LOS ANGELES — Oscar winning-star Jamie Lee Curtis says she has never been
worried about "looking pretty" on the big screen.
Lee Curtis told Empire magazine: "Looking pretty in the
movies was never my thing. It's just not who I am; it's just not been my
currency. Whether you thought I was pretty or not, it wasn't like I felt like I
was a great beauty and that the camera would love me.
"Lately I've been able to become characters which have
freed my from any vanity, which then frees me as an artist – because then it
doesn't matter, because then I'm just doing the work. And I've always wanted to
do that work."
The actress plays the character of former showgirl Annette
in 'The Last Showgirl' and said that she had a clear picture in her mind of what
she wanted her alter ego to look like in the flick – which also stars Pamela
Anderson, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
She explained: "I wanted her to look like someone who's
been in the sun every day of her life for the past 40 years. I knew I wanted
her to be a bottle redhead; I wanted it to look like it wasn't a good dye job.
"And her rust-coloured suede jacket was crucial to me –
I wanted her to own something that was valuable enough to hock, but that she
kept getting back from that pawn shop.”
“She didn't own anything worth any money at all, except that
one jacket, and there were many times she had to hock it to get the 50 bucks to
be able to pay her rent or to pay back a gambling debt or whatever it was.
"I'm very specific, but I also show up fully loaded."
Lee Curtis said that she works at close quarters with the
prop department on a movie to make the part as "real" as possible.
She said: "I buy her purse, I buy her wallet, I buy her
glasses. I work very closely with the prop department. It has to feel real. It
has to feel like a purse that I've carried for a long time, like a jacket I've
worn for a long time."
The star's other recent credits include 'Everything
Everywhere All at Once' and 'The Bear' and she is glad to have surprised
audiences with a diverse range of roles.
She said: "I blew up the mood boards because I'm not
who you think I am. That's probably the biggest crux of it: I'm not who you
think I am. Let me show you. I am way more than you think I am."
