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JAMIE LEE CURTIS: A Woman of Substance
By: Mimi Makabi

She is a woman whose bravery and determination are as empowering as her fame and talent. She is a woman that is real and simply made of pure substance. Jamie Lee Curtis—I can’t think of a more deserving emblem of the power which we celebrate in this issue!
In her own words…
How would you describe the importance and value of being a woman in today’s society?
JLC: The role of women has changed as society has changed. We, as a gender, are always trying to develop what it is we are supposed and destined to be doing. But mostly, women are the mothers of the world, and unless science figures it out, men will never be mothers. I believe a woman’s destiny in society is to parent—to be a good-loving mother to the next generation of women.

How would you describe yourself as a mother and your relationship with your children?
JLC: Flawed and contradictory, but deeply committed to looking at myself and how my behavior and life, affects theirs—and how to separate carefully between what I want and what they want. I think it’s really my job to learn as much as I can about myself, so that I can avoid burdening them with too much. I really hope that my children can be free from me, and can really be free to develop into who they are going to be. Because if not, then I am just this heavy thing that they have to pull along, just like generations that have passed.

How do you inspire them?
JLC: I inspire them not in achievement, but in conquering huge obstacles in my path. The way to really inspire someone is not just to be successful, because I’m not sure that’s an inspiration. I’m not sure my kids don’t think that I was just a spoiled girl who got everything, just like everybody else thinks I am. That idea of someone working hard as an individual to get to where they are, is really an unimportant story for most people—for everyone, except the person who is doing it.  I think anybody can be inspired if they see someone challenge themselves—change the course of their life with really hard work and diligence—that to me is inspiring! It’s when they achieve power over an obstacle that’s been dogging them for their whole life—in my case, it was drinking. Just being you in the world, I don’t think necessarily inspires people.

Being the daughter of famous Hollywood parents, what do you think is the biggest misconception the public has had about you, your life, and success?
JLC: They want to take from you, whatever it is that you have achieved. They want to believe that you didn’t do anything. They want to believe you have no talent. They want to believe that every door was opened to you and that you were just escorted through life and that money was just handed to you on a plate. That’s what they want to believe—because it just makes them feel better about themselves, rather than have to face the fact that maybe you actually worked really hard. So my reality was very different than that. My reality is one of never being supported financially by my family…ever. Not a penny! Basically, I was off on my own once I was 18.

How did you get started as an actress?
JLC: I was not a student. The only college I got into was the one where my mother was the most famous person ever to have graduated from—The University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. I was a frat girl, a party girl. When I was just 18, I came home Christmas of my freshman year and met a man named Chuck Binder, who was just beginning to get into show business and had an actress he was managing. One day he said to me, “They are looking for Nancy Drew—you would be a good one.” So I said great and went up for the part and didn’t get it. But instead, I got the people at Universal, interested in me. I ended up signing a 7 year contract with them. And that’s how I began acting. It was never something I planned on doing. There was obviously opportunity and some curiosity, but at the end of the day, nobody does it for you. You’re either good at it or you’re not.

There are many ways for one to embody ‘power’. How would you describe your ‘power’ and what it means to be considered a ‘powerful woman’?
JLC: You know what? That’s not me. I’m not that person. I am powerful probably because I am very brave—and I’ll do ANYTHING. I will try any job that you do or anybody else does. There is not a moment that I’m not grateful for the people that help me, or a moment when I look back and say, “Thank God I don’t have to do that anymore,”—because I do, do it.

As an actor, I am willing to look horrible. I’m not vain at all, because I never felt very pretty. My looks were never my ticket and I never rested on what I looked like. So it allowed me to be brave. I’m not an intellectual and therefore, I’m a very emotional person. So my ‘power’ is also that I am very in touch with my emotions. I’m very much in touch with my antenna. I’m highly aware of what’s going on around me at all times. And as an actor, that’s just invaluable.

How do you use your power on a daily basis with helping others?
JLC: I don’t wake up in the morning and help others—I wake up and take care of business! I hit the ground working at 5am. I am a worker. There is a letter that I carry with me that was written by someone who works with me. In the letter, he acknowledges the chain of life—how us working with him and paying him, allows him to live his life. It’s extraordinary! The letter reads:

“I believe in the nobility of work. Work allows us to help others. And I believe even the smallest act of kindness, even the most seemingly insignificant work done in the service of others, brings us into alignment with our own deepest self, and in some mysterious way, with that which is greater than ourselves.”

So for me, that’s how I wake up. I wake up with the nobility of work in my mind. And I work until I drop. That’s who I am—constantly on the go.

You are associated with several different charitable causes. How did your giving nature evolve? Was there a revelation in your life?
JLC: It is based on years of my mother’s influence. My mother (actress Janet Leigh) got very actively involved for many years with an organization named S.H.A.R.E. (Share Happily And Reap Endlessly)—which was founded over 50 years ago, by wives of very powerful people in Hollywood who knew that there was something to be done with this. At the time, they chose something called The Exceptional Children’s Foundation, which really was mental retardation and mental handicap.

For months they would rehearse and put together a great show every May—Saturday night, “The Boomtown Party”, and would raise a lot of money. As a child, I grew up watching this.

Then, the first thing I was able to do was get involved when Eunice Shriver started the ‘Special Olympics’. I went as a volunteer, as my mother went as a star, and suggested they get Polaroid film donated so that the athlete can get their picture taken with a star. I started this process and years later, I became an actor myself and ended up being in the pictures with them. This was my first touch with philanthropy.

As a public figure, how has your ‘Power’ evolved through the years?
JLC: The older I got and more famous I got, the more I realized the actual ‘power’ that comes with having the access to media. And that’s when it really clicked for me. That’s when I started to go, hmmmmm…. I then looked for ways to bring the media spotlight back to the work of whatever the charity was.

A month after a friend of mine died of AIDS, my daughter and I participated in the AIDS Walk. I spoke, saying how embarrassed I was that it took my friend’s death to get me up on that stage. That really made me realize the power of the media and then I started to get more involved with AIDS organizations, like the Children Affected By AIDS Foundation. Every year, I participate in their ‘Dream Halloween’ event—which is a very fun costume party for the kids. I will be the ‘Halloween Girl’ forever!

Was there a defining moment in your life when you truly felt ‘the power’ of philanthropy?
JLC: A few years after I had already been involved with The Childrens Hospital in Pittsburgh, they asked me if I would join them again at one of their fundraiser’s and if they could use my book, “Today I Feel Silly...”, as the architecture for their event—“Tonight We Feel Silly”.

The day of the event, at the press conference at the hospital, I met a 13 years old girl named Katie Westbrook. She was wearing an electric-pink, polyester wig that was indescribable! She had been diagnosed with bone cancer about a month before and one of her legs had already been amputated. Soon after I introduced her to speak at the conference, in the middle of her remarks, she pulled off her wig—and on her bald head, she had written in magic marker, ‘Jamie Lee Curtis Rocks’! You could only imagine…

Then, that night, before I went to the event I went back to the hospital to visit her and asked if I could take her with me by wearing her wig—and I did. By wearing it, I said to them, “You can’t, not look at me, can you?”—and then I told her story. I said this is how this girl faces her illness. She wears this wig to say, “I dare you to deny me”. She’s not hiding by wearing a real wig—she is saying this is it! We raised a fortune that night. And that was the beginning of me realizing… “Wow! This is powerful!” And I felt powerful! That’s really what kick started a lot of the work that I now do. She died a couple years later, and now, I bring her wig with me everywhere I go when I make speeches. I don’t wear it at first. I show up, and when I come out to speak, I wear it. It makes people understand it immediately. It brings them right into the moment. And that…is POWERFUL!

What is the most important thing you have done as a woman?
JLC: Getting sober. I stopped the addition chain in my family and also raising my children. I think there is nothing more important than raising your children. There is no substitute for you. Your child only wants you.

In October 2006, you announced you were quitting acting. Is this true?
JLC: You know what, I never announced it. They had asked me what I was working on (at that time), and I said, “I’m not really working right now”—and I had my reasons. My priorities have changed. And I’m not sure I ever will. It merely is, that I have changed the focus of my life—which is now my son and my family.

In the 80’s, you were considered a sex symbol- “The Body” and today, you have been very open about admitting your physical flaws publicly. What were you hoping to achieve by doing this?
JLC: That was the single most important media thing I will ever do. I made a book about self-esteem at the time MORE Magazine did an interview with me. I thought, who am I if I’m not being honest about my own issues with it. I had tried all these artificial means to change my body and I didn’t like it—they all failed, and it was embarrassing and horrible. At that point, I had come to some understanding that this was the way my middle-aged body looked like, and I should at least acknowledge that to the people. I didn’t want all these women to hold me up and say, “Gosh, I wish I looked like her”—because I looked just like them. That was a moment of clarity and that was very important for me.

What is your greatest fear?
JLC: Not finishing all the things I want to do.

What is the best piece of advice you would give to another woman?
JLC: As Gandhi said it best in his quote, “Be the change you want to see in the world”. Be the change. Live it. Do it everyday.

Complete this sentence: “I wish more women would....
JLC: stay home and raise their children.”

Jamie Lee Curtis comes along only once in a lifetime!

PHOTOS:
Some photos have captions and some don’t.


1.    Use Jamie Lee with Globe in hand on first page as large as possible
Photo Credit: Andrew Eccles
Photo caption: “I wake up with the nobility of work in my mind. And I work until I drop. That’s who I am—constantly on the go.” JLC

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