The Secret Force Behind Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lindsay Lohan: Jamie Lee Curtis, Hollywood’s Quiet Godmother for 40 Years
Born to Hollywood royalty Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, Jamie Lee Curtis rocketed to fame with 1978’s Halloween — but the real story of how she landed the role upends the easy nepotism narrative, setting the Knives Out star on a path to Scream Queen status that was anything but preordained.
Jamie Lee Curtis might be Hollywood royalty by birth, but she built her career with grit, a scream, and a knife. Halloween made her a star back in 1978, and since then the youngest daughter of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh has made a habit of stealing movies, mentoring co-stars, and, occasionally, becoming their actual godmother. Here are the folks who say Curtis changed their careers or their lives.
The quick Curtis backstory
Yes, her mom is the horror icon from Psycho, which probably didn’t hurt when she was cast in Halloween. But Curtis didn’t just ride the family name. She hustled, worked with giant movie stars, fronted one of the first mega-budget action spectacles, and kept showing up for her co-stars on and off set. She’s also weirdly good at becoming everyone’s favorite mentor.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger
Curtis co-led True Lies with Schwarzenegger in 1994, the now-classic action-comedy that was reportedly the first studio movie with a production budget north of $100 million. The film crushed at the box office with over $378 million worldwide. Arnold played the spy; Curtis played Helen Tasker, his wife who craves a life with more excitement. It’s not a stretch to say the marriage is the movie.
Schwarzenegger has praised her work before — he even told Howard Stern he literally dropped his tape recorder during that striptease scene. And at a recent event, Curtis turned the spotlight right back on him.
'Because of this man, I have the career I have.'
She also shared a great bit of credit politics: James Cameron asked Arnold if he could put Curtis’s name above the title because the story was about a marriage. Arnold, who absolutely didn’t have to, said yes. Curtis went on to win a Golden Globe for the role. Her exact True Lies paycheck has never been confirmed — some estimates say it could have been around $5 million — but that’s unverified.
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Curtis and Lindsay Lohan nailed the mother-daughter body-swap chaos in Disney’s Freaky Friday, and the two recently reunited to make a sequel. Off camera, they stayed close. Curtis has talked about how important it was to be a real person for a 15-year-old navigating the business, not just a co-star.
'There’s R-E-E-L life, and then there’s R-E-A-L life... I wanted her to understand that I was real, and that she always could be real with me.'
Lohan has said Curtis quietly showed up for her during the tough years and remains one of the few people she truly trusts. When Lohan welcomed her son Luai in 2023, Curtis joked she’d become a 'movie grandmother.' And when Curtis won the Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once, Lohan blasted out congrats on Instagram with a flurry of emojis and a celebratory GIF. Extremely wholesome, considering they once swapped bodies.
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Andi Matichak
Matichak played Allyson Nelson, Laurie Strode’s granddaughter, in the modern Halloween trilogy: Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills, and Halloween Ends. Before cameras even rolled on the 2021 film, Curtis reached out to welcome her to the family. Once they were on set, she took Matichak to dinner and gave her a full crash course on the franchise — the history, the legacy, the whole thing. Matichak has called Curtis an incredible mentor who took her under her wing from day one. Also, she was pretty thrilled to work with Judy Greer, who played her on-screen mom.
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Stephanie Hsu
On Everything Everywhere All at Once, Curtis became the cast’s hype engine. Stephanie Hsu has said Curtis kept the crew motivated through the long awards slog by reminding them this was a once-in-a-lifetime ride.
'Go! Stand in the light.'
Short, simple, and honestly exactly the kind of thing you need to hear when your movie suddenly breaks the internet and then sweeps awards season.
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Gyllenhaal isn’t just a fan — he’s family. Curtis is his godmother. Her friendship with his parents, filmmaker Stephen Gyllenhaal and writer Naomi Foner, goes way back, and Jake’s godparent bench was stacked — Paul Newman was also his godfather. Curtis and Jake even appeared together in Stephen Gyllenhaal’s film Homegrown.
Last year, Jake told E! News that Curtis has given him strength and love when he needed it, and he hopes he’s done the same for her. He also said it would be an honor to act with her again. Fun tidbit: during the COVID lockdown, Jake and his partner Jeanne Cadieu lived next door to Curtis. Imagine your quarantine neighbor being Laurie Strode.
Bottom line
Jamie Lee Curtis may have been launched by Halloween, but the secret sauce of her career is everything that came after: showing up, lifting others, and sharing the spotlight. And in Arnold’s case, handing it right back.