If you say the name Jamie Lee Curtis to people, it’s likely that a few things will come up right afterwards in conversation. Maybe it’ll be the comedies she’s starred in, like the Freaky Friday franchise and A Fish Called Wanda, or her emotional Oscar win for Everything Everywhere All At Once. But, it’s possible that the first thing people will talk about is her status as a major scream queen and one of filmdom’s preeminent representatives of horror’s Final Girls because of her long tenure in the Halloween movies. Now, she’s revealed that, as a movie-goer, the genre is actually not for her.
What Jamie Lee Curtis Said About Not Watching Horror Movies
As one could attest to just by looking at the long list of upcoming horror movies, audiences never seem to tire of spooky, chilling, thrilling, and downright terrifying theatrical stories. The genre has been around almost as long as movies themselves, and given fans nearly innumerable frights in some of the best horror movies ever made.
Jamie Lee Curtis is someone who’s career is tied to horror (she also starred in the Ryan Murphy series Scream Queens), and maybe more than with most actors, considering just how many major fright fests she’s starred in and her decades-long attachment with Halloween, which jump-started her big screen career in 1978. While speaking at SXSW recently (via Entertainment Weekly), though, the star made a big confession about the beloved genre, and said:
I don't really love it. I'm not joking; I'm not into it. It doesn't mean I don't appreciate it. It's just not my genre, not my thing. I owe my life to the genre, but I don't have to pretend that I'm a genre girl and that I love it.
While it does seem that many of the actors who work in horror frequently do so because they love the genre, I’ve long wondered about the ones who might not like it so much, but still choose to act out horrifying or sometimes grotesque scenes. It seems like that might be a bit difficult, depending on where they land on the scale of being able to handle looking at things like fake gore or monstrous characters. Curtis herself noted previously that “I scare easily,” but maybe seeing how the spookiness is made helped her with that.
I, however, can barely stand thinking about some horror movies once I hear the premise, so I can’t imagine not being creeped out on set at least a few times. Though, that’s absolutely no shade to any actor who takes horror movie roles without being a big fan of the genre, as you can never tell where you’ll find a great character to work on. Curtis continued, and noted that while scary stuff ain’t really her bag, she does love that horror films are getting more respect:
The fact that it's a genre that now is getting more understanding and appreciation, of course I'm happy. It's fantastic that the Academy is moving along with that and changing and growing, like any good institution.
Of course, the recent 2026 Oscars saw Amy Madigan win Best Supporting Actress for her bone-chilling performance in the horror movie Weapons, while the vampire-focused feature, Sinners, nabbed a record-breaking 16 nominations, winning several trophies, including Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan. We’ve also seen other horror films over the past decade or so be recognized for things like writing, directing, and performances, so Curtis is correct that the people who craft those movies are getting much more well-deserved attention, and that’s great to see whether you like watching such frightening fare or not.
