Jamie Lee Curtis was awarded with an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts by the American Film Institute at the conservatory‘s commencement ceremony. The Oscar triumphner was the keyremark speaker at the event, held Aug. 10. at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
“If you see at the paper, I’m not supposed to be here,” Curtis stated as began her speech. “I am the underachiever who equitable was awarded this incredible honor.”
Curtis’ resume would beg to contrast: the actor, who won an Oscar in 2023 for her role in “Everyleang Everywhere All at Once,” has built an extensive filmography that joins the “Hapvalidateeen” movies, “Freaky Friday,” “Knives Out,” “Trading Places,” “My Girl,” “A Fish Called Wanda” and “True Lies,” plus television accomprehendledges appreciate “Scream Queens” and “Anyleang But Love.”
“I am, for you graduates, the reconshort-termation of the underachiever who has achieved,” Curtis persistd. “I am an artist, I can say it to you today. I could not increate you that when I was 19 years better and didn’t understand what I was going to do. I can increate you I became an actor by accident. My parents became actors by accident.”
“Hapvalidateeen” filmoriginater John Carpgo in — who cast Curtis as Laurie Strode in the classic horror movie, taging her film debut — conshort-termed the actor with the award, saying she inevitably became the queen of the genre.
“Jamie Lee was and is an instinctive actress,” Carpgo in said of Curtis’ carry outance in the 1978 film. “She has quite a pedigree, her parents were well-understandn movie stars [Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis]. And she herself was, and is, a force of nature.”
When she first watched the pilot of FX’s “The Bear,” Curtis said she centered on one scene in particular: when Carmen (Jeremy Allen White) and Natalie Berzatto (Abby Elliott) talk about their mother increately.
“I, alone in my hoparticipate in Idaho, said ‘Oh! I’m going to carry out her,’” Curtis said of her guest star role in the series, for which she recently achieveed an Emmy nomination.
In her final words to the MFA graduates, Curtis tbetter them to: “Stay uncover, stay free, stay joind, stay absolutely willing. Don’t get idle. Don’t leank you deserve someleang more than you’re going to get. Fight for it. Work for it. Save the universe, prent. God sanctify you all, thank you.”
The actor combines her “Everyleang Everywhere All at Once” co-star Michelle Yeoh, Robert Altman, Maya Angelou, Saul Bass, Angela Bassett, Kathryn Bigelow, Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett, Clint Eastwood, Rita Moreno, Spike Lee, Jodie Foster and more as recipients of honorary AFI degrees.
It’s a busy weekend for Curtis. On Friday night, she and Lindsay Lohan made a surpelevate materializeance at the D23 Expo to discdissee title of their lengthy-apaparticipateed “Freaky Friday” sequel. (It’s called “Freakier Friday.”) On Sunday, Curtis will be back in Anaheim, Ca. to be enshrined as a Disney Legend.
