THE PERFORMER | Jamie Lee Curtis
THE SHOW | The Bear
THE EPISODE | “Fishes” (June 22, 2023)

THE PERFORMANCE | Every once in a while, we’re lucky enough to see a TV performance that instantly makes us say with absolute confidence, “That’s going to win an Emmy.” Newly minted Oscar winner Curtis delivered one of those performances in the Hulu culinary dramedy’s pivotal Christmas episode, introducing us to a frantically frazzled, hysterically self–pitying mother from hell whose wildly erratic behavior explains a lot about why Carmy is the way he is.

The episode was stacked with A–list guest stars, from Sarah Paulson to Bob Odenkirk, but Curtis blew them all away with her portrayal of Donna, Carmy’s mother who anchored herself in the kitchen all episode long, juggling a dozen different dishes while gulping down wine and complaining to anyone within earshot. Curtis fit right in with The Bear‘s rapid–fire overlapping style of dialogue and played the martyr role to perfection, with Donna whining that no one was helping her cook and then screaming obscenities at anyone who dared to set foot in her kitchen. It was a chaotic whirlwind of high–strung emotions; Curtis weaved in a few sincere expressions of love, only to snap back into attack mode when Donna felt threatened. (It was such a whirlwind, in fact, that we felt exhausted just watching it from afar.) As dinner approached, Donna became increasingly unhinged, with Curtis’ face tightening into a hardened mask of grievance. She dissolved into sobs, and Curtis adopted an eerie calm as Donna explained the source of her sadness to Carmy: “I make things beautiful for them, and no one makes things beautiful for me.”

When Carmy tried to help her, though, she revealed a terrifying rage: “Why are you treating me like a child? Do we have a problem?” The whole family tiptoed on eggshells around Donna, and we saw why when Natalie made the mistake of asking her if she was OK at dinner. Curtis uncorked a volcano of anger deep within Donna, verbally abusing everyone at the table before smashing plates — and eventually driving her car through a wall of the house (!). It was a jaw–dropping display of extreme family dysfunction, but Curtis masterfully kept the whole thing grounded in authentic emotion throughout, crafting an unforgettable character in just a few scenes and adding yet another top–tier performance to her already legendary career.

Jamie Lee Curtis comes from a family of Hollywood royalty; her parents were actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, both of whom were nominated for Academy Awards. In John Carpenter’s Halloween, Curtis had one of the biggest first jobs in recent cinema history. Because of her role as Laurie, whom she has revisited multiple times through the years, horror aficionados consider her the first and ultimate Final Girl.

However, while Curtis has been in many horror projects since, she has dived into different genres, including dramas and comedy. Since the actress won an Academy Award this year for her hilarious role in The Daniels’ crazy take on the multiverse in Everything Everywhere All At Once, many have looked at her long–lasting and impressive career.

Here are the top fifteen movies Jamie Lee Curtis was a part of, ranked by their score on Rotten Tomatoes.

15. The Tailor of Panama – 75%
A thriller with Pierce Brosnan and Geoffrey Rush, The Tailor of Panama is a cat–and–mouse chase. Brosnan plays an ex–con who reinvents his life as a tailor in Panama. However, a British spy, played by Geoffrey Rush, starts to target him, forcing him back to his old ways. Curtis plays Louisa Pendel, who is the British spy’s wife.

14. The Fog – 75%
Reunited with John Carpenter a few years after their first movie, Curtis was in the cast of the horror tale, The Fog. A fog descends upon a small coastal town in California, and soon after, people start to die. Curtis plays Elizabeth, a rebellious rich girl that finds a dead body when hitchhiking. Carpenter called the actress and said he wrote the role in the movie for her. Curtis acted alongside her mother, Janet Leigh.

13. Dominick and Eugene – 77%
In the emotional movie about brotherhood, Dominick and Eugene Curtis plays Jennifer Reston, a nurse, and girlfriend to Eugene (Ray Liotta). Eugene has a mentally challenged brother Nicky (Tom Hulce). They are the movie’s leads. The story tackles various difficult themes, such as mental health, a family’s burden, and what’s the right thing to do.

12. Halloween (2018) – 79%
Halloween’s eleventh installment in the thirteenth movie horror franchise was released in 2018. Once again, Michael Meyers is on the loose and wants revenge on the impossible to kill Laurie. The movie is bloody and filled with jump scares. While long horror franchises usually lose their strength with time, this sequel brought back some much–needed improvement to the latest additions of the franchise.

11. Veronica Mars – 80%
Reviving the iconic characters and plot lines from the 2004 mystery series Veronica Mars, the movie that came out ten years after the pilot aired continued the story and remained interesting. The cast includes many original actors; it also contains a few cameos from famous actors. In the movie, Curtis makes a small appearance as the interviewer at the law firm that Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) wants to work for.

10. Daddy and Them – 86%
Another comedy under Curtis’ belt, with a killer cast that includes Billy Bob Thornton, who directed, produced, and wrote the film, Laura Dern, and Diane Ladd, among many other great actors. A family comedy set in America’s Heartland, Daddy and Them tells the story of a family when Claude (Billy Bob Thorton) ‘s uncle, Hazel (Jim Varney), is arrested. So, Claude has to go and meet his extended family. He encounters Elaine, played by Curtis, among other family members.

09. From Up On Poppy Hill – 87%
Studio Ghibli is one of the most cherished animation studios around the world. They have created some true masterpieces over time. One of their productions, which may not have stood out as much as the others, is From Up On Poppy Hill. Two teens try to save their school’s clubhouse from being demolished. The original language is Japanese, and Curtis’ voice acted the character Ryoko Matsuzaki in the dubbed English version of the film.

08. Freaky Friday – 88%
The Disney Channel remake of this insane and funny 1976 story received a great score on Rotten Tomatoes. Curtis plays Dr. Tess Coleman, Lindsey Lohan’s character, Anna Coleman’s mother. A mother and daughter duo that are complete opposites and have a hard time connecting until they trade bodies. Freaky Friday couldn’t represent the early 2000s better, from the makeup to the clothes and even the soundtrack.

07. 78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene – 88%
Jamie Lee Curtis’s mom, Janet Leigh, performed one of the biggest and most impactful scenes in cinema history: the murder of Marion Crane by Norman Bates in the shower in Psycho. So, when director ​​Alexandre O. Philippe decided to study this scene in 78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene, Curtis had to be a part of the movie. The film comprises interviews with actors and directors, including Guillermo Del Toro.

06. Trading Places – 88%
Trading Places is a comedic social satire with Eddy Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. Two brothers, who are successful brokers, decide that the executive Louis (Dan Aykroyd) and the hustler Billy Ray (Eddie Murphy) will be the subjects of their internal bet. The characters find out and set a plan to turn the tables on the brothers. Curtis plays a sweet sex worker named Ophelia. The actress had since come out and said she felt embarrassed about her nude scene in the movie when she was only 21 years old.

05. Road Games – 92%
In another movie from the ’80s, Curtis is again stepping into thriller territory with Road Games. The actress who plays Pamela “Hitch” Rushworth is one of the movie’s leads. Pamela is a hitchhiker that will help Patrick (Pat Quid), a truck driver, to follow his suspicions of a man in a green van that he thinks is butchering women on his route.

04. Everything Everywhere All at Once – 93%
The movie that took home an impressive amount of Academy Awards this year, Everything Everywhere All at Once, is high on the actress’ top three films ranked by the website. Curtis received her first nomination and won for her role as Deirdre Beaubeirdra. It’s a hauntingly funny yet serious movie that deals with cultural clashes, feelings accepted by your family, and the power of our choices.

03. A Fish Called Wanda – 96%
Who doesn’t enjoy a good heist movie? A Fish Called Wanda is a comedy with a great cast that includes John Cleese, Kevin Kline, and Jamie Lee Curtis, among many others. Curtis plays the swindler Wanda Gerwitz, who is hired to help a British gangster, George Thomason, on a diamond heist.

02. Halloween (1978) – 96%
The movie that started it all still has the second–highest score on the website on her resume. Halloween was appreciated when it was released and quickly became a cult classic that horror and cinema fans go back to regularly. From the shaking hand–held camera to the reveal of who Michael Meyers was, the first scene is enough to shock audiences today. The film was released at the end of one of the best decades of horror movies that still deeply influences productions today.

01. Knives Out – 97%
Knives Out is a funny whodunnit that starts as a standalone movie, and now the second one, Glass Onion, has been released, and the third is in development. Curtis plays Linda Drysdale, the daughter of famous writer Harlan Trombley (Christopher Plummer). She was extremely close to her dad and played mystery charades. It’s a fun role that has the emotional depth needed to be interesting. The cast exudes chemistry, and Curtis plays a critical, crafted part.

Four decades into her acting career, Jamie Lee Curtis is now sharing her “secret sauce” that helps her get more on-screen time in the films she works on. Now that she’s secured her first Oscar nomination, she can reveal that one of her many keys to success in Hollywood is never leaving the set during shooting.

“Here’s the deal,” Curtis tells Insider at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. “It’s my secret sauce. Don’t go back to your trailers. Trailers are not your friend. Jonathan Wang, our producer of Everything Everywhere All At Once, will tell you I never left the set. I don’t believe in it.”

In addition to her recent role as the IRS inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdre on EEAAO, Curtis recently garnered attention for her performance in Knives Out as the matriarch of the Drysdale/Thrombey family, Linda. Curtis says she ended up in more scenes than originally intended simply because director Rian Johnson always saw her hanging out on set.

“He once called me his MVP on Knives Out, and when he was asked why, he said, ‘Because she was always on set,’” Curtis says. “’She never left the set.’ He ended up using me in shots he wasn’t going to use me in because I was on set.”

At the time of the film’s release, Johnson did in fact call Curtis the MVP of the set, telling Entertainment Tonight, “First of all, she would be early [every morning]. She’d beat all of us to set. Sometimes she would show up on set when she wasn’t even supposed to be in the scene and just be hanging out, and I would get really confused and kind of nervous. So I would put her in the scene! I was like, ‘Jamie Lee Curtis is here! Film her!’ She got into scenes she wasn’t even supposed to be in – just because she was there!”

On the horizon, Curtis has four upcoming projects, including the screen adaptation of the video game, Borderlands, as well as Spychosis, Kay Scarpetta, and Disney’s Haunted Mansion. If she sticks to her tried but true method, we could see more of her in these upcoming roles than originally planned.

Jamie Lee Curtis is aware she’s become a meme in the best way – and she’s perfectly okay with that!

The Everything Everywhere All at Once actress made an appearance on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills last year when her friend and Halloween costar Kyle Richards hosted an event in support of Curtis’s My Hand in Yours charity. But what transpired thereafter was a viral meme due to cast member Dorit Kemsley calling the charity’s purchasable wind chime “the chicest.”

“I’ve never seen the show,” Curtis, 64, said on Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast. “I didn’t even see my entire episode. I just saw the meme. The meme that kept on ‘meme-ing.'”

Curtis added: “It became a meme forever.”

Describing how her appearance came to be, Curtis said Richards, 54, asked her about coming on RHOBH to discuss My Hand in Yours.

“This is where the meme that Dorit was talking about how chic my wind chime is. That wasn’t a euphemism. I was a peddler,” she explained. “She was so kind and enthusiastic about how chic our products are that I actually renamed the wind chime – the Chic Dorit Wind Chime – on MyHandInYours.com.”

Even though she said it was just “a one-off” appearance, Curtis later appeared on the season 12 reunion in October. However, her first cameo on the reality series occurred in season 4, when she reminisced with Richards about their early days working together and the friendship that formed from there.

Other than her viral meme, the only portion of the Bravo hit Curtis has seen was a scene of Richards in tears in the season 12 reunion trailer over the ongoing tension between her sister Kathy Hilton and series alum Lisa Rinna.

“I’ve never seen an episode of Housewives. I don’t know anything about it, except that I saw a trailer where Kyle was crying,” she told E! News in October. “And I called her immediately and said, ‘Why are you crying? What happened?'”

“That was a level of stress and upset that you wanna see in a horror movie out of her, not in a reality TV show,” Curtis told Entertainment Tonight separately.

“I don’t know who made her upset, but I called her out of real concern,” Curtis said, adding it was “important to me.”

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Ever one to built excitement and get her fans buzzing, Jamie Lee Curtis’s recent Instagram throwback with Lindsay Lohan has started garnering attention from various publications. In their article about it, People Magazine writes:

Jamie Lee Curtis could be hinting toward quite the freaky reunion with Lindsay Lohan.

On Friday, Oscar nominee Curtis, 64, shared a throwback photo of herself and Freaky Friday costar Lohan, now 36, from the time they made the 2003 family comedy together.

“It’s Friday. I’m just sayin! Freaky fingers crossed!” the actress wrote, as she tagged Lohan and Disney in the caption to her Instagram post.

Lohan, who returned to movies in December with the Netflix holiday rom–com Falling for Christmas, chimed in with a comment on Curtis’s post, where she shared three emojis: “🤞 😍 🙌.”

Curtis has floated the possibility of reuniting with Lohan for a Freaky Friday sequel numerous times in recent months. At the Glass Onion premiere in Los Angeles in November, Curtis told PEOPLE about the possibility of reuniting with Lohan onscreen again.

“There would be nothing I would love more, honestly, than to be able to work with her again, share our time again, and now be able to share it at this age with both of us 20 years older, or whatever we are,” Curtis said.

Though Curtis is open to collaborating with Lohan on any project, she has been specifically seeking the idea of a Freaky Friday sequel and told PEOPLE it’s more than just wishful thinking.

“We’re talking,” Curtis said, when asked if there’s real weight to the concept of making a follow–up to Mark Waters’s 2003 adaptation of Mary Rodgers’s 1972 novel of the same name. “There’s a lot of good talk going on.”

During an October appearance on The View, the Halloween actress said she’d love to play an “old grandma” who switches bodies with Lohan in a Freaky Friday 2.

“So then Lindsay gets to be the sexy grandma, who is still happy with Mark Harmon in all the ways you would be happy with Mark Harmon,” Curtis said. “And simply, I would like to see Lindsay be the hot grandma, and I would like to see me try to deal with toddlers today. I wanna be a helicopter parent in today’s world, as an old lady.”

Despite playing a tense mother–daughter duo in Freaky Friday, Curtis told PEOPLE that she and Lohan have remained in touch since wrapping the Disney flick.

“We’ve stayed close throughout her journeys, and she moved out of the country for a while,” Curtis said in November. “We’ve never not been in contact.”

‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ star Jamie Lee Curtis discusses her love for all sides of “Show (Off) Business,” what she learned from her industry parents and why Michelle Yeoh is the reason she was nominated for the Academy Awards.

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