They saw a Scream Queen. She became the whole franchise.
By Lisa Hatzenbeller | October 30, 2025
The Beginning of a Legacy
Jamie Lee Curtis came from Hollywood royalty yet never expected success of her own. She was nineteen, the daughter of two legends (Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis), and the new kid in a low-budget horror flick no one expected to change the genre. She earned eight thousand dollars for Halloween, played a babysitter running for her life, and had no idea she was helping build one of the most iconic horror franchises in history. Halloween made her the face of fear, but it didn’t promise her a future. She built that herself, one risk, one role, one refusal to fade away at a time.
That kind of stamina hits differently when you start something later in life. I launched my own creative thing in 2024, and some days I catch myself thinking, what’s the point? I’m forty-eight, the world feels loud, and everyone online looks younger and faster. Then I look at Curtis, sixty-something, still running circles around an industry that counts women out early. She’s proof that you don’t age out of relevance. You outwork it.
The Career Rollercoaster
After Halloween, Hollywood decided who Jamie Lee Curtis was. The “scream queen” label stuck fast, and typecasting did what it always does, boxed her in. She broke out anyway. By the mid-80s she was trading one-liners with Eddie Murphy in Trading Places, chasing laughs in A Fish Called Wanda, kicked doors down in True Lies. She didn’t just shift genres, she proved she could outlast them.
Her career wasn’t a steady climb. There were quiet years, projects that missed, and stretches where Hollywood forgot her. She stayed. She worked. She kept showing up. That’s what lands with me most. It’s not her fame, it’s her stamina. I’ve had those same years where the work feels invisible, where you start to wonder if showing up even matters. She’s living proof that it does.
“I don’t think I ever had any ambitions. I don’t think I looked at it that way.”
– Jamie Lee Curtis
Entertainment Weekly, interview (October 4, 2022)
The Oscar Era
By the time Jamie Lee Curtis stepped on stage to accept her first Oscar, she had already done everything Hollywood said she couldn’t. She carried entire franchises, revived them, and outlasted the label that once defined her. When Everything Everywhere All at Once hit, it wasn’t a comeback. It was a coronation.
In 2018, Halloween (2018) opened to $77.5 million, the biggest opening weekend ever for a film led by a woman over 55. Curtis was 60 then, still rewriting box-office history forty years after her first chase scene. She once earned $8,000 for that original Halloween; now her projects bring in millions, and her name alone can open a film.
She wasn’t chasing validation. She was chasing the work, and eventually the work started chasing her. That idea stays with me when my own creative numbers look small. Longevity beats luck every time
Power Behind the Camera
For most of her life, Jamie Lee Curtis was the one in front of the lens. In 2019 she founded Comet Pictures, determined to create the kind of projects she wanted to see: stories that center women, confront ageism, and stretch genres instead of recycling them. The same drive that pushed her to start producing also showed up in her performances. In 2025, she earned a surprise BAFTA nomination for The Last Showgirl, reminding everyone that her creative spark is still evolving, and her curiosity hasn’t dimmed.
There’s something grounding about watching her pivot like that. She keeps proving that curiosity doesn’t expire. She reinvented herself when she could have coasted. She still looks for the next story to tell, the next person to lift, the next version of herself to uncover. That kind of energy is contagious.
Why She Matters Now
Jamie Lee Curtis matters because she shows up for people. She uses her space to lift fellow actors, amplify women’s stories, and stand beside the LGBTQ+ community she has long supported. Her posts don’t feel curated for applause. They land like quiet reminders that kindness and grit still count.
She also matters to me. Some days, scrolling past one of her posts is the small push I need to keep building, to stop assuming I’m out of time. She makes persistence look ordinary, which is exactly what makes it powerful. Every project she touches carries the same quiet message: keep showing up, even when the world moves on.
Conclusion
Jamie Lee Curtis reminds me that longevity isn’t luck. It’s a choice you make every day you decide to stay visible, curious, and kind. She doesn’t need hashtags or praise to prove her worth. She just keeps creating.
That’s the heartbeat of The Main Character Effect, knowing that sometimes the spotlight finds you late, and that’s fine. Curtis didn’t just survive Hollywood; she became her own main character. Her story. Her stage. The same can be true for anyone who is still building, still learning, still showing up. You weren’t too much. You just weren’t the main character – yet. Now it’s time for Your Story, Your Stage.
This is the first spotlight in the Main Character Series – stories of people who refused to stay supporting characters and rewrote the roles the world tried to give them. More chapters coming soon.
