Jamie Lee Curtis

Talks Horror Movies, Producing, and Revisiting Her Most Iconic Character in Halloween Kills

Do you ever re-visit your iconic Psycho role to perform in Halloween?

Occasionaly I take myself back there, but not to really use it to perform, more to rekindle and think about my life’s work. It helps me put everything into persepective and really take a step back and indulge in.

How was the experience reuniting with your co-stars from the original film?

Iremembercarrying Kyle Richards on my back on the last day of filming in 1978. She was a little girl on that set and suddenly there we were, 40 years later as two grown women with families of our own. And my beloved Nancy [Stephens] is such a fierce, progressive badass. When she and I ran into each other in our trailers we just immediately started sobbing. We’ve lost a lot of friends over the years and there we were together again–and not dead! It was all extremely emotional.

Had you been itching to revisit Laurie Strode after she was killed off in Halloween: Resurrection?

Youwanna know the truth? I was sitting at home in the mountains during the summer of 2017 minding my own business—probably reading a book and thinking about what I was gonna make for dinner. The phone rings and it’s my godson Jake Gyllenhaal, saying, ‘My buddy David wants to talk to you about a Halloween movie.’ I thought his movie with Jake was incredibly moving so I told him to give David my number. He called and I just told him to send me the script; I read it and I called back that afternoon to say I was in. It had everything to do with the integrity of what they were focusing the story on. Everything they were interested in was what I tried to bring to the H20 movie.

So those retirement comments were your way of getting out before you were asked to leave, so to speak?

I’mthe type of person who’ll be gone before you ever consider not wanting me. I kept thinking, “Have I done enough?” But it was nothing more than being the child of very famous actors who one day didn’t get to act anymore.

Was it appealing to you when David Gordon Green proposed making direct sequels to the 1978 original?

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When the 2018 Halloween came out, you spoke a lot about how the film was a labor of love for everyone involved. How’d it feel to see it be so rapturously received by fans?

Tohave that movie receive that reaction 40 years after the original was an indescribable experience. What I love about it is that we made it just like the first film. The original was made so fast for so little money by a small group of people, and David similarly lightened the load so we could make these fast and furiously. Nobody got paid upfront, including yours truly. It’s not because we knew we’d make a lot of money on the backend—those numbers were certainly unexpected. And traditionally horror films don’t get great reviews; so given my history with this character, it felt pretty amazing.