Despite an acclaimed career spanning nearly five decades, an Academy Award, and iconic performances in everything from Halloween to Everything Everywhere All at Once, Jamie Lee Curtis says there has always been one role she’s longed to return to.
During NBCUniversal’s Backlot Pass event on August 10, where ¡HOLA! had exclusive access, the actress and executive producer reflected on her decades-long love of sitcoms while promoting the upcoming comedy Newlyweds.
It was there that Curtis revealed the one type of role she’s been asking her agents to help make happen year after year. “I’ve only done movies,” Curtis recalled while reflecting on her early television career.
She explained that after filming a comedy pilot that eventually became Anything But Love, she realized she had found her favorite type of project.
© NBC“Every single year, all I’ve ever said to my agents is, ‘I want to do a sitcom. All I want to do is a sitcom,'” Curtis shared. “It’s my favorite job.”
She went on to explain what makes the format so special to her, pointing to the collaborative nature of multi-camera comedies.
© Nicole Weingart/NBC“I love the whole part of it, every aspect of it, the dance with the cameras, the idea that you actually get to rehearse something and work it and learn a joke and play it,” she said. “I just never got to do it.”
Jamie Lee Curtis decided to create the opportunity herself:
Rather than waiting for the perfect sitcom to come along, Curtis said she eventually decided to take matters into her own hands.
“I just decided to basically kind of create my own job,” she said, referring to her collaboration with executive producer Gail Lerner on Newlyweds, the new NBC comedy starring real-life couple Téa Leoni and Tim Daly. Curtis serves as both an executive producer and recurring guest star on the series.
© NBCThe actress also spoke candidly about how meaningful it has been to have a greater creative role behind the scenes after decades in Hollywood.
“I’ve been waiting my whole life, literally, to be able to manifest ideas and bring what I love about what I do into the workplace I do it in,” Curtis said. “I’ve been doing it not as a boss for a long, long time, and now I’m a boss, and I love it.”
Why Jamie Lee Curtis believes sitcoms still matter:
Curtis also shared why she believes traditional network sitcoms continue to have a place in today’s entertainment landscape.
“I just think people want to have a good time,” she said. “They want to have a good time in the comfort of their own home, and they want to turn on a network show and have laughs and have feelings.”
© Errich Petersen“And if that isn’t what sitcoms can do well, then I’m not sure what they do. But that’s what they do, and that’s why we love them.”
Newlyweds premieres Oct. 23 on NBC and stars Téa Leoni and Tim Daly as a later-in-life couple navigating married life after a whirlwind romance. For Curtis, the series marks the realization of a dream she’s been chasing for decades.
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