Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 22, 1990 TAG: 9003221778
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRAZIER MOORE COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
But the word on the movie is so good she's talking instead about Jamie Lee and how the film just might give her the Hollywood boost she's been seeking.
"My stature as an actress has never been something that I could say is a marketable commodity," admits Curtis, who also co-stars on the ABC sitcom "Anything but Love."
"Most of the time, those morning shows demand that you be on live. Soon they'll come out to California and tape me there - that's the real measure of success, when you get them to come to you because you're so-o-o-o important.
"But now I know I've reached a modicum of success: They'll at least allow me to tape."
Curtis is kidding around, but she has a clear picture of where she stands in the entertainment firmament.
She has put in a busy decade-plus making a dozen and a half movies. She started with a bang as the tormented babysitter in "Halloween" (1978), but her subsequent films were overlooked or soon forgotten.
Now the 31-year-old actress is enjoying a long-overdue bounce up to leading-lady status. The launching pad was "A Fish Called Wanda," a dizzy farce that was an unexpected hit in 1988.
" `Wanda' gave me a big, big, enthusiastic push," she says of her role as a sexy con artist opposite John Cleese's stuffy barrister.
Then, last March, she brought her newly demonstrated gift for comedy to television. Co-starring with guilt-ridden comic Richard Lewis, Curtis plays a magazine writer in "Anything but Love".
Now "Blue Steel" is rewarding her with her first lead film role, as a New York City police rookie who by turns is in love with, terrorized by and hot on the trail of a serial killer (Ron Silver).
An uncompromising action film, "Blue Steel" is remarkable for placing a woman at its center. With bullets flying and blood spilling, the film is notable, too, for being directed and co-written by a woman, Kathryn Bigelow, whose credits include the 1987 vampire chiller "Near Dark".
"I find Jamie very physical and commanding but warm and genuine," Bigelow says. "I never thought she would ever agree to play Megan, but Jamie was always who I had in mind while I was writing the part."
Curtis is salaciously remembered for her spandexed aerobics instructor five years ago in "Perfect," but she is hardly the coquette. Here in real life, dressed in slacks and a sweater, she radiates not so much sexiness as energy and smarts - assets she tapped to play policewoman Megan Turner.
"It was technically a very difficult performance, because Kathryn shoots her films with lots of very tight closeups," Curtis says. "The whole film depends on Megan's reactions to totally unexpected situations, and everything has to happen in a very tight frame. That can be totally suffocating to an actor."
She signals that she's equal to the challenge early in the film during a swearing-in ceremony, when Megan realizes her lifelong dream to be a woman in blue. Reciting the police oath in tight closeup, Curtis resists the obvious quivering lip or a tear-streaked cheek. Instead, subtly but expressively, her eyes glaze over with emotion.
"In the film, so much of the storytelling is done with my face, not my voice," Curtis notes. "I had to give almost a non-verbal performance. It's quite a different thing from the TV series, with 50 pages of dialogue every week."
The humor in the 50 pages of dialogue is open to question. But there's no denying the chemistry between Curtis and Lewis, as their flirtatious characters run with the will-they-or-won't-they? baton once carried by David and Maddie of "Moonlighting."
Curtis says she enjoys refining her comedic skills and working with a company of players each week. She also values the routine, which was what steered her into series television: The daughter of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh wanted a home life with her actor-filmmaker husband Christopher Guest ("This Is Spinal Tap") and their 3-year-old daughter Annie.
The series is struggling: In the Nielsen ratings, "Anything" is No. 54 out of 84 shows on the four networks, and the last new episode airs March 28. But the show will return in reruns sometime this spring, and Curtis is optimistic about next season.
"I have a firm belief we will be back," she says.
Meanwhile, there is talk that "Blue Steel" may herald her arrival as a bankable star.
"Arrival?" Jamie Lee Curtis says warily, shaking her head and smiling. "That's a big word. Two r's. No, just say I've come into my own. Just say I'm here."
by CNB