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Somebody Should Tell Jamie Lee Curtis What QT Said Bad About Her Mother

posted 13 days ago by roger1 (3703)
3 replies | jump to latest

There are audio snippets all over YouTube of Quentin Tarantino talking about various movies and movie stars. He's done lots of interviews over the years and now that he is still stalling on making "just one more movie" he seems to prefer being a movie CRITIC, both in writing(his book Cinema Speculation) and in podcasts, etc.

Well, I stumbled on one the other day where QT was talking about old horror movies.

He reached Psycho. When the Oscar nominations came along in 1961 for 1960 movies, star Anthony Perkins told the press "I think I'm going to be nominated. Janet, too." Perkins meant he thought he would be nominated for as the now imfamous psycho Norman Bates, and that Janet Leigh, his co-star, would be nominated for playing his shower victim, Marion Crane.

Oops. Big mistake going public like that before the nominations were announced . For in the end, Perkins was NOT nominated for Psycho, but, indeed, Janet Leigh WAS. Best Supporting Actress (she should have been nominated for Best Actress if you ask me.)

Anyway QT didn't know about Perkins missed prediction but he DID say -- in this podcast audio:

"Can you imagine how BAD that was for Anthony Perkins. Not only is he NOT nominated for Psycho...but (starts laughing) Janet Leigh IS." QT continues: "Janet Leigh could not hold a FLICKERING CANDLE to Anthony Perkins and yet SHE gets nominated."

How mean. Now the late Janet Leigh was the mother of Jamie Lee Curtis, who is still alive (and an Oscar WINNER -- Supporting) today.

I wonder how Ms. Curtis would feel about QT's comments about the acting ability of her MOTHER?

I'm guessing Ms. Curtis won't be appearing in that "final movie" of QT's if he ever gets around to it.

To add insult to injury, in this SAME audio clip where QT insults Janet Leigh, he highly PRAISES Jamie Lee Curtis for her work in Halloween.

Maybe he thought he could get off the hook?

As a matter of analysis on those Psycho Oscar nominations:

The Best Actor field in 1960 was very competitive. The final nominees included Spencer Tracy(considered the Best American Actor), Laurence Olivier(considered the Best British Actor), Jack Lemmon(for the very popular romantic drama-comedy The Apartment), Burt Lancaster (who would WIN for Elmer Gantry) and...Trevor Howard (for Sons and Lovers.) Perkins had no real chance to unseat any of those other nominees except Trevor Howard. Though Perkins SHOULD have been nominated and history shows that he SHOULD have won...it wasn't a Hollywood reality in 1960-1961.

Best Supporting Actress -- where Janet Leigh ended up -- was less competitive. Shirley Jones as a hooker (after many years as a goody-goody type in musicals) in Elmer Gantry beat Leigh for the Oscar...but Leigh beat Jones for the Golden Globe. Which wasn't a big deal award in 1960.

Set all of that aside. Tarantino was WRONG about Janet Leigh's performance in Psycho. It IS great. She is the star of the first hour of the film -- a very intense, dramatic, and intimate first hour. She is in every scene, less one, til she dies. And for what she had to do PHYSCIALLY in her shower murder scene -- her "dead" face smashed on the bathoom floor....it was gruelling. An Oscar nomination was much deserved.

I do wonder if Jamie Lee Curtis has heard QT's remarks about her mother. I wonder if she has -- what she might say to QT should they meet...

[–] EdwardHaskell (144) 12 days ago

One would think she has heard, just because of the speed at which information travels and how many people it reaches. Still, who knows? She may have missed it. But even so it seems like someone would bring it to her attention.

I looked for and found what must be the clip to which you refer. Tarantino does mention a flickering candle. A birthday candle no less, not even a regular candle, I guess just to diminish Janet even further.

I don't know how old that interview is but I'm guessing it predates the 80th Golden Globe Awards at which both Jamie Lee and Tarantino were presenters. I wonder if they ran into each other in the green room.

[–] roger1 (3703) 11 days ago

One would think she has heard, just because of the speed at which information travels and how many people it reaches.

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I would think so. On the other hand, I don't think movie star-type actors -- in Mama Leigh's day or daughter Curtis's day -- spend as much time reading these things or surfing Youtube to discover them. Someone ELSE would have had to show it to Jamie Lee Curtis...if they dare.

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Still, who knows? She may have missed it. But even so it seems like someone would bring it to her attention.

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I would. it would be along the lines of "this guy Tarantino, so rich and famous....look what he's saying about your MOTHER." I mean an insult of one's mother is about the most enraging of all!

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I looked for and found what must be the clip to which you refer. Tarantino does mention a flickering candle. A birthday candle no less, not even a regular candle, I guess just to diminish Janet even further.

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I forgot it was a birthday candle, but yes -- it seemed designed to FURTHER diminish a great performance from...I can attest on a few public appearances with Leigh I attended -- a very nice person. (One of the nicer things I witnessed from Janet Leigh in her later years was how she always drew attention to her OTHER daughter...the one who didn't get so famous...and how much she loved her and respected her.)

CONT

[–] roger1 (3703) 11 days ago

There is this, too: Anthony Perkins carried Norman Bates on through three lesser sequels in the 80s and 1990 but...none of them have so detailed, engaging and unforgettable a VICTIM as....Janet Leigh as Marion Crane. Psycho is the VICTIM's story for almost half the movie and Leigh's fame as that victim is equal to Perkins' fame as her killer. (Martin Balsam as the "first male slasher victim in film history" also carved out his own immortality in Psycho. And Janet Leigh went on the record as an Oscar nominee from Psycho to say that BOTH Perkins AND Balsam should have been nominated in the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor categories.)

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I don't know how old that interview is but I'm guessing it predates the 80th Golden Globe Awards at which both Jamie Lee and Tarantino were presenters. I wonder if they ran into each other in the green room.

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That would be interesting. I mean I think I have singled this out because it demonstrates a certain petty meanness on QT's part AND a callous disregard for the families of those he is insulting.

Plus, he's just flat out WRONG about Janet Leigh's performance. That diminishes HIM.