The cast of New Girl have been vocal about how much they loved working on the hit US sitcom since it ended eight years ago – however, Jamie Lee Curtis is firmly not one of them.
The actor, 67, has revealed that it was “awful” working on the sitcom, in which she played Joan Day – the mother of Zooey Deschanel’s character Jess.
Reflecting on her guest stint, Curtis admitted that she didn’t enjoy working on the show despite being a fan of it.
“I did a single camera [comedy], which, I mean – great show, New Girl, very funny – it’s a good show, but doing it is just like doing a movie,” she said at NBCUniversal’s Summer Backlot Experience in a clip shared by Entertainment Weekly.
“You know, you’ve got a camera crew, and nobody laughs. It’s silent, and it’s awful. For me, awful. Single-camera comedies, for me, not fun.”
Curtis is best known for her roles in Halloween, True Lies, Trading Places, the Halloween franchise and Everything Everywhere All at Once, for which she won an Academy Award. She played the role of Joan in six episodes of New Girl, first appearing in season two before popping up in three more seasons, including the sitcom’s penultimate episode.
The comedy, which aired on Fox from 2011 until 2018, followed twee school teacher Jess (Deschanel) as she moved into a flat share with three men – law school dropout Nick (Jake Johnson), womanising businessman Schmidt (Max Greenfield) and eccentric former basketball player Winston (Lamorne Bishop) – after a break-up.
Curtis often appeared in her episodes alongside Rob Reiner, who played Jess’s dad and Joan’s ex-husband Bob across 10 episodes. Reiner died aged 78 in December last year, having been found dead with stab wounds alongside his wife Michele, 68, at their Los Angeles home. Their son Nick, 32, was arrested shortly after and in February, he pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and the use of a dangerous weapon.
Earlier this year, New Girl’s Max Greenfield revealed that a revival is officially in the works after endless campaigning by fans. He told The Today Show in August: “As far as I know, it’s happening.”
He added that he’s seen scripts for the reboot, which have been written by creator Elizabeth Meriweather. “They’re amazing. SHe’s a very talented writer,” he said.
In a recent interview with The Independent, Johnson reflected on his time playing the show’s love interest Nick – a role that studio executives asked him to lose weight for.
“I think Fox was right! I came in tubby! Who doesn’t love chips and tortillas?” he said.
