Freaky Friday actress Jamie Lee Curtis said she has been preparing to leave Hollywood for a while now because she does not want to suffer the same fate as her parents, industry icons Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis.
In a recent interview with UK-based news outlet The Guardian, Curtis shared that she watched her parents get “rejected” by Hollywood after they reached a “certain age”.
Criticisng the way older actors are treated by the industry, the 66-year-old actress said, “I witnessed my parents lose the very thing that gave them their fame and their life and their livelihood, when the industry rejected them at a certain age. I watched them reach incredible success and then have it slowly erode to where it was gone. And that’s very painful.”
“I have been self-retiring for 30 years. I have been prepping to get out, so that I don’t have to suffer the same as my family did. I want to leave the party before I’m no longer invited,” continued Curtis, who is set to reprise her role as Tess Coleman in the upcoming Freaky Friday sequel, titled Freakier Friday.
Set to hit theatres on August 8, the film also stars Lindsay Lohan, Julia Butters, Sophia Hammons, Manny Jacinto and Mark Harmon in key roles.
Curtis, who made her screen debut in 1977, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 2022 film Everything Everywhere All at Once. Curtis won her first Golden Globe for her portrayal of Hannah Miller on the sitcom Anything but Love (1989–1992). For the recurring role of Donna Berzatto in the psychological dramedy series The Bear, she won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in 2024.
Curtis is also expected to appear in James L. Brooks's film Ella McCay. Additionally, she serves as a producer for Paul Greengrass's upcoming film The Lost Bus.