JAMIE LEE CURTIS
I’m a big scaredy cat says Halloween star
For an astonishing 40 years now, Jamie Lee Curtis has been the official Hollywood Scream Queen thanks to the enduring Halloween franchise. But, oh the horror, she says she doesn't like being scared in real life. ‘I scare very easily,' she groans. ‘I know that might seem a stupid thing to say, because in many ways I've made my living from being scared. But in real life, I don't like to be frightened.
‘I find nothing charming about it and I'd hate to watch a horror movie. I sleep like a baby at night and I like it that way. I sleep curled up in a ball like a very content child, and I want to continue doing so. ‘The only thing that'd keep me awake would be something scary, and I don't want that. I've always been this way. In our wedding vows, my husband and I promised we wouldn't give each other surprise parties – a surprise party would send me to hospital!'
It's an unexpected admission from Jamie, who played sweetnatured high school student Laurie Strode in John Carpenter's original Halloween and five of its ten sequels and spin-offs. Laurie has been stalked throughout by masked killer Michael Myers, and her terrified cowerings and earpiercing shrieks proved so bone-chillingly convincing that they led to a mini-career for Jamie.
In 1980 alone she released no fewer than three horror films – The Fog, Terror Train and Prom Night – and she has two more Halloweens, the highestgrossing horror film franchise of all time, in the pipeline.