Jamie Lee Curtis Reveals What She Really Looks Like Without All Of The Hollywood Magic
Jamie Lee Curtis is maintaining her star power with the roles she selects, coming off of the "Halloween Kills" buzz from 2021 and starring alongside Michelle Yeoh in "Everything Everywhere All at Once," which opens the 2022 SXSW Festival. The film is a blended sci-fi action comedy and Curtis has been sharing her excitement for fans to see it. She posted about it on Instagram, writing, "It's hard to imagine a more complex and compelling movie." This is apparently true in terms of Curtis' own personal experience with body image for the film.
The actor has always been verbal about breaking beauty standards for women. Curtis did a no-makeup, Photoshop-free shoot for More Magazine in 2002 that was very successful amongst readers. The publication's editor-in-chief at the time, Susan Crandall, told SF Gate, "We knew the article was important ... But we didn't know how huge it would be." She shared that a woman in her 20s told her Curtis' article made her feel better about her own body.
In 2018, Curtis reflected on the shoot and told Good Housekeeping that doing the campaign was her way of sharing with the world, "I struggle with my own self-esteem." While admitting to never being comfortable as a cover girl like a Meryl Streep type, she told Good Housekeeping, "the girl in those photos took off her clothes and stood there, letting her tummy relax. I was free." It seems like Curtis is still maintaining this freed state of mind with her latest work.
Jamie Lee Curtis lets go of beauty standards
Jamie Lee Curtis is celebrating the release of "Everything Everywhere All at Once" with a deeper insight into her body acceptance. The actor posted a photo of herself on Instagram portraying an IRS investigator slouching back in an office chair, revealing the natural shape of her stomach. Curtis acknowledged the very real industry of "hiding things" with clothes, fillers, body-shapers, and other beauty products. "Everything to conceal the reality of who we are ... I want there to be no concealing of anything," she wrote.
In the film, Curtis is letting loose because, as she explains, "I've been sucking my stomach in since I was 11." According to Daniel Schneinert, co-writer and director of the movie with Dan Kwan, Curtis would send them "photos of weird outfits and weird hairdos" for inspiration. "Everyone assumes that her belly in the movie is a prosthetic, but it's actually her real belly," Kwan shared with Entertainment Weekly. "She was grateful that she was allowed to just let it out."
This is a huge shift from the embarrassment Curtis felt during her nude scene in "Trading Places" nearly 40 years ago, per People. Her excitement about her new role comes across in how dedicated she was to the process. "I very specifically decided to relinquish and release every muscle I had that I used to clench to hide the reality," she wrote on IG. "I have never felt more free creatively and physically."