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 business with a candid look back at where it all began.
The 67-year-old posted a side-by-side on Instagram on Monday, March 31, pairing a photograph of herself aged about 19 in one of her earliest TV roles, an untitled waitress in a 1977 Columbo episode, along with a recent selfie.
“Next year I will [have] been an actor for 50 years. I was never meant to be an actor. I thought I wanted to be a cop,” she wrote.
The reflection was typically grounded.
Curtis described the history of the 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 every job, one job at a time, grateful for every opportunity and patience. Lots of f—ing patience.”
From anonymous beginnings as a contract player at Universal Pictures, Curtis has built one of the most enduring careers in Hollywood, True Lies, Trading locations, A fish called Wanda, Cool Friday and Knives outamong many others.
The daughter of actors Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis, she won the 2023 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as IRS auditor Deirdre Beaubeirdre in Everything everywhere at once.
The post also touched on something Curtis has talked about before, her approach to working with younger actors.
During a recent appearance at Todaybecame emotional when co-host Sheinelle Jones raised the topic of how she had supported Lindsay Lohan during the creation of Cool Friday.
“Show business is nothing but transaction,” Curtis said. “I try to be safe and a home base” for child actors, she added, making it clear she expects nothing in return.
Lohan, who was only 15 when filming began, said PEOPLE in July 2025 that Curtis “privately was really there for me” during a difficult time in her life.
