Jamie Lee Curtis Is Planning Her Exit From Hollywood

Jamie Lee Curtis has always been one to break the rules and now, she’s rewriting the ending of her own Hollywood story. At 66, the Oscar-winning actress has spent nearly five decades lighting up screens and refusing to be boxed in. But while some fans are still catching their breath from her jaw-dropping role on The Bear and gearing up to see her in Freakier Friday alongside Lindsay Lohan, Jamie has been quietly preparing for something else: her exit.

In a conversation with The Guardian, Jamie said she’s been “self-retiring for 30 years.” That might sound dramatic, but for her, it’s a survival move. “I want to leave the party before I’m no longer invited,” she said.

Jamie has been carrying the long shadow of Hollywood’s cruelty for most of her life because she watched it happen to her parents. Born to silver screen icons Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis, she saw their star power fade not because their talent left, but because the industry turned its back on them as they aged.

“I witnessed my parents lose the very thing that gave them their fame and their life and their livelihood,” she shared, “when the industry rejected them at a certain age. I watched them reach incredible success and then have it slowly erode to where it was gone. And that’s very painful.”

So Jamie decided early on that she wouldn’t let that happen to her. She has been laying the groundwork to walk away on her own terms, when she says it’s time. And while that moment hasn’t come yet, she is not clinging to fame the way others do. Rather, she is working because she wants to, not because she has to. 

That sense of control has transformed her and it’s not just how she works, but how she sets boundaries. “And I have no problem saying: ‘Back the f— off,’” she shared. 

Her unforgettable performance in The Bear, where she played a deeply flawed, alcoholic mother, was a personal breakthrough. For Jamie, the role wasn’t traumatic but was a release.

“Here’s what’s traumatic: not being able to express your range as an artist,” she explained. “That’s traumatic. To spend your entire public life holding back range. And depth. And complexity. And contradiction. And rage. And pain. And sorrow.”

The Bear gave her a chance to explode out of the box Hollywood once shoved her into. 

“…It was exhilarating,” she stated, adding, “The toll has been 40 years of holding back something I know is here.”