The 7th edition of Horror Facts will focus on the star of Halloween (1978), Prom Night (1980), The Fog (1980), Terror Train (1980), Road Games (1981), Halloween 2 (1981) and more, the original Scream Queen, Jamie Lee Curtis!
/ Eve Plumb was originally set to play the role of Kim Hammond in Prom Night. At the last minute, Jamie Lee Curtis’ people expressed an interest in the role and Eve was replaced.
/ Jamie Lee Curtis shot Prom Night and Terror Train back to back. Both films were shot in Canada; Prom Night in Toronto and Terror Train in Montreal.
/ At the time Jamie Lee Curtis considered her character as Alana in Terror Train to be more in-depth than her roles in similar horror films: “There are certain things a heroine in a thriller has to be. She has to be vulnerable, so that the audience identifies with her and is rooting for her. But she also has to have an enormous inner strength to overcome the evil, or terror, that is pursuing her. I play the same kind of character as I did in other films. But Alana – the girl I play – is stronger and more defined”
/ Jamie Lee Curtis can be her own harshest critic. She has made the following statements:
“Virus (1999) is so bad that it’s shocking. That would be the all-time piece of shit. It’s just dreadful.”
“Halloween: Resurrection (2002) was a joke.”
“I am surprised The Fog (1980) has such popularity because I just don’t think it’s that good a film.”
/ The Executive Producer billed in the opening credits of Road Games is named Bernard Schwartz. This is Jamie Lee Curtis’s father Tony Curtis’ real name. Jamie Lee Curtis’ character Hitch, mentions The Boston Strangler, and that her father is 67 in the same sentence. Tony Curtis, starred in The Boston Strangler in 1968.
/ Originally an Australian actress was cast for the role of Hitch, but the producers pushed for an American actress to be cast. Director Richard Franklin visited friend John Carpenter on the set of The Fog where he was introduced to Jamie Lee Curtis and later thought of her for the role of Hitch. Jamie Lee Curtis said she felt a certain amount of hostility and prejudice while on set, being one of the two “token Americans”. One of the crew members even approached her and asked, “What is it like putting Australians out of work?
/ The nickname of Jamie Lee Curtis’ character in Road Games ‘Hitch’ is a homage to director Alfred Hitchcock, whose films inspired this one.
/ Jamie Lee Curtis and her mother Janet Leigh have appeared in two films together; The Fog (1980) and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998).
/ John Carpenter felt bad that Jamie Lee Curtis wasn’t offered more roles after Halloween so he created a part in The Fog for her. She is said to have enjoyed her role in the film. Interestingly enough, she doesn’t appear in any scenes with the other fellow lead actress, Adrienne Barbeau.
/ Jamie Lee Curtis and Tom Atkins characters are romantically involved in The Fog. Both also appear in Halloween movies but never together. Atkins starred in Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982). Jamie Lee Curtis has played the same character, Laurie Strode, in films released in five different decades from 1970s – 2010s: Halloween (1978), Halloween 2 (1981), Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), Halloween: Resurrection (2002) and Halloween (2018).
/ Though Jamie Lee Curtis has top billing in Halloween 2, she only appears on screen for approximately 25 minutes.
/ Jamie Lee Curtis only rocks her natural hair in the original Halloween and H20. In Halloween 2, Halloween: Resurrection and Halloween (2018) she wears a wig.
/ Jamie Lee Curtis agreed to do her part in Halloween: Resurrection, only to make sure her and her character, Laurie Strode, wouldn’t appear in another sequel. At the time of the film’s release, executive producers Malek Akkad and Moustapha Akkad claimed Jamie Lee Curtis “was so impressed with the screenplay, that she wanted a large part in it”. She has publicly stated that was not the case and she was under contract to do it.
/ Halloween (2018) was the biggest horror movie opening with a female lead, biggest movie opening with a female lead over 55 and the biggest opening for any of the Halloween franchise films. It was also the second biggest horror movie opening ever – after It (2017).
/ Jamie Lee Curtis immediately hit it off with co-writer and Director David Gordon Green, crediting him as reminding her of original 1978 Halloween director and suspense master John Carpenter. She has said that Green inspired her to write her own horror screenplay. Hopefully, one that comes to fruition soon.
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