all been about the nature of evil. What are your own ideas about that concept? Well, remember, I don’t write the films, I just act in them.
And I feel that in 20 or 30 years, we’re going to look back at this trilogy, and realise that David Gordon Green was a genius.
You’re going look back and say, ‘How the f--k did he understand society? Globally, domestically? How did he understand?’
If you look back at these three films, he predated the rise of the anger of the woman, women taking back their power, claiming that this has happened to me and I am not accepting it anymore. He wrote that two years before.
And then all of a sudden, we release a movie right at the same time that the women’s movement and #MeToo came to a collision, the two of them, and it just carried the wave.
We just rode that wave. Because my character, Laurie Strode, was the ultimate #MeToo.
Then they wrote a movie about mob violence and the fact that the system was broken and the people were taking matters into their own hands two years before this system was broken, and people took matters into their own hands through social justice, through insurrection.
And then now we’ve made a movie about really the fact that we’re all monsters.
That it’s not just its victim shaming, it’s not just the violence, it’s that it’s a virus, it’s infected everybody in the town.
Nobody’s allowed to move on. Nobody is allowed. That is a permanent stain on people.
And the sort of incredible toxicity that’s being spewed is happening everywhere we look today. Social media is just filled with it.
But it’s less about what I think, it’s more about an appreciation as an actor to have been in three movies that have been that prescient, that future-thinking and looking at it from a from a sociological, political, emotional lens.
I look at David Gordon Green, this weird guy from the South. I look at him sometimes like, ‘How did you know?’
And he knew, he knew. I think that’s exciting. >>
You must have said goodbye to Michael Myers and ‘Halloween’ a few times over the decades. Does this time feel like it really is the final goodbye. And if so, what do you think about it? Well, yes, it is.
I thought I would never make another ‘Halloween’ film then David Gordon Green called me in 2017 and said that he had written this new trilogy.
He didn’t tell me it was a trilogy, he told me it was a film and then I found out it was trilogy basically a year into it.
You know, saying goodbye is hard for everybody.
Just go to an airport. You see people crying. Breaking apart is difficult.
I have said goodbye to Michael Myers and Laurie Strode many times, but I also, because of this last trilogy, I have a whole different life, entirely different life because of Laurie Strode again.
And because of that, I feel incredibly grateful to her and David Gordon Green, John Carpenter and the opportunity now because it’s a whole different conversation.
Look at the answer to my last question.
These are horror films … these are slasher movies … and we’re making them about something. That’s why they’re so good.
It’s thrilling.
And it’s given me an absolute platform within the industry now – I’m a boss.
I was never a boss before so I am beyond happy to be saying goodbye because I’ve got other stuff I get to go do now.
And I can’t imagine a world where someone else is going to come up with a point of view and a conceit about Laurie Strode and Michael Myers anything better than what David Gordon Green has done for these last five years.
Could you elaborate on what it’s like to be a character for such a long time? And the way she has been ageing and you’ve been ageing and the multiple layers you’ve given to Laurie in the new series? The beautiful part about being a human being is that we evolve.
– Jamie Lee Curtis
We change. We explore new ideas. We go to school, we learn things.
We have experiences, we expand our minds, we heal wounds, we move forward.
Some of us fall into deep crevices of addiction and abuse and alcoholism and all sorts of things.
The beauty of doing something for 44 years is I ride the wave with Laurie Strode. I don’t write the movies, I interpret them.
And as a human being, as an actress and as a public person, I’ve also aged in front of the lens for a long time.
I’m under no delusion at all, you know, what I look like, you know, clothed and unclothed. I am a realist.
And it’s been a privilege to represent women throughout my career and all of the attributes to these characters, particularly Laurie Strode – perseverance, courage, strength, intelligence, a little bada-ss-ary and love.
And I’m very happy, couldn’t be happier to be exactly where I am.
In one of the scenes, your character tells her niece, ‘You can get mad and furious but pay attention because it’s addictive’. Do you think, especially in these times, women need to get mad and furious to express themselves? You know, I don’t know. I think curiosity and openmindedness is important.
Everyone has made some bad choices in their lives and lived to tell about them. I certainly have.
But we’re living in dangerous times and how we communicate with other people, it’s very important that we try to find out as much truth about each other as possible, in a time where everything can be faked.
What we look like can be faked, what we sound like can be faked, where we are can be faked.
And so the way in to our hearts and our minds from other people, we have to be a little careful.
We can be curious, but I think we have to, right now in the world, this has nothing to do with movies, this has to do with life – I think we have to be careful out there. >>
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How much has John Carpenter – who made the original ‘Halloween’ – meant to your career? John Carpenter is the reason I have everything I have in my life. Everything.
Everything in my life connects back to John Carpenter.
And he is still the same guy as he was then.
I’m going to start a campaign to suggest that the score for the ‘Halloween’ movie be nominated for an Oscar because I think there’s no more iconic score than the ‘Halloween’ theme.
And this new movie and the beautiful music he’s made is extraordinary.
You know, out of everybody who sent me emails about the movie, it’s John Carpenter’s email to me that I cherish the most, because it’s purely in John’s voice – ‘Hey darlin’ – because he’s from the South – ‘Hey darlin’ and he made a very flattering comment to me about my performance.
That’s John Carpenter. He is the same guy and I am forever in his debt and grateful to him and Debra Hill every day of my life.
Finally, would you consider, like Laurie, writing a book about your life? No. I am affectionately known as a ‘weapon of mass promotion’.
I am a prolific truth teller.
I have lived my life very openly and transparently in the work I do, in the way I promote things, in the way I live and operate in the universe as a human.
And I know there are wonderful memoirs that have been written.
My friend Jennifer Grey wrote a fantastic memoir for her life, beautiful, filled with insights and beauty.
I have gotten attention most of my adult life and I’ve certainly had good financial fortune. I’ve had great creative experiences.
I think I just need to keep some things private [laughs].
I just think the idea of writing a book that other people read, where I have to betray secrets, private moments with friends and lovers and family – for money.
I’m not going to do it.
