Comeback Kid: Jamie Lee Curtis

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http://lebeauleblog.com/2015/10/17/c...ie-lee-curtis/

Posted by lebeau

Over the course of a movie career, there are naturally ebbs and flows; peaks and valleys. Looking back from a distance, it can be hard to remember when one of our favorite actors was up or down. Today, Jamie Lee Curtis is mostly seen on TV commercials shilling yogurt that regulates your digestion. She’s also the lone bright spot in the otherwise wretched Fox show, Scream Queens. Going back over the course of her long career, Curtis has had several parts which could be considered comebacks. But of them all, I think one stands out as the real thing.

I don’t have to tell you that Curtis comes from Hollywood royalty. Her parents are legendary actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. Leigh of course is best known for her iconic role in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. So it was a natural progression for Jamie Lee Curtis to make a name for herself in the horror genre. Early in her career, Curtis was cast in John Carpenter’s thriller, Halloween. That movie was so influential it would shape not only Curtis’ career, but the entire genre.

Halloween didn’t invent the slasher movie, but it did popularize it. A lot of people consider Norman Bates the first movie slasher. Horror historians will often point out that the English suspense film, Peeping Tom, actually beat Hitchcock to theaters by a few months. But Halloween created a template for what the modern slasher movie would look like and Curtis was the prototype for the new “final girl”.

As frequently happens to young scream queens, Curtis was quickly pigeonholed in the horror genre. In 1980, she followed up Halloween with three more thrillers; Carpenter’s The Fog, Prom Night and Terror Train. The following year, Curtis appeared in Halloween II and a couple of TV movies. Curtis was in her twenties and her movie career already seemed to be stalling out. Then she did something really unexpected and it breathed new life into her career.

The movie was Trading Places. Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy starred as a rich man and a poor man who experience a role reversal. At this point, Aykroyd was already a comedy giant and Murphy was fast on his way to becoming the biggest movie star of the mid-eighties. Curtis broke from her scream queen image and took a supporting role as a prostitute. But the part allowed her to show her chops as a light comedienne in a high-profile hit. Trading Places proved that Curtis could do more than play a damsel in distress.

Curtis showed off more than just her comedic chops. She also did her first topless scene. This may seem like a minor point, but it wasn’t at the time. Curtis had appeared in a number of horror movies – a genre which is associated with female nudity. In spite of that, she had never bared her breasts on film. Curtis typically played the virginal “final girl”. She was the pure, innocent babysitter who would survive the ordeal on the basis of her upstanding moral character. So when Curtis chose to appear topless as a prostitute in an R-rated comedy, it was quite a departure from screen image. And audiences took notice! How could you not?

After Trading Places became a smash hit, Curtis was no longer locked into horror roles. In 1985, she starred opposite John Travolta in the big budget drama, Perfect. Curtis’ new-found status as a sex symbol was a key component in the movie’s marketing. She played an exercise instructor who is supposed to be perfect or at least as close to physically perfect as anyone can come. The movie turned out to be a dog, but the fact that Curtis was cast in the role shows the impact Trading Places had on her career.

Curtis struggled for a while to capitalize on the success of Trading Places. Her next hit movie was A Fish Called Wanda in 1988. Five years later, Curtis proved once again that her comic timing was spot on. You could argue that A Fish Called Wanda was another comeback movie for Curtis. It definitely injected a bit of life back into her career following Perfect. But it didn’t represent the same seismic shift in direction that Trading Places did. A Fish Called Wanda feels like a natural extension of the path Curtis started on five years earlier.

In the late 80’s, Curtis shifted from movies to TV with the sitcom, Anything But Love. She starred opposite comedian Richard Lewis from 1989-1992. She also had supporting roles opposite her Trading Places costar, Dan Aykroyd, in the two My Girl movies and starred opposite Mel Gibson in the time travel drama, Forever Young.

In 1994, Curtis had what could be considered another comeback in James Cameron’s action-comedy; True Lies. Arnold Schwarzenegger starred as a spy who lies to his wife and family about the nature of his work. Curtis played his bored housewife and she practically stole the show with a sexy but funny striptease. She was nominated for and won a Golden Globe for her performance. The success of True Lies indicated that Curtis wasn’t limited to comedic roles. Although she excelled at them.

Four years later, Curtis returned to her horror roots and the franchise that made her a star for the sequel; Halloween H20. Curtis’ return along with the twentieth anniversary of the original film gave the sequel a little more gravitas than most of the entries in the franchise. So naturally Hollywood refused to leave well enough alone and Michael Myers was resurrected four years later for another sequel. Curtis reprised her role as Laurie Strode one last time presumably so she would never have to do so again.

By 2003, the success of True Lies and the Halloween anniversary were pretty far in the rear-view mirror. Curtis was still getting work, but her career had cooled down. Then she ended up starring in an unlikely hit comedy which I would argue is the second real comeback of her career. Curtis starred opposite Lindsay Lohan in a remake of the body-switching comedy, Freaky Friday. The part allowed Curtis to flex her comedic muscle as she played a teen trapped in the body of her middle-aged mother. She was rewarded with a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in the Comedy or Musical category.

These days, Curtis doesn’t work as much as she used to and when she does, it is typically on television. While she was never among the biggest movie stars, Curtis’ movie career includes a few notable hits. It’s an impressive filmography that likely never would have been possible if it weren’t for the career reinvention that came from Trading Places.