Jaime Lee Curtis: Fun, Fearless, Soon to be 50!
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June 24, 2008— -- Jamie Lee Curtis likes the f-word. No, not that one, the big one –FIFTY.
Now as the fearless and funny actress hits the mid-century mark she's embracing it, calling on women across the country to help her re-invent the "f-word."
"Fifty is a big corner to turn," Curtis told More magazine. "It used to mean being put out to pasture, but it's the opposite with me. I feel more vibrant; I'm more active than I've ever been. The 'f-word' really is freedom. It's the freedom to have dropped the rock — the rock of addiction — of family, of comparisons with other people. It's being fit and focused and kind of furious."
Curtis posed for the July/August issue of More in all of her "f-word" moments, from fit and focused to family-time and free. Now she's helping launch a contest with the magazine and "Good Morning America Now" to celebrate all fearless femmes over 40.
Once the literal embodiment of physical perfection, Curtis, a.k.a. "The Body" (remember her co-starring role as a fitness instructor alongside John Travolta in the 1985 film "Perfect"?). Curtis has since become an outspoken advocate of being true to yourself and flaunting your supposed flaws.
"Accepting the reality of your body is verboten in Los Angeles, but Curtis is famous for it. In 2002, she posed for More in her skivvies and became a spokesperson for women tired of trying to live up to a Photoshopped ideal," wrote Strawberry Saroyan for More.
As an aging Hollywood icon, still active in the business, Curtis's approach to aging is nothing but courageous.
"I have watched, my whole life, people age and become buffoons," she adds. "When you crest in your thirties or forties and then you don't pull out of the public eye, you become a caricature. You have to have grace, dignity and gratitude, and walk away kind of slowly, like you're walking away from a bear," she told More.
Indeed Curtis has been starring in blockbuster films for the past 30 years every since 1978's "Halloween" and will appear in the upcoming film" Beverly Hills Chihuahua," this fall. Over the years she has also found a passion for writing children's books and her eighth, "Big Words for Little People," will be out in stores in September.
Though she has enjoyed enormous success, Curtis has also faced her own demons and setbacks, including alcoholism and addiction to prescription painkillers.
"I'm hoping that 50 and beyond is about reading and studying and learning," she told Saroyan. "But I also hope that it's relaxing and enjoying and participating without it being all about me. I'm not going to become a media conglomerate. I've opened myself up for some scrutiny, and now I want my private life."
Curtis currently resides in Santa Monica with her husband, actor-filmmaker Christopher Guest ("Best in Show," "For Your Consideration"). Together they have a 12-year-old son, Tom, and a 21-year-old daughter, Annie, who is away at college.