CULTURE

Jamie Lee Curtis Met a Fan Who Survived a Home Invasion Because of Halloween

The two embraced, and Curtis told the crowd why horror movies are so important.


jamie lee curtis
Photo by Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images

Most people go to Comic-Con to pretend that movies are real, or to see the real-life people who make the movies. But at a panel on the horror classic Halloween, the star Jamie Lee Curtis got to meet a fan who had really lived the movie. During the Q and A portion of the panel, a man named Jeffrey Scott told the story of how, one night, when he discovered that his phone lines were cut (this was a few years ago, before we all collectively burned our landlines and went cell-only) and there was someone in his home, he thought, What would Jamie Lee Curtis Do? According to The A.V. Club, he didn’t panic. Instead, he grabbed knitting needles, the closest available sharp object, and ran for the door. Scott credits his quick-thinking and even his survival to the Halloween films, directed by John Carpenter, in which Curtis’s character, Laurie Strode, is attacked in her house, the childhood home of a killer.

After Scott told his story, Curtis left the Comic-Con stage to embrace and talk to him. When she returned, she reflected on the film’s legacy and message. “Laurie Strode is the greatest part I’ll ever get to play,” linking the character’s inspirations and legacy to the modern-day moment. “This is a woman who has been waiting 40 years to say, I’m going to take back my narrative, and you don’t own me anymore.’ And that, weirdly enough, seems to be a bit of a thing in the world today,” she said.

Indeed, the movie’s enduring appeal demonstrates just how powerful it is to see a young women refuse to be a victim. And Scott’s story proves that not just women but anyone can find themselves in that situation, and fight empowerment from a good story. “The gentleman that spoke earlier? That kind of emotion is real. These are movies, and we love to come to a movie and get scared, it’s exciting…but it all has to be based in a reality and something you can believe in,” Curtis said.

Curtis first played the part of Laurie Strode in 1978 and will reprise the role this October, 40 years later, in Halloween, a direct sequel to the original film.

Related: Why Linda Hamilton and Jamie Lee Curtis Returning to the Franchises They Helped Build Is Important for Women in Hollywood

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