Jamie Lee Curtis: Controlled Substance

LG: To the point where your label changed--from scream queen to...

JLC: ...body girl. That sort of sex symbol ingenue. Because I've got a sensational body, it was a sensation. "Did you see Jamie Lee Curtis's breasts? Oh my God, aren't they beautiful." It's ridiculous. But that was a phase. Maybe now they will pay attention to something else. I don't know.

LG: Let's focus on those breasts for a moment. Before you briefly showed them in Trading Places you were certainly on display in Love Letters.

JLC: That's a whole different thing. Love Letters was a part that I and every actress that I knew was fighting to get. It had to do with a passionate, obsessive, sexual affair with a married man. I auditioned harder and more strenuously and emotionally than I've ever auditioned for anything, and didn't get it originally. But when the girl they hired got another movie they came to me. It was the greatest part that I've ever had emotionally as an actor. That was a really wonderful performance that I gave.

LG: You didn't worry about going too far? Showing too much.

JLC: Baring my breasts? Everybody does it. I don't want to start listing all the actresses that have done nudity in movies, but it's astonishing. I'm singled out because of the physical beauty of my body, period. If I didn't have as sensational a body this part of my career would have gone unmerited.

LG: Although you were on display far longer in Love Letters, it wasn't until Trading Places that people took notice.

JLC: Trading Places was the break-out for me. I was playing a hooker and there was no question that nudity was in the movie. It turned out to be my avenue into a more mainstream audience. But it only took six seconds.

LG: Which you later discovered was being freeze-framed on VCRs.

JLC: That was the first real indication I had that in a modern society you have almost no control about what you do. For somebody to rent a movie that you're in and freeze a frame of it, almost like a still photograph, and keep it on the screen during a party, which this guy told me he had done... all of a sudden I'm a poster! I tried to sue Playboy because they lifted frames of the film and blew them up and made photographs. But there had been two previous attempts by people to sue Playboy and they were both shot down in court. But I was flipped out about it.

LG: Have you sworn off nudity?

JLC: It's not beyond me. But it's become too much attached to me for something that shouldn't be. I've been relatively dainty in exploiting myself as a woman. It happens to be I have a great body and that became the cause celebre. It was a hindrance because no matter what character I was playing, all of a sudden it became "Jamie Lee Curtis's body." It's not the character's body. So my feeling has been that it now interrupts the process. You are now stopped by it and go, "Oh, there are Jamie's breasts." And it's also due to my husband. I don't think he would like that. Therefore I won't do it.

LG: Before we get to your marriage, let's stick with your movies. You began having some severe doubts after you saw Grandview, U.S.A., didn't you?

JLC: That was a real bad movie. I was so sad after that I really had thought about not doing it anymore. And then I saw Silkwood. Meryl Streep has been consistently the creative force that's kept me going. It's not like this idol worship where I've got a little shrine and I'm going to name my daughter Meryl. But every time I begin to wonder if there is going to be a creative experience out there for me, I go see one of her movies and it sparks me to keep going. Because I see there are people making wonderful movies and I'll have an opportunity at some point. Silkwood was that; then Plenty, which is the perfect movie; then A Cry in the Dark, which was astonishing. She's my favorite; she can do anything. I've actually written her fan letters.

LG: What do you think of De Niro, Pacino, Hoffman?

JLC: I like those guys, but I don't love them. The tortured actor syndrome isn't interesting to me.

LG: Nicholson?

JLC: Never, never.

LG: You acted with Bette Davis in a cable movie, As Summers Die. What did you get from her?

JLC: I saw an example of someone who is not a nice person. She was part of that Hollywood squeaky wheel syndrome. The squeaky wheel gets greased; the smooth running wheel you just take advantage of it and then you throw it away. She got greased all the time. I admired her tenacity and also thought she was silly.

LG: Did you get to know her?

JLC: I lived in the same building with her and I was president of the homeowner's association. She would call me "neighbor." Or she'd call and say, "Hello, it's Bette, when are we turning on the heat?"

LG: You were to have turned on the heat in Perfect, which fizzled. That screwed you up for a while, didn't it?

JLC: Because I bought into the hype. I'm usually the doomsday kid, the black cloud. I'm the person who will not buy into "this is going to get nominations." But with Perfect I allowed myself the fantasy of what it could mean if it was a tremendous success. I allowed myself that little bit of hope. And it just died. It made me very sad because I allowed it. I thought maybe this will be mine, this will give me the entree into better films, better directors.

LG: And then along came A Fish Called Wanda.

JLC: What was wild about Wanda was that I had no delusions about it, no expectations. I expected it to do nada. But what a great experience--that movie has been a real feather.

LG: Was it all John Cleese's vision?

JLC: We all participated quite a bit in that movie. My voice was heard more that it's ever been heard. Cleese was a very good partner for me. He wanted everything I had to give him. And knew how to say to me, "Shut up." He'd come up and tweak my ear, which meant turn the channel. I long for a partner like that, who knows when to say, "Jamie, shut up."

LG: Did you get that with Kathryn Bigelow while making Blue Steel?

JLC: I didn't have any confidence in Kathryn when we were making it. It was a very difficult movie, a departure for me. She had a very specific vision. It's very hard for me to buy into somebody else's vision because I have such strong opinions and I didn't really trust her all that much. I was quite apprehensive about what this film was going to be until I saw it. There are still dramatic problems that bother me, but on the whole I should be smacked about the face and head for not trusting her. I didn't know what we had, I had no idea. I wish I had gone to dailies; I wish I had joined her instead of fought her. It's not that we battled, but I fought her. I felt very restricted by what her process was. She was just very workman-like about it, which is a testimony to the actor she chose. But I felt tied up like a calf getting branded in Blue Steel. In a tight close-up film like that, your tools as an actor are reduced, you don't get body language, you are stuck in the big close-up which means you can't do a lot with your face. You almost have to do nothing and yet you have to give a performance. I felt very challenged by that.

LG: And now are people telling you how good you are in it?

JLC: I ran into somebody who said it was the best thing I've ever done. Every time I do something it's the best thing I've ever done. People always make those qualitative judgments, which piss me off. They're telling you that you haven't been that good before. "Oh, you look really pretty today." Well, what about yesterday? It's, like, fuck you! Just let it be what it is.

LG: What's been the most painful experience in this business for you?

JLC: Not being accepted. Yet it's probably going to be my triumph because it will have forced me to continue trying, searching out my own worth, my own depth. I've never been protected by anybody. I've had to take care of myself. It makes you stronger. I've certainly climbed the ladder. I've put in my time. I'm going to earn it all by myself.

LG: You certainly sound like you have a need for control not only over your life but of whoever comes in contact with you.

JLC: I'm a control freak. I don't want total control; all I want is the ability to voice my choices, my ideas. I haven't had tremendous confidence in the group of people that I was with. I definitely want to get myself into a place where I'm surrounded by people I trust, so that I can let go. I've learned to be wary. And Christopher by nature is very careful.

LG: Did you learn to be cautious because of past relationships.

JLC: I've been in relationships--not with Christopher--where I was coming up with a lot of money. And when I got married I was a total naive little romantic. I really bought into the oneness theory of marriage. From the minute we married I gave up my name, went to Guest. We had one checking account, we merged our corporations. When I earn money or when he earns money we both know that it's our money. I wanted that oneness. It was my very, very important need to be really joined with him.

LG: Does Christopher make you laugh?

JLC: He's not a comedy guy around the house, but he can make me laugh a hundred ways. I married my personal comedy sensibility. That satire that my husband and his friends are all so good at is something that I find very funny. I really appreciate my husband.

LG: Speaking of laughs, what's harder for you, comedy or drama?

JLC: Comedy. Drama is more selfish, easier, because you get to delve and dwell on your emotional capabilities. That's an easier crutch than comedy, which is a little more frightening.

LG: You've been married five years now, your adopted daughter is almost four, you're in a successful TV series, you've got a new movie out. Have you finally got it all?

JLC: No. You know what I'm trying for? I'm trying to find where in my life I am most comfortable, so that I can now go off and use my brain. I love to make households, I like that part of being a woman and being married and being a mother. But I want to get past it now. I've not been embraced by a creative group that I would love to be validated by, by being included like a lot of my contemporaries have. Being an actor gave me a mark. It's a painful job. I think we all have this desperate need to perform. If I was not a successful actor, who knows if I'd still be around?

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Lawrence Grobel is the author of The Hustons and Conversations with Capote and writes for Playboy, The New York Times and Redbook.

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