Jamie Lee Curtis Opened Up About Her 'Illusions' Regarding Plastic Surgery & Its Dangers

May 06, 2022 by apost team

Ever since actress Jamie Lee Curtis made her film debut in the 1978 horror movie "Halloween," she's been a well-known leading lady in Hollywood. She's also Hollywood royalty, with her parents Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis major stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood era. 

Following her “Halloween” debut Curtis would go on to land the Hollywood nickname “Scream Queen” for her roles in several horror films. Eventually, she branched out from horror and moved into drama as well as comedy. Jamie Lee's career has seen her win a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA, while she's also been immortalized on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Having stepped on the Hollywood scene at such a young age, Curtis has been working for over four decades. During her long reign in the entertainment industry, she has felt the major pressures that Hollywood places on women. 

Female celebrities, they are often under a tighter microscope than usual. They could do something as simple as go for a coffee run or get groceries, and they will be criticized for how they look, who they are with, the clothing they have on, and so on. Many of them go to great and not-so-healthy lengths to keep up their appearances, and Curtis was one of those celebrities.

But now, at 63 years old, she no longer feels the pressure to conform to these standards and hasn't for a long time. She has a full head of white and does not dye her hair anymore. She has also quit wearing high heels. Here’s why. 

In an interview with The Telegraph back in 2002, Curtis revealed that she had plastic surgery done when she was in her 30s. She had hoped that going under the knife would help her achieve her desired youthful looks but later realized that none of it worked and that it was not worth the trouble. “I’ve done it all. I’ve had a little plastic surgery. I’ve had a little lipo. I’ve had a little Botox. And you know what? None of it works. None of it,” she said to the newspaper. 

In the same interview, she says she had been so scared about turning old that she coped by drinking alcohol and then later found herself struggling with an addiction to both drinking and pills. She needed professional help, but the producers and directors that she was working with at the time only pressured her to go under the knife again. Curtis recalled an incident that really shook her up.

“Ten years ago, before anybody did that, I had fat taken from underneath my eyes because I was in a movie and I was puffy,” Curtis shared. “I remember the cameraman saying: ‘I can’t shoot her now.’ I remember being mortified.”

Fortunately, shortly after Curtis got into rehab where she not only decided that she was going to give up her bad habit of drinking and taking pills but also never to get cosmetic surgery again. The actress added that medical procedures that are supposed to enhance your looks are not without risk mentally and physically.

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“And there is this illusion that once you do it, then you’ll be fine. And that’s just horse****. I looked worse,” she said. According to Variety, Curtis has been sober since around 1999. While at rehab, which she entered voluntarily, Curtis told herself that she would no longer care about what other people thought of the way she looked — and this included embracing her grays and quitting high heels. These days, Lee Curtis continues to rock her natural silver hairs and does it while wearing comfortable footwear. 

Curtis appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show six years later to reiterate her point about self-confidence, authenticity, and how uninteresting she finds clothing. “I have never represented glam,” the actress said to Winfrey during an interview on her talk show back in 2008. “That is the interesting thing. You will never see me on the front row of a fashion show. I am uninterested in it. I find it trivial and banal and boring.” Curtis added that clothing is the least intriguing thing that a woman could pay any attention to.

“I am so much more interested in what is going on in the world today, and what we are thinking, and how we are feeling,” she explained to the host. The women had been talking about the differences in the way they were dressed: Curtis in muted colors, Winfrey in bright orange. Winfrey mentioned to Curtis that people have told her that the actress has now “glammed down.” “And so for me, the idea of glamming down is really diminishing when I am talking about … the detritus of my life,” the actress said to the host.

Curtis emphasized that women should just dress in the way that they feel most like their true selves. “That is why I respect you so much,” Curtis says to Winfrey. “You represent you.” The actress added that people are naturally more interested in getting to know other people, what they are thinking, and how they are feeling based on who they really are.

“It has been a process of evolution and that to me is what I think women are really trying to find which is their essential self. What works for them in their family, what works for them in themselves, clothing, weight, hair, marriages, children, choices, all of those things sort of boil down to this essential you which I am now, luckily, finding,” she said. “You drop the rock of the burden of trying to figure that out and then you’re free and that to me is what being older is — it is freedom to finally learn.”

Curtis spoke on the same topic with Lorraine Keane. "I have been an advocate for natural beauty for a long time, mostly because I've had the trial and error of the other part,” she said. “I did plastic surgery — it didn't work. I hated it. It made me feel worse.”

The star continued, "I've also been an advocate for not (messing) with your face. And the term 'anti-aging.' What? What are you talking about? We're all going to age. We’re all gonna die. Why do you want to look 17 when you're 70? I want to look 70 when I'm 70!"

Curtis is clearly very passionate about self-love and acceptance. In 2018, she submitted an essay to NBC News that goes into detail about society's overall problem with addiction to technology and how that could lead to us becoming unhappy when we compare our lives with the lives of others.

In the essay, she warns all people who are parents that it's their responsibility as adults to break this unhealthy chain of screen addiction. She notes it is impacting and infecting the younger generations in our society the most. Curtis points to social media's ability to hook people into an unhealthy focus on the personal lives of other people, as well as a self-focused mentality. The actress then offers a solution to the problem: setting boundaries for screen time that are in effect not just for the children but also for parents. 

Although the actress does have Instagram herself, she only uses it to promote her businesses or post about things she is passionate about. She opened up to Fast Company in 2021 and said, 

“I use social media to sell things and amplify things I care about. Period. The rest is cancer. I never read one comment. I believe I can do my job and have a private life. I believe in the separation of church and state. I believe that I do not owe anybody anything once I’ve done my work. I am by nature a super-friendly person, but I also have a very clear boundary of what is appropriate and inappropriate for me to share. There’s some remarkable good that has come from social media: I love the exposure to amazing people doing amazing things, to activism.” 

What lessons can you take from Jamie Lee Curtis’s mantra on plastic surgery? If you love her message on natural beauty pass this on to other people who need to hear that positive message too!