Los Angeles, Feb 23 (IANS) Oscar winning-star Jamie Lee Curtis says she has never been worried about “looking pretty” on the big screen.
Lee Curtis told Empire magazine: “Looking pretty in the movies was never my thing. It’s just not who I am; it’s just not been my currency. Whether you thought I was pretty or not, it wasn’t like I felt like I was a great beauty and that the camera would love me.
“Lately I’ve been able to become characters which have freed my from any vanity, which then frees me as an artist – because then it doesn’t matter, because then I’m just doing the work. And I’ve always wanted to do that work.”
The actress plays the character of former showgirl Annette in ‘The Last Showgirl’ and said that she had a clear picture in her mind of what she wanted her alter ego to look like in the flick – which also stars Pamela Anderson, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
She explained: “I wanted her to look like someone who’s been in the sun every day of her life for the past 40 years. I knew I wanted her to be a bottle redhead; I wanted it to look like it wasn’t a good dye job.
“And her rust-coloured suede jacket was crucial to me – I wanted her to own something that was valuable enough to hock, but that she kept getting back from that pawn shop.”
“She didn’t own anything worth any money at all, except that one jacket, and there were many times she had to hock it to get the 50 bucks to be able to pay her rent or to pay back a gambling debt or whatever it was.
“I’m very specific, but I also show up fully loaded.”
Lee Curtis said that she works at close quarters with the prop department on a movie to make the part as “real” as possible.
She said: “I buy her purse, I buy her wallet, I buy her glasses. I work very closely with the prop department. It has to feel real. It has to feel like a purse that I’ve carried for a long time, like a jacket I’ve worn for a long time.”
The star’s other recent credits include ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ and ‘The Bear’ and she is glad to have surprised audiences with a diverse range of roles.
She said: “I blew up the mood boards because I’m not who you think I am. That’s probably the biggest crux of it: I’m not who you think I am. Let me show you. I am way more than you think I am.”
