Celebrity3 min(s) read
Published 17:21 09 Dec 2022 GMT
Horror icon Jamie Lee Curtis is one of the most famous scream queens of all time thanks to her starring role in the Halloween franchise, but the actress only scored her breakout role after being fired from her first major acting job.
Curtis began her career as a contract actor for Universal Studios in 1977, and after scoring a handful of cameo roles as an extra on TV shows, she finally landed a starring role in a little-known sitcom called Operation Petticoat.
The show was a dud, however, and Curtis’ attention soon turned elsewhere.
When she was axed from the show she feared her acting career was over before it had even started, but the timing of it allowed her to audition for a low-budget horror film named Halloween.
"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 going to be over,” Curtis told Vanity Fair in a recent career retrospective.
“And had I not been fired from Operation Petticoat, I would not have been available 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."
Filmed on a shoestring budget with a tiny cast and crew, director John Carpenter offered her a choice between three roles.
“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. I auditioned, I think, three or four times for Laurie before I remember getting it.”
But even after landing the role of Laurie Strode, Curtis worked hard to make sure she owned it.
Curtis’ portrayal of Laurie as a resourceful young woman capable of fending off serial killer Michael Myers with her wits and bravery not only helped the film become a blockbuster smash but also helped to enshrine Laurie Strode's legacy as the first “Final Girl”, a horror movie archetype which continues to this day.
Although she has since racked up credits in virtually every genre since her breakout role, being cast in Halloween helped turn Jamie Lee Curtis into a household name and a horror icon.
Much to the delight of slasher fans, she continued to appear as Laurie in numerous Halloween sequels and spin-offs over the past four decades, returning most recently to reprise her role in the 2018 reboot helmed by director David Gordon Green.
