Jamie Lee Curtis has opened up about supporting her daughter against transphobic hate.
The Oscar-winning actor, 64, has been a fierce supporter of transgender rights ever since her daughter Ruby came out as trans in 2020.
In an interview with Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough, recorded before the SAG-AFTRA strike began, the Everything Everywhere All At Once actor opened up about protecting Ruby, 25.
Curtis told Scarborough: “This life is about love. Being a parent is about love and I love Ruby. Love her.
“People have said, ‘You’re so great to accept her love.’ What are you talking about? This is my daughter, this human being has come to me and said, ‘This is who I am.’”
“And my job is to say, ‘Welcome home,’” Curtis continued. “I will fight and defend her right to exist to anyone who claims that she doesn’t. And there are those people.”
Curtis shares her two daughters – Ruby and Annie, 34 – with her husband, comedy director Christopher Guest, 75. Ruby, who works as a video editor for a gaming personality on YouTube, came out as trans to Curtis and Guest in 2020.
Curtis announced the news with Ruby’s permission in an interview with AARP The Magazine. She said she and Guest “have watched in wonder and pride as our son became our daughter Ruby”.
In 2021, Curtis spoke to People about initially hearing the news.
“It’s speaking a new language,” she told the publication. “It’s learning new terminology and words. I am new at it. I am not someone who is pretending to know much about it. And I’m going to blow it, I’m going to make mistakes. I would like to try to avoid making big mistakes.”
Ruby Guest, Jamie Lee Curtis and Annie Guest— (AFP via Getty Images)
“You slow your speech down a little. You become a little more mindful about what you’re saying. How you’re saying it. You still mess up, I’ve messed up today twice. We’re human.”
“But if one person reads this, sees a picture of Ruby and me and says, ‘I feel free to say this is who I am,’ then it’s worth it.”
In the same interview, Ruby reflected on the moment she came out to her parents: “It was scary – just the sheer fact of telling them something about me they didn’t know.”
“It was intimidating but I wasn’t worried,” she continued. “They had been so accepting of me my entire life.”
Curtis declared her “total solidarity” with Ruby in recognition of Trans Day of Visibility back in March.
Posting a sweet photograph of mother and daughter hugging on her Instagram account, Curtis wrote: “As a mother, I stand in total solidarity with my children as they move forward in the universe as their authentic selves with their own minds and bodies and ideas.
“On this trans visibility day my daughter and I are visible.”
Curtis’s career took off after her debut film role in the classic horror film Halloween in 1978.
She went on to star in additional horror movies, including The Fog, Prom Night and later Disney’s Freaky Friday.
Earlier this year, she won Best Supporting Actress at the 95th Academy Awards earlier for her role as IRS inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdre in Everything Everywhere All At Once.
