Jamie Lee Curtis talks getting same Academy nomination as her mom: ‘A beautiful link’

Jamie Lee Curtis and her late mother have a lot more in common than what meets the eye.

While speaking to People in an interview on Saturday, the actress revealed what it’s like to be nominated for this year’s Academy Awards in the same category that her late mother, Janet Leigh, once was.

“You know, I didn’t think about that,” Curtis, 64, told the outlet while at the Independent Spirit Awards.

“I mean, I knew it, I was aware of it. I never thought that would happen. Like my parents and their fame and their stardom was so legendary that I’ve never felt like I would be anywhere near the level. It’s a beautiful link. It’s a lineage link.”

This year, Curtis was nominated for best supporting actress for her role in the film “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

If she wins, it will be her first Oscar.

In 1961, her mother was also nominated for best supporting actress for her role as Marion Crane in the famous Alfred Hitchcock thriller, “Psycho.” She ultimately lost the category to Shirley Jones for her part in the film “Elmer Gantry.”

After being nominated for this year’s Academy Awards, the “Halloween” actress admitted that she never thought that she would be here, as she reminisced on once selling probiotic yogurt, Activia, in commercials.

“I’m 64 years old. I’ve been an actor since I was 19,” she told AP Entertainment last month. “I made horror films and sold yogurt that makes you s—t. I never thought I would hear my name at the Oscars.”

However, even if Curtis doesn’t win the Oscar next week, she won an award in a similar category at this year’s Screen Actors Guild Awards, for “female actor in a supporting role,” an accomplishment that did make her think of her mother and father, actor Tony Curtis, she told People.

“Certainly at the SAG Awards, I thought of my parents,” the “Freaky Friday” actress said. “There they were. I wore the ring that my dad gave my mom. I found it in a drawer, and I thought, ‘I’m going to wear my parents’ wedding ring to the SAG Awards.’ They were SAG members. It was wonderful.”

Leigh passed away in 2004 at the age of 77, after a battle with vasculitis, which is an “inflammation of the blood vessels,” according to The Mayo Clinic. Her father died just a few years later, in 2010, after a cardiac arrest at age 85.

During her monologue speech at this year’s 2023 SAG Awards, she joked about being a “nepo baby,” a new term coined that describes major payers in the entertainment industry that may have had an advantage due to their family being in the same field of work.

The actress poked fun at the fact that she had a SAG card when she was 19 years old, and had starred in a series on ABC TV called the “Operation Petticoat,” which was based on a movie that her father had starred in.

Curtis is not the only “Everything Everywhere All at Once” cast member who is up for an Oscar next weekend.

In total, the movie is up for 11 nominations in different categories, including star Michelle Yeoh, who is now the first-ever Asian nominee who will be up for Best Actress in the Academy’s history.