Jamie Lee Curtis is being weird again, and she's having a great time doing it.
During an interview about her new film “Borderlands” alongside co-star Cate Blanchett, the Oscar winner spoke enthusiastically about “Freaky Friday 2,” the sequel to her 2003 hit comedy.
The sequel, Curtis says, will wrap production in about two weeks, reuniting her with Lindsay Lohan, now an adult. “Lindsay is a mom,” Curtis says. “Louie had his first birthday a week ago. That changes you as a person, as a parent. She’s very reserved, so I said, ‘Relax. Relax.’ Louie had just started walking. She’s at that stage where little kids grab things, and then they wobble, and then they fall. She’s at work, and she’s watching on her phone.”
“She's watching videos on the live stream with the baby in between scenes. She's watching her baby start to walk, and it's so sweet. She's amazing. She's so happy. We're having a really, really, really good time.”
Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan at the “Freaky Friday” premiere in Los Angeles in 2003.
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Lohan wasn’t the only one cast in Freaky Friday, either. Chad Michael Murray is also back as Jake, and no one is more excited about the role than Curtis. Lohan recalls the first table read in front of the cast and Disney executives, which went really well and generated a lot of laughter. “All of a sudden, Chad Michael Murray’s character is in the story, and I tell you, the whole room changed. Every woman in the room was leaning forward. The laughter and the applause he got! After the reading, I went to the director and producers. I said, ‘We need to improve this dessert. He’s great. His character is so great.’ Jake is back, in a big, big way.”
Borderlands saw Curtis meet Blanchett again — though she doesn't remember meeting her before the film. “I wanted an apology for the fact that you didn't remember that we actually met,” Blanchett joked. “So I've been looking for that, but I haven't gotten it yet. I hope that during this interview we get an apology.”
Curtis smiles and replies, “I've made it very clear to everyone that I apologize publicly when I make a mistake. I'm telling you, I don't remember that conversation at the awards show!”
“It was at an after-party,” Blanchett jokes. “I was standing there, like a girl watching the door!”
“Door bitch? I’ve been called a b*tch my whole life, but ‘door bitch’ isn’t a nickname I’ve ever heard before,” Curtis says as they both break into a fit of laughter.
Blanchett and Curtis continue to poke fun at each other relentlessly during the interview, but it's clear that there's nothing but love between the two, who joined the project because they wanted the chance to work with each other.
Cate Blanchett and Jamie Lee Curtis at the 34th Annual Palm Springs International Film Awards in 2023.
Getty Images of Palm Springs
“The phrase ‘nine lives’ would be an understatement for the number of lives I’ve had, and the huge impact it’s had on my film career — the eclectic things I’ve done,” Blanchett says.
Curtis is equally enthusiastic. “I’m 66 years old, and I’ve had a really strange and beautiful experience with my work,” she says, squeezing Blanchett’s hand. “There are very few people whose work has consistently reminded me why I am an actress.”
The Lionsgate video game adaptation follows a group of adventurers as they race to unlock a mysterious vault on the planet Pandora. The film, directed by Eli Roth, began production in 2021 during the pandemic but underwent reshoots in 2023, directed by “Deadpool” director Tim Miller.
In the interim between the two films, Curtis and Blanchett created quite a stir, leading to Oscar nominations for their work in Everything Everywhere All at Once and Tar, respectively. (Curtis won Best Supporting Actress.)
During a four-hour road trip to Palm Springs, Curtis talked to Blanchett about her complicated feelings. “I started getting some blame from people telling me I was going to be nominated for an Oscar,” she recalled, tearfully. “It made me cry. You can’t take the blame out once someone puts it in your head and it’s in your head. … I talked to Kate about the anxiety I was feeling, because I didn’t want to be disappointed, but I wanted to be open to anything.”
“I was asking for advice from someone who had been there many times, who had been in the same field,” Curtis continues. “I couldn’t say it out loud to any other human being, because it was too vulnerable for me.”
BORDERLANDS, from left: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Jamie Lee Curtis, 2024.
©Lions Gate/Courtesy of Everett Collection
I said, “Don’t worry, Borderlands will… no “I hope I get nominated,” Blanchett laughs. While the film is certainly not an awards contender, she hopes fans of the franchise will enjoy what they’ve created. “The world is a mix of Western and sci-fi. It’s fun, it has a lot of heart. It’s vibrant and energetic, and it’s vibrant and energetic.” Kevin Hart, but he also has a lot of heart“.”
“This is a cinematic version of a peanut butter cup,” Curtis says. “You take things that don’t necessarily fit together, and then they fit together, and you say, ‘Oh my God, I love that so much!’”
Blanchett laughs and adds, “Well, a peanut butter cup covered in Thresher's vomit and urine wash.”
