Jamie Lee Curtis didn't 'understand' Knives Out

17 October 2021

Jamie Lee Curtis didn’t “understand” ‘Knives Out’.

Jamie Lee Curtis

The veteran actress portrayed Linda, the writer of murdered writer Harlan (Christopher Plummer) in Rian Johnson’s 2019 whodunit, and although she got to grips with what was expected of her within the ensemble cast, she didn’t fully appreciate the director’s vision for the film.

She admitted to Total Film magazine: “Those [whodunit] movies, I am not a fan of them. They’re a little scary. I am the woman in the ‘Halloween’ franchise who scares easily! So I don’t like a big whodunit.

“I watch enough television now… my husband hates me because I’m always like, ‘Oh I think it’s that guy!’.

“[On ‘Knives Out’], I understood my job on that movie. But I don’t think I really understood the entire movie. I don’t think I really had a grasp just what it was going to be.”

And Jamie was astounded by the vision the “mild-mannered” director had for the project.

She continued: “Rian Johnson… He’s so quiet and so clear that you just don’t know, because he’s so mild-mannered and methodical, and does what he does.

“But I didn’t have this sense of what it was building.”

The 62-year-old star also didn’t expect the film to be such a big hit.

She admitted: “Even after seeing it, I had no idea that it would [be such a hit]. It found its groove. It found its people – in a big way. In a big way. And I didn’t anticipate that.

“Rian hit it f****** out of the park, but just hit it so beautifully. And it was all in his head. Every second of it was in his head.”