Jamie Lee Curtis Gets Real About Whether She’ll Ever Retire

Jamie Lee Curtis is not hanging it up just yet. She addressed the retirement question (again) at the Los Angeles premiere of her new movie 'Ella McCay' on Dec. 9, and her answer is both blunt and very Jamie: she is not quitting right now, but she is also not pretending she will act forever.

So, is she retiring?

At the premiere, Curtis told PEOPLE this, which gets right to the point:

"I am done self-retiring. But no, of course I'll retire."

If that sounds like she has talked about this before, she has. She referenced her recent chat with Willie Geist on the Today show, where she joked she has already announced her own retirement four times. Translation: she keeps flirting with the idea, and she knows it.

Why she keeps bringing it up

Here is the part that hits harder. Curtis says the whole retirement spiral comes from watching her parents, who were massive movie stars in their era, get shut out of the work they loved as they got older. She described how they lost access to film roles purely because of aging, and how watching that happen was heartbreaking. She even put herself, a bit darkly, in the "minor twilight" category compared to how big they were back then.

That is why she came up with her whole "self-retiring" idea in the first place: she would rather step away on her own terms than stick around until no one calls. As she explained, waiting for the industry to stop asking is humiliating; she would prefer to bow out before that moment arrives. Until then, she plans to grab the opportunities she has while keeping one foot out the door.

For context: Curtis turned 67 in November, she is still busy (see: 'Ella McCay'), and she is clearly self-aware about the business and aging in it. The short version? She is not done, but she is realistic.