What does it mean to place yourself on the path to success? Robin Wright & Jamie Lee Curtis
In this episode of Pillow Talk, Robin Wright talks with actress, producer, writer, philanthropist, and icon Jamie Lee Curtis about being a woman in the entertainment industry and how she has been able to place herself on the path of success over her decades-long career. Among her many accomplishments, Jamie talks about one she’s most proud of, her charity, My Hand in Yours, and how she came to start it.
Jamie talks about the importance of sobriety for her and how that sobriety has allowed her to stay free and it out of her own head so that she can see and accept new opportunities as they come her way. Jamie reflects on the success and joy her Halloween franchise has brought to others (even as she acknowledges that she’s not a fan of horror movies!) and how her flexibility and adaptability over the years lead to her recent string of commercial and critical successes including Knives Out and Everything Everywhere All at Once which in turn have opened even more doors for her creatively.
Ever an ideas person, Jamie Lee talks about how she came up with the idea to start her charity, My Hand in Yours, as a way to give back and raise money for Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles which she’s long supported.
Transcript
Robin Wright
Have you thank you so much for doing this because I know how crazy busy you are all the time and there's so many topics we could cover because your abundant life is--the philanthropy, the children's books, actress, producer, you have your own production company. It's endless. What I think everybody would be really interested in is, you're such an icon. You've been in this business for so long, which is already a feat. How have you navigated that world as a woman in this industry for so many years?
Jamie Lee Curtis
Honestly, I think it's luck. I think it's luck paired with a sort of facility as a human to shapeshift into whatever it needs to be that I'm doing. And I've done many, many things a lot out of necessity, either based on my marriage and my family's needs or financial needs or trying to stay home and be with my kids. And you know, I did a lot of horror movies. And it's very hard to make a case for them. And I've had to make a case for them or I've been able to make a case for them for 44 years. Because I don't like them. I scare easily. I don't enjoy those kinds of movies and I the last thing in the world I would want to do is go to one of those and yeah, they're very thing that has given me my creative life and my financial life. And so I tried to have integrity by being honest. And like I can sell that and tell you I don't like it. But maybe you will. So I think it's more than anything Robin is putting yourself in the path of things and not being rigid around what you think you should be doing. And in our industry, there's a lot of other people are doing things and you feel like they are doing better things than you or Wow, look at what they're getting to do and I don't get to do that. And I've tried to let go of that as much as I can and just put myself in the path of whatever comes my way. Robin Wright That is a very balanced human being.
Jamie Lee Curtis
I have to say because I'm sober.
Robin Wright
It's adaptability.
Jamie Lee Curtis
Oh total adaptability
Robin Wright
The more adaptable you are, the more selective you can be.
Jamie Lee Curtis
Yes, and the selection is "Do I do it or not?" That's all I'm not. Oh I have this or this or this like I haven't been that person. It's been if work comes to me, there's a reason it's coming to me. And then my choices either do it or don't and a flexibility. There's an emotional flexibility that I have. I think as I threw in at the end there, I'm sober and I think being sober actually gives me a real emotional flexibility. I'm not burdened by a sort of an addictive brain. I'm free from that. I'm very free. I'm sort of free as a person I'm free. As a friend, I'm free. You know, I'm trying not to be too in my head about anything. Because if I get in my head, it's not necessarily a good neighborhood for me to go in by myself.
Robin Wright
That is such a great word for the head. It's not a good neighborhood. No. What inspired you to take on a production company?
Jamie Lee Curtis
Again, putting myself in the path of something. So I found myself once again, in a genre that I didn't expect to be in ever again. And it was super successful. And that gave me an opportunity to find a creative home, which I've been sort of looking for my whole life I've been very much a lone wolf and...
Robin Wright
And when you say genre, you're talking about the Halloween horror phenomenon?
Jamie Lee Curtis
Yeah, all of a sudden, I did (the movie) Halloween, and then in the process of that other things have come my way that have been successful, really successful. And so all of a sudden, I'm finding myself now in a position where I found a home, a creative home. And the very thing I've been trying to do on my own, I now feel like I have a little bit of a nest to do it in a little bit of not too much but in enough support, that there's an actual destination place for this possible work that I'm going to try to do. And that's where being a producer comes in where I can now bring things that I find and three or four of these times they've gone yeah, let's buy that book. Let's develop that TV series. Let's try this. So on top of it all, something I've been trying to do since I was by the way, 19 years old, I've been trying to develop things since I was 19 years old. I have a sitcom idea that I wrote when I was 19 years old with another actress called right out of Russia, about two defecting Russian ballerinas who defect into you know, basically from the Bolshoi effect and end up living in a basement apartment in Brooklyn together. And it was I was 19 years old and I was writing this thing with this actress named Eddie Benton.
Robin Wright
Wow at 19!
Jamie Lee Curtis
So I've been an idea girl my whole creative life. And I have things I've written ideas for movies, ideas for pilots. And have tried over these years without really any support to get things going. And I just haven't had that opportunity until the success of Halloween 2018 And then the success of Knives Out and then the success of Everything Everywhere all at Once. All of a sudden now I'm having an opportunity to be creative in a way that I've been wanting to do for a very long time and haven't had a chance.
Robin Wright
My last question for you. I would love for you just to tell us about your charity. My Hand in Yours and how just the inception of that. Was it you? Was it someone else? Was it the state of the world? Was it all the above?
Jamie Lee Curtis
So for a very long time, I don't remember really when but as soon as something happened in someone's life that I knew I'm a note writer I'm a gift giver. You know, it's my love language I've learned is gift giving. And so if someone had something happen, there was a death in the family a loss of the loved one. I would make some sort of gesture I would either send books or whatever and I will always write on the card. You know, sorry to hear about what happened blah, blah, blah. And on the bottom, I would say, "My hand in yours, Jamie." And it was just a phrase that I've used for a very long time in my own note writing and before COVID I I'm involved with Children's Hospital Los Angeles and I was trying to figure out a way to connect philanthropically with them more than giving them money and I have collected the work of an artist named Anne Ricketts and she's a sculptor and these are those boots, their little feet, their little feet and I for instance with sober friends will give them these beautiful little bronze feet. They're very heavy. And I will remind my sober friends to be where their feet are. As a way to remember to get out of your head and be where you are. So I called Anne Ricketts and I asked her if she would make a sculpture of two hands holding and again, it's a small little bronze sculpture and my idea originally was that I would sell them on Instagram. I would start a company called My Hand in Yours and we would sell it on Instagram and COVID hit while I was in production. And I met a website designer through friends and I called him and said so I'm going to sell these on Instagram, but do you think I should have a website and I told him about the idea and he said to me how many GA and I said I ordered 100 You know cuz I'm underwriting them. And he said to me, Jamie you'll sell those in a day. People are going to want to participate in this 100% of the profit of not excuse me 100% of all sales goes to Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. So he said people are going to want to give to children's through the getting of the sculpture. And he said you're going to need a lot more items and you need some lower price point items. And so what started out as, like a little idea has now become a company that we run a business out of my offices and yeah, I think we have 30 items on our little store and 100% of every sale is centered children's so it's a marketplace. That is a little bit of a way to connect people to philanthropy, and they still get really cool shit.
Robin Wright
Wonderful!