JAMIE LEE CURTIS ‘I’M THE ORIGINAL SCREAM QUEEN’
The Hollywood icon, 62, chats to Woman’s Day about why Halloween holds a special place in her heart...
Your new movie, Halloween Kills, is the 12th film in the franchise. What can horror fans expect?
Something spectacular. The level of violence is so brutal but this time it’s a community violence. Violence is not pretty but there’s there s a rawness to the brutality in this movie vie that I think is very much appropriate for the times we live in today.
What are your memories of the first Halloween movie in 1978, which was s your film debut?
I remember remembe everybody being so young, yo the oldest was 30 I think, and us all running around d making what we thoughtthoug was this little litt movie. I remember how w we all used to eat on the lawn wn together. It was so perfect. There were no trailers, nobody was fancy and there ere was no money. ey.
What can you tell us about the origin of the now famous Michael Myers mask?
When Whe we made the movie in March Marc of 1978, there was no Amazon… Ama so the art director, Tommy Tomm Lee Wallace, was digging digg through boxes of latex masks in a costume shop somewhere in Los Angeles. Ange The mask had to be of a human face because that was how the character was written. They literally found foun a Captain Kirk mask, took off the hair, spray painted pain it white and it was Michael.
How would you describe your relationship with your char character Laurie Strode?
I think th the most exciting thing thin about being an actor and playing the same role for 43 years, which is pretty y unprecedented, unp is that we all have changed. We are battered batte and bruised, and then we emerge, we grow, we heal h and we move forward. forw The reason I think people peop identify with her is because beca she is so human. You relate r to Laurie because you are wounded and fighting fight back against the demons dem in your life, too.
How does it feel to know that you and Laurie Strode have become a movie icon to m many people?
First of all, I don’t look at myself myse that way and I would never neve for a second have assumed that anything would have come from that first movie. Everything is a dream, everything is a gift, every second. In my wildest dreams, I would never have dreamed anything like this.
Where would you say Halloween ranks in your own legacy as an actress?
Wow. I would say it’s up there with A Fish Called Wanda and True Lies. There are a couple of others in the middle and then there are a couple of pieces of sh*t that I did [ [laughs]. laughs].
‘There is something so magical that I get to do this job’
What do you remember about that famous True Lies striptease scene?
I remember it was the second week of shooting and all I knew I was that I was going to be dancing around in very little clothing. There was no choreographer, no rehearsal, it was just, ‘Do it!’
How does it feel to still be a part of Hollywood today?
Still, on the first day of any job, I feel like there is something so magical about the fact that I get to do this job. I pinch myself. I take none of it for granted.
HALLOWEEN KILLS is in cinemas Thursday