‘Halloween Ends’: Jamie Lee Curtis on Her ‘Emotional’ Goodbye to Laurie Strode
Actor Jamie Lee Curtis first appeared as Laurie Strode in 1978’s Halloween. And now, with the release of Halloween Ends, she’s getting ready to say goodbye to her iconic character.
Jamie Lee Curtis portrayed Laurie Strode for 44 years
Curtis, the daughter of actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, started her movie career in 1978 with Halloween. The film introduced the then 20-year-old as Laurie Strode, a high school teen who takes on the masked serial killer, Michael Myers.
She reprised the role in several sequels, including Halloween II (1981), Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), and Halloween Resurrection (2002). However, the later films reintroduced Laurie as Michael Myers’ sister.
In 2018, Curtis returned for the first movie of the reboot trilogy, Halloween, and reappeared in Halloween Kills in 2021. The final installment, Halloween Ends, premieres on Oct. 14, 2022. According to the synopsis, it picks up with Laurie as she tries to move on with her life four years after the events of the last movie.
Jamie Lee Curtis says goodbye to Laurie Strode with ‘Halloween Ends’
Halloween Ends marks the end of Jamie Lee Curtis’ run as Laurie Strode and the battle between Laurie and Michael. When talking to EW about the film, Curtis revealed how hard it was to say goodbye to the character she’s been playing for 44 years.
“The last days are incredibly emotional, they just are,” the actor explained. “You’re saying goodbye to hundreds of people that you’ve gotten to know. For me, three movies, five years, the immediacy was saying goodbye to those people.”
“The enormity was saying goodbye to Lori, and saying thank you to her and what she represented which then I get to represent,” she continued. “That’s the beauty. People think I’m strong because Laurie’s strong. People think I’m brave because Lori’s brave — people think I’m smart now because of Laurie Strode.”
Curtis said that while she’s given some of herself to the character, she’s taken some things too. And now she’s ready to move on and let Laurie remain a beloved staple of horror cinema.
“I feel like I’ve drafted off her all these years and I need to now cut her loose and let her live in the minds and hearts of the fans that have supported her,” the actor suggested. “And I now get to go off and do my own thing.”
Jamie Lee Curtis reveals how Jake Gyllenhaal got her to take on the role of Laurie Strode again
Following 2002’s Halloween Resurrection, Curtis figured she was done playing the scream queen. But after her godson, actor Jake Gyllenhaal convinced her to speak to writer/director David Gordon Green, she agreed to return for the 2018 reboot.
“I thought it was the end years ago,” Curtis told Rolling Stone. “The last thing in the world I thought I would ever do again was a Halloween movie.”
“I was sitting in my house and the phone rang, and it was Jake Gyllenhaal,” she continued. “He said, ‘Hey, my friend David would like to talk to you.’ Now, I’ve made three of them in five years.”
Curtis also teased that she’s open to returning if Halloween is rebooted again. “It is the end of this trilogy, for sure,” she said. “And yet this year is my Beatles birthday [64], and I feel more alive than I have ever felt. So to assume that in 10 years I won’t feel even more alive would then bring a question of, ‘Well, why not?'”
