Jamie Lee Curtis reflected on the "embarrassing" remark she received from a cinematographer that pushed her to undergo plastic surgery at 25 and later led to a dependence on painkillers.
The comment came while she was filming the 1985 romance Perfect, which starred Jamie as aerobics instructor Jessie Wilson and John Travolta as reporter Adam Lawrence.
Highlights
- Jamie Lee Curtis opened up about getting plastic surgery on her eyes at the age of 25 after filming Perfect.
- The actress said a cinematographer criticized her “puffy” eyes during a scene, prompting her to get an “eye job.”
- She later developed a ten-year dependence on painkillers, which lasted until 1999.
Trigger warning: substance dependance. Speaking on 60 Minutes on Sunday (May 11), the Oscar winner recalled hearing on set, "Yeah I'm not shooting her today. Her eyes are baggy."
"I was 25. For him to say that was very embarrassing. So as soon as the movie finished, I ended up having some plastic surgery."
Image credits: Rodin Eckenroth / Getty Images
Jamie expressed regret that she had allowed the remark to affect her self-esteem to the point of undergoing surgery.
"That's just not what you want to do when you're 25 or 26. I regretted it immediately and have kind of, sort of regretted it since."
In a previous interview with The New Yorker, the Halloween actress attributed the comment to cameraman Gordon Willis.
"I was puffy that day, for whatever reason. I was mortified. Right after that movie, I went and had an eye job," she said in 2019.
Image credits: Gage Skidmore / Flickr
She also mentioned the comment while speaking with Variety, describing, "We were shooting a scene in a courtroom with that kind of high, nasty fluorescent light, and it came around to my coverage in the scene.
"I had just so much shame about it that after that movie, I went and had routine plastic surgery to remove the puffiness."
The comment about her "baggy eyes" prompted Jamie to go under the knife for an eye job, which she said she "regretted immediately"
Image credits: Columbia Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection / Vida Press
During the postoperative period, she developed a dependence on Vicodin, an opioid analgesic used to relieve moderate to severe pain.
According to the Mayo Clinic, when the medicine is used for a long time, it may become habit-forming, causing mental or physical dependence.
Physical dependence may lead to withdrawal symptoms if treatment is stopped suddenly, the clinic notes. To prevent this, it recommends consulting with a doctor to gradually reduce the dose over a period of time before treatment is stopped completely.
Image credits: 60 Minutes / YouTube
Asked when she took the painkillers, Jamie said: "I never did it when I worked (...) It was that sort of late afternoon and early evening — I like to refer to it as the warm-bath feeling of an opiate.
"It's like the way you naturally feel when your body is cool, and you step into a warm bath, and you sink into it. That's the feeling for me, what an opiate gave me, and I chased that feeling for a long time."
Following the surgery, Jamie developed a dependence on the opioid Vicodin
Image credits: Rex Features / Vidapress
"I had been nursing a secret Vicodin add*ction for a very long time — over 10 years," she explained.
"I think I sobbed and thanked her, and told her I loved her.
"Because the secret, the shameful secret, is the reason why it is such a pervasive illness in our industry—in every industry, in every socioeconomic stratum, in every country in the world.
"It is the secret shame that keeps people locked up in their disease."
The dependence lasted until 1999, when Jamie attended a recovery meeting after a friend caught her taking the painkillers in the kitchen
Image credits: Bridgeman Images / Vidapress
Image credits: Rex Features / Vidapress
Jamie decided to seek professional help in 1999 after she read an article in Esquire titled "Vicodin, My Vicodin" that addressed the issue of dependance.
She attended her first recovery meeting that year and has been sober ever since.
Jamie has described herself as a "very careful sober person" and said she asks hotels to remove the minibar from her room before she checks in.
Also, if there's no recovery meeting available at work, she organizes them by putting up a sign by the catering truck saying, "Recovery meeting in my trailer."
"It is the secret shame that keeps people locked up in their disease," said the Oscar-winning star, who has been sober since 1999
Image credits: 60 Minutes / YouTube
In an interview with Fast Company, Jamie reflected on her eye surgery and the modern obsession with appearance, which she believes is exacerbated by social media.
"The current trend of fillers and procedures, and this obsession with filtering, and the things that we do to adjust our appearance on Zoom are wiping out generations of beauty.
"Once you mess with your face, you can't get it back," she warned.
Image credits: 60 Minutes / YouTube
The 66-year-old actress previously revealed she got Botox and liposuction, but said "none of it works" and it's all a "fraud."
Jamie raised concerns about a generation of young people who are in "agony" from constantly comparing themselves to one another.
"All of us who are old enough know that it's all a lie. It's a real danger to young people.
"And the term, anti-aging… what? What are you talking about? We're all going to f**king age! Why do you want to look 17 when you're 70? I want to look 70 when I'm 70."
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance dependence, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
"The industry is very atrocious," one user remarked, while others slammed the man who criticized Jamie's eyes
