is at its best, when you're free,

when you're just doing what you do.

I'm Jamie Lee Curtis and this apparently

is the timeline of my career.

[funky music]

- I'm sorry, I was looking for someone.

- So I was 19 years old, I was under contract

at Universal as a contract player which is a old system

of developing talent which is no longer

in existence anymore.

I, was cast because I was paid already by Universal,

Quincy was looking for someone and he opens

the drape of the dressing room and I'm there,

I believe in a bra.

You know, obviously, that was going to bode

for future bra work on my part.

I think my lines were:

You won't find who you're looking for in here mister.

And then at the button is the scene is me leaving.

You oughta be locked up.

And that was my first paid pretending

to be somebody else gig.

[suspenseful music]

Annie look.

- Look where?

- Behind the bush?

- I don't see anything.

- The guy who drove so fast, that one you yelled out.

- Oh, subtle isn't he.

- "Halloween." - Hey creep.

- I was young.

I had done a TV series that I had been fired from

and thought for sure my career,

which was just brand new was now gonna be over.

And, had I not been fired from "Operation Petticoat",

I would not have been availible to audition for "Halloween".

"Operation Petticoat" was canceled I think two weeks

after its second season and obviously "Halloween"

has given me my entire creative life.

So, it was the methodology of the shooting,

I think however many people are in this room right now

shooting this, we had that many people on the entire crew.

It was a small group of guerrilla filmmakers,

two trucks and a Winnebago that had every department.

We just drove around the city and made this movie.

There was something incredibly freeing and fun

being with really, basically young people and everyone

kind of working together to make this movie.

There was nothing fancy about it on any level.

I've certainly missed that and tried to find that again

in my later life.

It's been hard to find.

I was a young actress and there were three parts

for a girl, obviously the smart-aleck,

the young virgin and the cheerleader.

I thought I would have been like a really good

smart-aleck and I was a cheerleader,

and yet John,

I auditioned I think three or four times for Lori.

I remember getting.

- Oh Lewis.

[woman exclaims]

[moaning]

[sputters]

I've looked everywhere for you baby.

Listen, there was choo.

I'm hurtin' baby, I just need a shot.

- Please.

- [Woman] Lewis?

- The only pivot I've ever done in my entire life

was make a decision after I did the sequel to "Halloween",

which was called "Halloween 2" at the time,

I said I was not gonna do any more horror films.

From that, almost immediately, I was doing a television

film that chronicled the very sad, tragic life and death

of Dorothy Stratten.

She was a Playboy playmate who was murdered

by her ex-husband.

And then almost immediately after that I made

a movie called "Love Letters" and from that I auditioned

for "Trading Places", but really, the gift of that

is John Landis.

I had met John Landis weirdly enough,

he had done a documentary about horror film trailers

from the 50's called "Coming Soon"

and he needed narrator for that documentary short.

Wonder who he called.

That'd be me.

And I shot for three, four days on the back lot

at Universal, narrating the history

of horror film trailers.

I can tell you that when he suggested that I play

the part in "Trading Places", I guarantee you

and know for sure was met with not only incredulity,

but rage. [laughs]

And I know that John was like, no, this who I want

to have play this part, so I'm grateful and will always

be in incredibly grateful to him for having that

not only courage, to say no, this is who I want,

but also for giving me this incredible opportunity.

Was it shrewd, was it good tactics or was it stupid?

- Don't call me stupid.

- Oh right, to call you stupid would be in insult

to stupid people.

I've known sheep that could outwit you.

I've worn dresses with higher IQs,

but you think you're an intellectual, don't you Abe?

In a weird way, things link up and people's careers

if you look back at them will link.

If you, if you think about well this director saw

that movie and then they cast you in that.

In the same way that John Landis obviously

sort of started that, John Cleese had seen "Trading Places"

and liked it, I guess.

He wrote "A Fish Called Wanda" for me and Kevin Kline

and Michael Palin and John.

I remember I was home in Los Angeles and I had done,

because I had done some weird [beep],

I did a Guinness Book of World Records TV show

with David Frost that I hosted

where I went down the Amazon in a canoe

while David Frost in a limousine in a Rolls Royce

went through Europe and Bavaria.

The man who produced it was a man named Ian Gordon

and Ian Gordon was a friend of John Cleese.

I got a call from Ian Gordon saying that John Cleese

wanted to meet with me.

Of course, at the time, my husband's movie,

"This is Spinal Tap" had just been released

and I thought for sure he really wanted to meet Chris,

because Chris is like really, really, really funny,

and it was an amazing movie, and I just thought

that John Cleese would really wanna be meeting Chris Guest.

But apparently he wanted to meet me,

and so we met at a restaurant on Sunset Boulevard

and he honestly said I've written this movie,

we're gonna go make it, it will be wildly successful,

you will have great time and we will all make some money.

That had not happened to me prior.

That, and I though, okay, John Cleese, whatever.

Okay, let's go to London and make a movie.

And I did.

Brought my six month old baby, my husband,

and went to London, and everything that John said happened.

What would Plato do?

Excuse me, do you think I could switch seats with you?

We're like old college buddies you know?

Thanks.

Wow.

Wow.

I'm really excited to meet you.

You're a great writer.

- Well, you're pretty good yourself.

I've never known anyone

to make a small z correctly like that.

- I must have shot "A Fish Called Wanda" in London

and I remember finishing that movie and coming home

and saying okay I have to stay home.

This is too hard on my marriage and my daughter,

and it's just too much.

I would never leave my home, I'm that girl.

So, I remember saying to my agent,

it's like I really wanna stay home.

And the next thing I know, I got sent this script,

it was this thin, it was tiny and thin,

and it had like 27 pages.

A woman named Wendy Kout had written this romantic triangle

TV show which is what "Anything But Love" started out as.

I read it, and I put it down, I called my agent

and said, okay, let's do it.

We did the pilot, it did not sell,

then I took the job in New York called "Blue Steel"

for Katherine Bigelow which was great,

but it was shot entirely almost at night,

on the streets of New York

and I had an 18 month old daughter.

And my husband and daughter came to New York obviously,

and I had to like rent a house and like was trying

to be mom, but at the same time I was shooting nights

and John Ritter and Wendy Kout came to me

and said ABC had decided to pick up

"Anything But Love" with Richard Lewis, my love,

and they're gonna change it and make it now

just about the two of you, and you're not,

it's not a love triangle, blah, blah, blah, blah.

We did 60 episodes total, her name was Hannah Miller.

They also made her this sort of underdog

rather than the boss which was the original pilot idea,

and what I loved about it was I had never done a play.

Those are shot in front of a live audience.

All of a sudden, I became like the ham bone of all time.

I couldn't wait for the audience to come.

I loved the live experience, so for me,

the greatest experience of that was the idea of rehearsing

it like a play, and then Friday comes along,

and you put on the play.

I loved it, and for some reason I've just never found

another job like that.

It was my favorite job I've ever done.

- Shelly, do you think I'm pretty?

- Yes, Vada, I think you're pretty.

You've got these great big sparkling eyes,

and the cutest little nose.

An amazing mouth.

- Boys at school don't think I am.

- They'll come around.

- Shelly DeVoto was the character and she's coming

for an audition at a funeral home

to do the make-up on dead people.

The costume designer had found a pink hot pants suit.

It was perfect.

Howard Zieff who was the director, was like, mmm no.

And I was like, mmm yeah.

And he was like, mmm no.

I just thought it looked really cute,

and he was it's too on the nose,

it's too much the period and what I learned from him,

is the only time you really know it's a period move

is when Macaulay Culkin and Anna Chlumsky

are riding their bikes and there on the wall

in the alley is a political poster and that's it.

Howard Zieff was an advertising guy and he understood

that if you scream period in a period movie, it ruins it.

That this was not a period movie,

this was a movie about this young girl

and her obsession with death.

The fact that it took place in 1972, it was irrelevant.

And now when I see period movies and you see how much period

they're trying to throw at you, it really is jarring.

The second this as you probably all know,

I'm a bit of a vulgarian.

My favorite line from "A Fish Called Wanda" is-

- You're a true vulgarian aren't you?

- You are the vulgarian you [beep].

- Clearly the swear jar that is implemented

on a movie with children is done for a purpose.

So the Lost scene of the movie that Macaulay and Anna

were in, we had helicopters and cranes

and 15 cameras, the water was three feet deep.

They had guys in scuba and they had stuntmen,

ambulances, I mean, it was insane.

And I grabbed the two swear cans and in front of the

entire crew I said, Macaulay, Anna, congratulations,

you've wrapped the movie, go [beep] yourselves,

and I handed them each I can and I think it had $500 in it.

Each.

[suspenseful jazz music]