Jamie Lee Curtis hits back at ‘nepo baby’ title at 2023 SAG Awards

She’s a proud winner — and a proud “nepo baby.”

Jamie Lee Curtis joked not once but twice about being a child of nepotism at the 2023 SAG Awards on Sunday.

“I got my SAG card when I was 19 years old, when I signed a seven-year contract to Universal Studios and starred in an ABC TV series called the ‘Operation Petticoat,’ which was based on the movie that my father, Tony Curtis — nepo baby! — starred in,” Curtis — the daughter of “Psycho” star Janet Leigh and the “Some Like It Hot” actor Curtis — said during the “I Am an Actor” opening.

“I was fired from that TV show a year later and I thought my life was over,” she continued. “But the good news is that if I hadn’t been fired from ‘Operation Petticoat,’ I would have never had the opportunity to audition for a little tiny, no-budget horror movie called ‘Halloween.’ My name is Jamie Lee Curtis, and I am, proudly, an actor.”

The “Everything Everywhere All at Once” star, 64, also made a joke about being a nepo baby — a contentious title much-discussed after a recent New York Magazine cover story diving into Hollywood’s dynasty — while accepting her award for best female supporting actor for her performance.

“I know you look at me and think ‘Nepo baby, that’s why you’re here.’ I totally get it,” said Curtis. “But the truth of the matter is that I’m 64 years old and this is just amazing.”

Curtis has previously spoken out about being a so-called nepo baby after the magazine cover sparked a heated debate online.

“I have been a professional actress since I was 19 years old so that makes me an OG Nepo Baby,” she wrote online. “I’ve never understood, nor will I, what qualities got me hired that day, but since my first two lines on Quincy as a contract player at Universal Studios to this last spectacular creative year some 44 years later, there’s not a day in my professional life that goes by without my being reminded that I am the daughter of movie stars.”

“The current conversation about nepo babies is just designed to try to diminish and denigrate and hurt. For the record I have navigated 44 years with the advantages my associated and reflected fame brought me, I don’t pretend there aren’t any, that try to tell me that I have no value on my own.”