Jamie Lee Curtis on the secret of success in show business: ‘Who the f— knows?’
Jamie Lee Curtis knows a thing or two about sticky situations. Like the one she found herself in when she’d agreed to star in an odd little series about a maple syrup heist gone comically awry, but then had to back out due to scheduling conflicts.
Nonplussed, she solved the problem herself. Convinced she knew who should replace her, she cold-called Margo Martindale — famed for her Emmy-winning turns on Justified and The Americans — and convinced her to step in as syrup farmer-turned-criminal mastermind Ruth Landry on Amazon Prime’s The Sticky. And when the producers called Curtis needing someone to play the hit man, she sold them on the idea of not just a gender swap, but also a pretty severe makeover for the battle-scarred Beau.
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Here, Curtis tells Gold Derby about why she wanted to do a sitcom, how her Oscar and Emmy wins have changed her career — and why she’s still shocked by her life.
The Sticky is something of a sleeper hit. What has the response to the show meant to you?
Curtis: I’ve been involved in many things that have a lot of high-profile visibility and expectations, a lot of conversation about it before it ever sees the screen. What I love about The Sticky is we made it under the radar. This little show came out, and the reviews for this show are better than I have ever had for anything I have ever been involved with. It hit big. People loved it. Critics loved it. It was just what people wanted. Something light, something fun, something a little dark, and a little silly. And it just goes to show that you just don’t know anything. Absolutely. It’s the beautiful part of show business. Who the f— knows? I just suit up and show up and bring my joy to this process. And I certainly did that in Canada, and all of a sudden, we have a little hit on our hands. And it’s the first show that my little production company gets a credit on. And on top of it all, I’m a boss now, and I like it.
SEEJamie Lee Curtis movies: 16 greatest films ranked worst to best
How did your Sticky situation begin?
Curtis: I’d been wanting to do a sitcom, to be honest. It’s my favorite job I ever had, and I only did it for a couple years with Richard Lewis, which was called Anything But Love, and I loved it. It was my favorite job. So I’d been lobbying the universe, trying to manifest a sitcom for a long time, and I was actually in conversation with Bob Saget, may he rest in peace, and Bruce Helford to do a TV series about older people who get married. And then all of a sudden, the day before I was going to have my first meeting about that show, Jason Blum from Blumhouse called me and said, I’m sending you over a script for a TV series called The Sticky. And I read it, and I loved it. I just loved it. It was a half-hour, single-camera show, which is not the job I wanted. But it felt bashert [meant to be]. So we took it out and sold it, with the idea that I was going to play Ruth. And then the place we sold it fell apart. They had a change of leadership, and then the project went into turnaround.
How did you manage to revive it?
Curtis: About a year later, I was in Budapest shooting a movie with Cate Blanchett when my phone rang. It was one of the people at Blumhouse saying, “Hey. Amazon wants to buy The Sticky, and they’re going to give us a season order. Isn’t that great? When can you start?” And I said, “Guys, that ship sailed for me. I’ve been away from my home for three months in Budapest. I’m just not available. I’ll stay on as a producer, but we’re going to need to find another Ruth.” I sat down with the team, and I said there’s only one woman who’s really perfect to play Ruth — Margo Martindale. And they said, “Well, do you know her?” I said, “No. But I’m going to find her and call her.” And I cold called her.
How did she react?
Curtis: She kind of laughed at me, and she said, “Yeah, because I get this call every day that, you know, we’re looking for Jamie Lee Curtis, but now we’re going to Margo Martindale.” And I said, “Margo, you’re the woman to do this part.” And she said, “Well, I have to read it.” I said, “Yeah, you can read it, but you’re going to do it because it’s really funny and very heartfelt, and it’s going to be great. … You can read it, but you’re going do it. I promise you.” And she did.
What brought you back to the show?
Curtis: Six months later, the day after the Oscars, my phone rang, and it was the producers on The Sticky. They were in Canada shooting the show. They said, “Do you think you might do a guest shot?” And I said, “I would love to, but what part would I play?” They said, “Well, the only part we haven’t cast yet is the hit man named Beau, who comes from Boston to shake up Mike and his shenanigans.” I said, “Great — but the only way I’m going to do it is if I really look like a hit person. I’m tired of seeing hit people in movies and TV shows who don’t look like they’ve ever been in a bar fight. Why are hit people impenetrable? Why are they Teflon people? They kill for business. You’re telling me somebody’s never fought back? I want her to have had one knee replaced and another one that needs to be or maybe a new hip. I want her to walk with a limp. I want a cane. And I want a scar from my ear to my mouth.”
What have you learned from all of your career experiences that you’re now bringing to your work as a producer?
Curtis: That this is a really fun job, and I want people to have a really good time. I’ve been a cheerleader my whole life. So my job as a producer is to make sure that our crew and our casts are happy to have these privileged jobs in a creative field. All we hear about is how much content is needed in the universe, and yet the work has dwindled. The strikes really affected our industry. I love Nicole Kidman‘s comment about why she works so much — she says because I love it, and I get to employ people. Well, guess what? I love it, and I now get to employ people, hundreds of people at a time. Hundreds of people get to work and then they get to go home to their families and bring the income from that work into their communities and into their family’s lives. That is my job.
With this show, and The Last Showgirl, it certainly seems like you’re enjoying yourself right now.
Curtis: The joy is real because, believe me, I’ve been on the other side of that where you’re not working, you want to work, you feel creative, and you’re not given the opportunities that you want and know you can do. And that is the very tough part of show business because most people don’t work in our industry. And so I refuse to be anything but ebullient about the opportunities I’m getting now and trying to inject all of it with some f–king joy, because this is a joyful job and one I’m excited to get to do. More probably excited to get to do it today than I was when I was 19 on my first day on the Quincy episode.
Could you have imagined that day on Quincy episode one day you would be an Oscar winner and an Emmy winner?
Curtis: No. No. No. I couldn’t have imagined that five years ago. I couldn’t imagine that four years ago when we made Everything Everywhere All at Once in 38 days in Simi Valley, Calif., and shut the movie down the day that COVID hit the world. No one knew then that that weird little movie we made in Simi Valley in an abandoned office building would win nine Oscars. It’s insane. So I try to stay out of all of the, like, did I ever imagine it? No. Not for a f–king nanosecond did I ever think that would happen. I’m still stunned by all of it. I’m stunned by my life. I just celebrated 40 years married to Chris [Guest]. I am shocked at my life. I’m shocked at the beauty of my life, the bounty of my life, the breadth and scope of my life, and the opportunities that I’m getting. And The Sticky is very much part of that. Again, this weird little show that I was going to do, then I couldn’t do, then Margo did, and then they asked me to be in it. And then all of a sudden, 18 months later, it comes out and people love it. I’m down for all of it.
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