Jamie Lee Curtis starts her Television Academy interview with a bit of a revelation: "I have two lives."
In reference to her TV watching rituals, that is.
The first one, she explains, occurred when she was a kid. Though she's the daughter of movie legends Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis, Curtis grew up on a dirt road in L.A.'s Benedict Canyon neighborhood and was allowed only 30 minutes a day in front of a screen. "I had very strict parents," she says. "My mother was raised very poor and my dad was a Marine. We weren't a fancy family, and I spent most of my time outdoors."
She's experienced Part 2 as a married adult with a remote control in hand and a plethora of options at the ready. In between? "Raising children, which required me to watch Dawson's Creek." But there's been an interesting plot twist during this latter period. Curtis, a movie star since the 1970s, was tapped to play the temperamental Berzatto family matriarch in the second season of The Bear. She won a 2024 Emmy award for her bravura performance. Behind the scenes, she's been in a collaborative partnership with Jason Blum's Blumhouse Productions since 2020. "My goal," she says, "is to be a producer."
That brings us to The Sticky. Inspired by on a wild true story, the offbeat six-episode series — premiering December 6 on Prime Video — follows a hard-nosed, down-on-her-luck Quebec-based maple syrup farmer (Margo Martindale) who decides to conspire with a mobster and a security guard to steal barrels of the valuable sticky stuff from the same bureaucratic authorities threatening to take away her livelihood. Curtis, an executive producer, compares the vibe to Fargo and notes, "The show is exactly what I wanted it to be."
Curtis also pops up at the end of the series as an angry hit man (so to speak) with a scar that runs from her ear to her mouth. "After we were off to the races, Mommy won an Oscar in a way that was unexpected," she says of her 2023 trophy for Everything Everywhere All at Once. "So my phone rang and the producers said, 'Hey, congrats. Listen, is there any chance you could be on the show?' I love that my character looks like she's been in a bar fight. It's so fun."
But the actress took her My Seven Shows assignment quite seriously. "I've done my homework — which is a very difficult thing for me because I was a D student who got an 840 combined score on my SATs," she says. "I did not get top scores for my intellectualism, but I do for my emotionalism." She shares more (and lets the profanity fly!) for The Television Academy.
The Brady Bunch (1969-74, ABC)
"Here's the story of a lovely lady." The Brady Bunch fucking hit me in my sweet spot. I watched every single episode — it represented my childhood, even though it didn't represent my childhood, if that makes any sense.
I had a little crush on Bobby [Mike Lookinland]. I idolized Marcia [Maureen McCormick]. The episode seared in my memory is when Marcia helps the girl who's also running for student body president ["Vote for Brady" from season one.] She does a makeover on the girl, and then the girl turns out to be a bitch. I know every frame of it.
The Civil War (1990, PBS)
I am someone who learned later in life. I am self-taught, and the way I need to be taught is multi-sensorial. So [documentarian] Ken Burns is the best teacher I've ever had — and the greatest historian of my generation — because he tells me a story through words and sounds and music and photographs with a narrative history. Then he peppers it all with real stories so that you relate.
In The Civil War, the way he picked one [soldier]'s letters and chronicled that person through the war got to me. I also loved his series on jazz and Vietnam and country music, but I'm going to stick with this one!
Girls (2012-17, HBO)
So, I am a prude. I was raised by a Marine and never said no to my mother. I say "Yes, sir, yes, ma'am." I'm that good L.A. girl. So Girls is my fantasy imagination of what it would be like to be a young person in New York City. It's provocative, challenging, sexually out there, selfish and fucking amazing. Lena Dunham is a brilliant writer, director and actor. There is a line from that show that I probably repeat weekly, if not more, because it's so fucking amazing. It's after her character's editor dies ["Dead Inside" from season 3]. She comes home and she's just worried about her book deal. Adam [Adam Driver] says something to her like, "You don't seem so upset that this guy died. You're more worried about making rent." Then he says, "If you died, I wouldn't know what a tree was." That is maybe the most beautiful line of love poetry I've ever heard.
Transparent (2014-19, Prime Video)
I am a trans parent. And I watched that show before I was a trans parent. It brought a world to me that I knew nothing about with characters that I didn't know. I absorbed the storytelling, the acting, its complications of family life and contradictions of human beings. What just popped in my mind is the Kathryn Hahn character [Rabbi Racquel]. Amy Landecker's work is so incredible, too. And Judith fucking Light! That's how you know you have a beautifully drawn meal of a show. I have binged the series while on location alone in my hotel room over and over again.
Better Call Saul (2015-22, AMC)
The Godfather is a perfect movie. The Godfather, Part II is a perfect movie. Breaking Bad is a perfect television show. Better Call Saul is a perfect show. But I have to pick one, so I’m going with Better Call Saul.
It’s the combo platter of originality, writing, storytelling, character development, tension, mystery and incredibly beautiful visuals. Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman, even though that character was invented in Breaking Bad, [he] is clearly one of the greatest television characters ever. His relationship and love story with Rhea Seehorn really got me.
The Bear (2022-, FX on Hulu)
I watched an episode of the first season and had never seen anything like it. I was mesmerized by the writing, by these characters, by this world that I was being invited into. I felt the anxiety amidst the laughter and tears. And at the end of that first season, when Carmy [Jeremy Allen White] read that letter from his dead brother and it included the line “let it rip,” I was fucking gone.
Then I had the great fortune to have my phone ring from my agent who told me I had been offered a part. I said, “To play their mother, right?” And he said, “Yes.” I just knew. I walked into that Christmas episode [“Fishes” from season two] and didn’t know anyone! I was literally going up to people and saying, “Hi, I’m Jamie.” Now I can say that I’m 66 years old and have waited my whole life for Donna Berzatto. To say the words “I make things beautiful for them, nobody makes anything beautiful for me” is almost indescribable. I am so fucking excited and privileged to be a member of this beautiful family of creative people.
Shogun (2024-, FX)
Shogun by James Clavell is like my favorite book ever. I have a first-edition of it. Historical fiction just scratches an itch for me. So an important book for me as a teen became an important show for me as an adult.
I was worried about the adaptation, and I am so proud of John Landgraf at FX for trusting the filmmakers and writers and artisans to have confidence and belief in all of their abilities — and the belief that viewers would open themselves to it. The show was absolutely mind-blowingly great, from the acting to the writing to costumes to the hair and makeup to the set dressing to the production design. It’s all exquisitely told.
I also dropped to the ground watching [Apple TV’s] Pachinko, but that show hasn’t gotten its flowers.
This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.
The Sticky premieres December 6 on Prime Video.
