LOS ANGELES — Jamie Lee Curtis — the self-appointed 2023 awards season cheerleader — had a pure, gleeful reaction to her first Academy Awards nomination after a long career in Hollywood.
Earning a supporting actress nod during Tuesday’s Oscars nominations for her unrecognizable turn as an overzealous IRS worker in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” the genre film star took to Instagram to showcase her pajama-clad reaction to the news.
“THIS IS WHAT SURPRISE LOOKS LIKE!” the 64-year-old wrote, sharing a photo of herself covering her mouth in shock as she watched the early-morning nominations announcement.
Curtis wrote that one of her oldest friends — 2001 Oscar winner Debbie Oppenheimer — texted her at 5:15 a.m. to tell her that she was sitting in front of Curtis’ house and asked her if she wanted company while watching the announcement unfold.
“There she was in the pitch black, freezing, cold in a parka. She came in and sat with me as I had sat with her the day she was heading toward the Oscar ceremony, the year she won. We held hands. I didn’t even realize she took pictures,” Curtis added, sharing a series of images Oppenheimer took documenting the “Halloween” actor’s reaction to the film nods.
“The first is the moment of hearing my name, and then the thrill of my friend, Stephanie’s @stephaniehsuofficial name, and the rest of the nominations and then the best thing of all, a loving embrace for my husband. No filters. No fakery. Just the truth of a moment of joy Captured by a friend” she wrote.
Then, in a succinct homage to her husband Christopher Guest’s work in 1984’s “This Is Spinal Tap,” she added, “Hey @everythingeverywheremovie we went to 11!”
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” did indeed lead the 95th Academy Award nominations with 11 nominations, including nods for best picture, directing (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), actress (Michelle Yeoh), supporting actor (Ke Huy Quan) and original screenplay.
Curtis was nominated alongside her “Everything” co-star Stephanie Hsu, Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”), Hong Chau (“The Whale”) and Kerry Condon (“The Banshees of Inisherin”).
The “Knives Out” star also said Tuesday that she “always felt very much like an outsider looking in and yet always so grateful for any and all opportunities” she has had.
“Being a part of this beautiful movie, which just received so many acknowledgments for our talented, motley crew of artists, is the highlight of my professional life,” she wrote, sharing an image of the cast of “Everything” and a photo of her actor parents, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. (Jamie Lee Curtis, whose own career has spanned four decades, was name-checked in New York magazine’s inescapable “nepo-babies” Vulture feature last month. Although she called herself an “an OG Nepo Baby” at the time, she also defended her work and that of other children of celebrities.)
“As this is a movie about a family of immigrants and their struggles through life, immediately I’m thinking of my parents, children of immigrants from Hungary and Denmark, whose families came here and sacrificed for their children to achieve their dreams,” she continued.
“I can only imagine what it would feel like for them and their parents to hear that their daughter/granddaughter was nominated this morning for an Oscar. I am stunned and humbled and excited for our little movie that could and did and based on today’s nominations, continues to do and do and do.”
Earlier this month, the “A Fish Called Wanda” and “Trading Places” actor became an instant meme when she exuberantly celebrated her co-star Yeoh‘s first Golden Globe win during the Jan. 10 ceremony. Shortly after that, she revealed her positive COVID-19 diagnosis, which forced her to bow out of some of Hollywood’s unrelenting awards-season engagements.
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