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‘I’M WAVING THE BANNER FOR GENERATIONS OF WOMEN’
Actor Jamie Lee Curtis draws parallels between her latest film and the sociopolitical climate
Hollywood actor Jamie Lee Curtis has many reasons to be grateful this year. She turns 60 soon, and is currently celebrating the success of her film Halloween. The new sequel (a direct sequel breaking continuity with the previous films in the franchise) to John Carpenter’s 1978 original earned $76.2 million (₹557 crore)in its first weekend — the biggest opening for a horror movie with a female lead and for any film starring a woman over 55. Curtis plays Laurie Strode, the terrorised baby sitterturned-avenging grandma who again battles the masked killer Michael Myers. Excerpts from the interview.
Did you have any doubts about signing on to play Laurie again?
No. I first heard about this script in June 2017, and I said yes immediately. I understood what [the screenwriters] were trying to do. They were trying to talk about generational trauma in the middle of a slasher movie.
This was before the #MeToo movement exploded.
Yes, it was before women all over the world started having the immense courage to name their aggressor and to stand behind their experiences, despite the onslaught of people trying to deny them their truth. The power that came from all those brave women... started to affect all of us as we were making the movie, because it was happening concurrently. We understood that we had a much bigger responsibility; we were telling a story that was bigger than we thought.
How has becoming a mother and grandmother affected Laurie?
Being a parent is the most transformative experience a human being can have. Laurie was a broken person when she conceived her daughter. She did her best to raise and protect her, but she was not able to allow her to have an innocent childhood, because Laurie was traumatised. I’ve never experienced something like that, and I’ve raised two beautiful, smart, openminded people. But I’m not going to lie or obfuscate and say I haven’t had trauma and horrible things happen, because that’s what happens in life to everybody. (Curtis recently told People magazine about her 10-year addiction to opiates starting in the late ‘80s.) That’s why the movie is resonating.
How much of a factor is the current political environment?
Somebody with a much bigger degree than I’ll ever get might look back and do an analysis of periods of history when horror movies had their zeniths. It’s when things feel out of control sociologically, culturally, and politically, and the way you deal with it is you go into a dark theatre and share something terrifying with a group of strangers. This level of PTSD is not unique to Laurie. It’s universal to every woman because we’ve been oppressed since the beginning of time. People have felt the boot of sexual, criminal, environmental, political, and emotional violence. Watching a woman we’ve known for 40 years take back the power, somehow we can all pour ourselves into that same little girl we poured ourselves into 40 years ago.