Jamie Lee Curtis received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the American Film Institute at the institute's commencement ceremony. The Oscar winner was the keynote speaker at the event, which took place on August 10 at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
“If you look in the newspaper, you won’t find me here,” Curtis said at the beginning of her speech. “I’m the underachiever who just got this amazing honor.”
Curtis' resume may vary: The actress, who won an Oscar in 2023 for her role in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” has built an extensive filmography that includes the films “Halloween,” “Freaky Friday,” “Knives Out,” “Trading Places,” “My Girl,” “A Fish Called Wanda” and “True Lies,” as well as TV credits like “Scream Queens” and “Anything But Love.”
“I, to you graduates, represent the person who has never done anything,” Curtis continued. “I am an artist, I can tell you that today. I couldn’t tell you that when I was 19 and didn’t know what I was going to do. I can tell you that I became an actor by accident. My parents became actors by accident.”
Director John Carpenter, who cast Curtis as Laurie Strode in the horror classic in her film debut, presented the award to the actress, saying she had become the definitive queen of the genre.
“Jamie Lee was and still is an instinctive actress,” Carpenter said of Curtis's performance in the 1978 film. “She has a good pedigree, and her parents were famous movie stars.” [Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis]”She herself was, and still is, a force of nature.”
When she first watched the pilot episode of FX's “The Bear,” Curtis said she focused on one scene in particular: when Carmen (Jeremy Allen White) and Natalie Berzato (Abby Elliott) briefly talk about their mother.
“I was alone in my house in Idaho and I was like, 'Oh! I'm going to play her,'” Curtis said of her guest-starring role on the series, for which she was recently nominated for an Emmy.
In her final words to the MFA graduates, Curtis told them: “Stay open, stay free, stay engaged, stay fully motivated. Don’t be lazy. Don’t think you deserve something more than you’re going to get. Fight for it. Work for it. Save the universe, please. God bless you all, thank you.”
The actress joins her Everything Everywhere All at Once co-stars 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 others as recipients of honorary degrees from the American Film Institute.
It's a busy weekend for Curtis. On Friday night, she and Lindsay Lohan made a surprise appearance at the D23 Expo to reveal the title of their upcoming film, “Freaky Friday.” (It's called “Freakier Friday.”) On Sunday, Curtis will return to Anaheim, Calif., to be honored as a Disney Legend.
