Jamie Lee Curtis says she’s “never felt more free” as she shows off her natural belly in the new movie, Everything Everywhere All at Once.
The Halloween actor stars in the A24 film as IRS inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdra. Ahead of its premiere at the film festival South By Southwest, Curtis took to Instagram to share her excitement for the role and the importance of being physically authentic.
In the behind-the-scenes photo, the 63-year-old actor proudly shows off her stomach in a bright yellow sweater. Curtis explained that her one request while filming was for there to be no concealing of anything when it comes to her appearance.
“I’ve been sucking my stomach in since I was 11, when you start being conscious of boys and bodies, and the jeans are super tight,” Curtis wrote in the caption. “I very specifically decided to relinquish and release every muscle I had that I used to clench to hide the reality. That was my goal.”
The Knives Out star also called out a ‘billion-dollar’ beauty industry that profits off of concealing women’s imperfections. “Concealers. Body-shapers. Fillers. Procedures. Clothing. Hair accessories. Hair products. Everything to conceal the reality of who we are,” she added.
“I have never felt more free creatively and physically I can’t wait for everybody to see the BRILLIANCE of Ms Yeoh,” she concluded.
Curtis stars opposite Michelle Yeoh in the multiverse action film, which premieres on Friday as the opening film of the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, the film’s director Daniel Scheinert shared that Curtis was immediately on-board from the start. “Immediately after signing up, she would text us photos of weird outfits and weird hairdos," Scheinert said, who wrote and directed the movie with Daniel Kwan.
“Everyone assumes that her belly in the movie is a prosthetic, but it’s actually her real belly," said Kwan. "She was grateful that she was allowed to just let it out."
