No Shame In The Nepo Game: Jamie Lee Curtis And Her Open Declaration To Being A “Nepo Baby” At The 2023 Sag Awards Has Left A Lasting Impression
At the 2023 SAG Awards, the splashy Hollywood event with viewers from across the world tuning in to get the tea on what’s hot and what’s not, Jamie Lee Curtis—the actress who first rose to fame with Halloween (1978) caused quite the commotion.
The event started with a montage of actors sharing their stories of success, but it was Curtis’ introduction that grabbed eyeballs and received major applause.
In her “I am an actor” introduction, the actress—the daughter of the legendary Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh—talked about getting her SAG card at the young age of 19 when she signed a 7-year contract with Universal Studios for a TV series called Operation Petticoat, which her “father, Tony Curtis — nepo baby! — starred in”.
Only one year later, the actress was fired from the show, and while it appeared that her life (read: career) was over at that point, it had only just begun. Her exit from the TV series pushed her to do “little no-budget horror film,” which paved the way to the prized Halloween franchise and, subsequently, Everything, Everywhere, At Once.
Her efforts bore fruit, and the actress was nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for her role as IRS agent Deirdre.
She screamed “shut up” when she nabbed the win against some of the most talented peers, including her co-star Stephanie Hsu. While that’s a totally understandable reaction—this was her first SAG nomination, after all—what really put the icing on the cake was her kissing Michelle Yeoh, the film’s star, on the lips. She then took to the stage amidst cheers, which only kept getting louder and louder.
In her acceptance speech, she mentioned her famous parents.
In her words, “I’m wearing the wedding ring my father gave my mother – they hated each other by the way – but my sister Kelly and I were born from love and my father was from Hungary and my mother was from Denmark and they had nothing, but they became monstrous stars in this industry they loved so much.”
The veteran actor went on to mention her husband, also an actor, and talked about how much she loves to do what she does—entertain. She talked about how many in the industry think that she’s here because she’s a nepo baby, and while she has previously shown open disdain towards it, she seems to have found a middle ground.
The actress, who’s carved a special place for herself in the entertainment biz, went on to say, “I’m 64 years old and this is just amazing.”
In her previous interviews and social media posts, the actress stressed that she had been doing this for a very long time and that she had never worked for anybody she knew. She acknowledged that her parents had given her a leg up because they had taught her a lot about the entertainment industry.
