Jamie Lee Curtis reveals she was ‘never going to be an actor'

Jamie Lee Curtis has shared that acting was never part of her plan, and that she once thought she would end up as a police officer, as she marks almost five decades in the industry with a candid look back at where it all began.

The 67-year-old posted a side-by-side on Instagram on Monday, 31 March, pairing a photograph of herself aged around 19 in one of her earliest TV roles, an unnamed waitress in a 1977 Columbo episode, alongside a recent selfie. 

"Next year, I will [have] been an actress for 50 years. I was never going to be an actor. I thought I'd be a cop," she wrote.

The reflection was typically grounded. 

Curtis described recounting the story of those early, uncredited roles on the set of her current project, a collaboration with Nicole Kidman for Prime Video's Scarpetta. 

"There was no future tripping," she wrote. "It was just each job, one job at a time, grateful for any opportunity and patience. Lots of f---ing patience."

From those anonymous beginnings as a contract player at Universal Pictures, Curtis has built one of the most enduring careers in Hollywood, taking in True Lies, Trading Places, A Fish Called Wanda, Freaky Friday and Knives Out, among many others. 

The daughter of actors Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2023 for her role as IRS auditor Deirdre Beaubeirdre in Everything Everywhere All At Once.

The post also touched on something Curtis has spoken about before, her approach to working with younger actors. 

During a recent appearance on Today, she became emotional when co-host Sheinelle Jones raised the subject of how she had supported Lindsay Lohan during the making of Freaky Friday. 

"Show business is nothing but transaction," Curtis said. "I try to be safe and a home base" for child actors, she added, making clear she expects nothing in return. 

Lohan, who was just 15 when filming began, told PEOPLE in July 2025 that Curtis "was privately really there for me" during a difficult period in her life.