Jamie Lee Curtis knows a thing or two about success. One of the most famous actresses of her generation who headlined some of the best slasher movies of the last century, she is once again being hailed for her performance in David Gordon Green’s Halloween, a direct sequel to the original slasher film.
The eleventh movie of the franchise — which first started in 1978 with John Carpenter’s original movie of the same name — Halloween has given Curtis some of her career-defining moments, but the actress also has a few regrets about the franchise. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly , the actress opened up about her biggest regret with the series.
Twenty years after the original movie, in which a teenage Jamie Lee Curtis battled Michael Myers as Laurie Strode, there were talks about the revival of the franchise with the actress reprising her role. But while she had hoped that the 20-year-old sequel would help her collaborate with the original creators of the series, director John Carpenter and producer Debra Hill, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later did not include them.
“When Halloween was, like, 19 years old, I remember calling John and Debra and we had lunch,” said Curtis.
“I said to them, ‘Guys, the movie’s going to be 20-years-old next year, and we’re all still doing the job 20 years later.’ I said to them, ‘Why don’t we revisit it?’ And there was a conversation, but then everybody was busy, and it turned out not to be what I wanted it to be. Initially, I wanted it to be with John directing, Debra producing. And that didn’t happen, for myriad reasons. And John didn’t write it, so then we had to hire a writer, and then Debra had something else. By the end of it, I was the only one involved with it.”
Celebrate Michael Myers’ birthday by watching #HalloweenMovie . ??? pic.twitter.com/10aailrhH8
— #HalloweenEnds (@halloweenmovie) October 20, 2018
The actress said that she regrets that she couldn’t say “no” to the sequel. Speaking to EW, Curtis explained that she should have done the movie only if Carpenter and Hill were involved, but admitted that one of the reasons that she finally conceded to reprising her role was because she was actually getting paid for the film franchise for the first time since its debut.
“Now, to this day, I regret that I didn’t say to everyone, If Debra Hill’s not the one producing this movie, I’m not doing it. But what ended up happening was, she wasn’t part of it, John wasn’t part of it, and I was still part of it, and it was a machine going down the road. I was excited about it, and, honestly, I was going to be paid well. I hadn’t made any money on the Halloween franchise at all . I mean, really, in all of those years I hadn’t really made any money. It just gave me a lot of fame. And now I was going to get a paycheck.”
Jamie Lee Curtis nonetheless clarified that she doesn’t mean that the Steve Miner-directed sequel was not good. In fact, she said that the emotional drive of the Halloween films was very much kept intact with Miner directing, but also admitted that she could have exerted greater creative input if John Carpenter and Debra Hill had been involved.
Well, at least the 2018 version has John Carpenter involved as a composer, executive producer, and creative consultant. Hopefully, Curtis is pleased with Carpenter’s involvement this time around.