The final (as much as these franchises ever end) Halloween film opened over the weekend. This might actually be the end because apparently, it’s not good. Even with original Scream Queen, Jamie Lee Curtis, back in her role as Laurie Strode. But a couple of dozen bad reviews was not stopping Jamie from looking drop dead gorgeous at the premiere in a red, sparkly, off the shoulder Ralph Lauren Collection gown. Her dates for the evening were her daughters, Annie and Ruby Guest, both of whom wore black and silver gowns. When Jamie spoke with Spanish radio Cadena SER, she talked about how acutely aware she is of the threats to Ruby, who Jamie announced was trans last summer. She acknowledged that by simply existing, there are people who want to see Ruby dead and that scares Jamie, so she’s trying to do what she can to change that. And Jamie thinks it should scare everyone else into action too.
The Halloween Ends star, 63, told Spanish radio network Cadena SER in an interview published Tuesday that increases in transphobia and hate speech against transgender people like Ruby, 26, scares her.
“I have a trans daughter. There are threats against her life, just for existing as a human being. There are people who want to annihilate her, her and people like her,” Curtis said. “The level of hatred is … as if we had not learned from fascism, as if we hadn’t learned what the result of that is. The extermination of human beings. That’s terrifying.”
“So Jamie Lee Curtis is scared, and so should you be,” she continued. “And Jamie Lee Curtis has a voice, and she’s trying to use it, and you should too.”
The actress added, “And that’s how we change things, by thinking about them, learning about them, and then using our voices to draw attention and fight them.”
The threat against transgender people in the US is frightening. Both their physical safety and their political and legislative safety. Of course Jamie is scared for Ruby. When Jamie announced Ruby’s transition, she was so excited to watch Ruby go through this journey. But as Ruby’s parent, she’s going to be keenly aware of all the threats towards her and I’m sure every crime committed against trans people jumps off the page at Jamie. This is what people like J.K. Rowling and Dave Chapelle don’t get. Whatever point they think they’re making is still being used to fuel transphobia that leads to violence and loss of civil liberties. Even if that isn’t their intent, that’s what’s happening and they refuse to acknowledge their part in it. So Jamie’s right, we all have to use our voices to shout over the ones who think their singular issue isn’t doing any harm.
In addition to Ruby, Jamie’s looking out for Lindsay Lohan, whom she wants to star in a Freaky Friday sequel with. Jamie’s already pitched it to Disney and apparently Jamie and Lindsay still talk. I’m glad. If Lindsay’s getting back on the right path, Jamie will be a good tether for her.
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- Ruby Guest and wife ,Christopher Guest, Jamie Lee Curtis, Annie Guest attends the Jamie Lee Curtis Hand and Footprint In Cement Ceremony at TCL Chinese Theatre on October 12, 2022 in Hollywood, California,Image: 730095007, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Ruby Guest and wife ,Christopher Guest, Jamie Lee Curtis, Annie, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon
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- Ruby Guest,Christopher Guest,Jamie Lee Curtis,Annie Guest attends the Jamie Lee Curtis Hand and Footprint In Cement Ceremony at TCL Chinese Theatre on October 12, 2022 in Hollywood, California,Image: 730095015, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Ruby Guest,Christopher Guest,Jamie Lee Curtis,Annie Guest, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon
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- Jamie Lee Curtis attends the Jamie Lee Curtis Hand and Footprint In Cement Ceremony at TCL Chinese Theatre on October 12, 2022 in Hollywood, California,Image: 730095076, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Jamie Lee Curtis, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon
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- Jamie Lee Curtis attends the Jamie Lee Curtis Hand and Footprint In Cement Ceremony at TCL Chinese Theatre on October 12, 2022 in Hollywood, California,Image: 730095183, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Jamie Lee Curtis, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon
Photo credit: Instagram and Avalon Red
Nobody has ever fallen as far from their pedestal for me as Jk Rowling.
I don’t even watch or read HP anymore and I liked it quite a bit before
If I remember correctly, the core three actors spoke out for trans people and rights. Can imagine them being as wtf about this as we are.
It’s also not a one time tweet, once upon a time: it seems to be an obsesssion.
The vast majority of the cast spoke out against her. Thankfully.
As for the 3 principals, Emma Watson, who hosted A Return To Hogwarts, refused to do the show if she was involved.
It’s just so bizarre. Why is she ruining her legacy like this? Why is this issue of any relevance to her? The whole thing baffles me.
If it wasn’t so awful it would be kind of fascinating. All I can figure is she 100% believes she’s in the right, and feels that she’s standing up for something that others cannot (because of…sigh…”cancel culture” 🙄). So she is “sacrificing” and feels righteous in her actions (Yiiiiiiiikes).
What usually stops people from doing things like this is plain old self-preservation. That is, I will lose money or opportunity if I act like this. But even if no one ever bought another single solitary thing she wrote or licensed, her great-grandchildren would still live in total luxury. That’s the kind of wealth she has, so really there’s no incentive for her to stop. Well other than basic human kindness…you know, that old thing. Sigh…..
I agree with MIA.
JK has a political axe to grind, and she quite literally has “f*ck you money.” So she can put herself out there without any fear because she is protected by her wealth.
Daniel’s statement in particular (via The Trevor Project) was really impactful.
Daniel Radcliffe’s thoughtful statement about preserving one’s relationship with the “HP” stories was beautiful and, I think, saved the franchise.
I followed JKR closely for a good long while; she was harassed and slandered by the press and the paparazzi for years and years. She used to personally debunk rumors and false stories on an early version of her website/blog (which used to be a fun way to explore the “HP” universe). And she did a ton of good work through her charity Lumos.
But she curdled somewhere along the way; I can’t imagine what it must feel like to have abuse and threats from the cesspool of Twitter thrown at you every single day, but she continually centers herself as the victim of her own bullying. She keeps going back to the hate threats SHE is receiving and then her compassion and empathy just stops there.
I’m a bit confused. What does LL have to do with this? Is she trans as well? Or are you just mentioning Jamie’s over all tendency to look out for the younger people in her life?
Knowing how dangerous the world is and that JK Rowling is contributing to this, I hate that I still love Harry Potter. So much. I’ve owned all the books and movies for years so I’m not contributing to her in that way. But I still want to return to Universal FL and want to go to Universal CA. I have know idea how to reconcile that.
@Steph, same, I totally want to take my son to the theme park in FL (and I will probably have more fun than he does! I’ve been wanting to go since before he was born, lol).
The way I’m able to justify it is to think of all of the (many) other people involved with the franchise who have nothing to do with JKR, probably disagree with her, and shouldn’t be penalized because she’s an awful bigot.
I remember there was a similar conversation about reruns of The Cosby Show a few years ago. It was announced (not sure by who) that it would be pulled from the air permanently, and people had the same argument: all of the other actors and others who worked on the show probably rely on the meager royalties they receive far more than that disgusting criminal.
And it IS a funny show. I’ve come across it a few times since, so clearly it was not “permanently” shelved, but I really struggled about whether or not to let my son watch it. I mean, there are some episodes that I still laugh at just remembering them (and they all involve the kids, not even Bill himself). And I will still watch SATC reruns or the (first only!) movie if I come across them, because it isn’t as if it was all about Chris Noth.
But yeah, it’s not fun having that mental tug of war in your head. I just think of the scores of people I don’t want to unfairly see penalized.
And tbh, I think there are A LOT of people who aren’t even aware of the JKR issue. If someone isn’t online at all, changes are they don’t have a clue. I mean, I doubt my parents, who are in their 70’s, are aware of it on an ongoing basis the way we are.
If someone’s not on Twitter, the chances that they know decrease, too…that’s certainly how I first learned about it and how I follow the story. I guarantee my friends/cousins with kids old enough to read the books and watch the movies have absolutely no clue, because none of them are perpetually online, like I am.
Any time HP comes up, though, I use it as a reason to tell that person all about JKR. I’m just not sure how much it “sticks” when it comes to such an enormous franchise.
I have a close friend of the family who is trans and headlines like this make me sick. The person I know is fortunate to be white, be financially “comfortable,” and have always lived in progressive areas. But that doesn’t mean there still isn’t a risk and it’s repulsive to me how angry some people get about his mere existence.
Sigh.
Our 13 year old son is transgender and came out to us about a year ago. Adults will say to us how we are “handling” it so well because we just go with the flow, call him by his chosen name and chosen pronouns and don’t make a big deal of it. I always answer those people by saying it’s not something to handle, he’s just a kid who wants to be a kid and the day to day life is no different for us. He’s the one handling it so well because he has to deal with people mis-naming him, using the wrong pronouns or gender specific words and many people saying he’s “really” a girl and pretending to be a boy. Many times it isn’t intentional but there are the people who do it purposely because they are intent on judging and making life harder. My husband and I just can’t understand why it matters to anyone else besides our son. His life doesn’t impact your life in any way so let him live happily and feely without judgement.
Sending love to you and your son!
Reading your comment, I found the term “handling” to be insulting. It implies he has a problem. You “handle” problems. As you say, the problem is the jerks who don’t want him to just live his life.
Every child should grow up with parents that love and support their kids the way you are supporting your son. It breaks my heart to think of all of the trans kids who have to face bigotry out in the world and don’t even have a loving space at home to be themselves.
I second this, Valentina!!! My kids have friends who have been rejected by their parents for being gay or trans. I cannot understand it. Love to you, D, and your son!
Congrats to your son for having the courage to be himself at such a young age! And I don’t want to say that you’re “handling it well”, because I agree that there are offensive connotations to that phrasing, but you and your husband deserve some credit for creating the loving and supportive environment that reassured him that he could confide in you. When he’s boldly living his truth at 13, that’s clearly not a matter of just “handling it” after he came out; you had to have fostered that environment from the very beginning of his life.
Sending love to your son and a prayer for safety.
It’s so wonderful to hear parents testimonies of support of their children. It is a small but well-funded and over-exposed group of bigots who are attacking trans children and their families. They and dominant media capitalize on people’s ignorance and create distortion.
There’s nothing to handle; trans people have existed for as long as people have existed.
You are so right, they are the ones who will be handling this absolute crazy world we’re living in. When I was a kid, I kept asking for 1 xmas gift and “peace on earth” without really understanding. Now I know, and I really wish for peace.
It has been sort of interesting, I found rather than people being rude to my face about my trans son (he’s 15 and came out to us about ~ 2 years ago) that certain people sort of just fade away and voice their hate to each other which…. I don’t know if that’s better or not, I guess it is. It’s true, he’s the one that has to defend himself to ppl deadnaming him, to people being ignorant in his daily life. Our extended family has been very supportive but now he’s coming up to issues like actually starting T or wanting to be on the wait list for top surgery next year and I fear that ‘well meaning’ people are going to be less polite. I never know what’s healthiest, for me to keep very up to date on all these battles going on online or whether to just take a break from the noise for mental health…. Sorry that ended up being an off topic rant…
I don’t understand the mindset of people who would threaten total strangers for just living their lives. Why is trying to shame and terrify people a “thing”?
Who thinks that’s okay to do? And could they just stop already!
Good on JLC for standing with her daughters.
There is a personality type who thinks it’s their job to police everyone else’s behavior and it sucks. We’re in a period where the media and political system caters to these people instead of seeing them as meddling busybodies.
You watch old movies and the nosy, annoying neighbor is very much a type, and harshly judged. We don’t have the same sort of community depiction in movies and TV today. Everything ends up as some little moral lesson, instead of just people in the story rolling their eyes at ridiculous people. We’re worse off for it.
And T*rfs are the worst. Trans people should just be able to live their best life without being hassled (or worse).
The funny thing is most of these policers are the “but muh freedumbs” types who won’t support vaccine mandates or gun regulations. They’re all for mandates about what bathroom a trans person can use, or what medical care trans children can receive, but they don’t want anything like being required to wear a mask to prevent killing the elderly. Or give up assault riffles to try to save children from being murdered at school.
There’s no hate like (extreme, fundamentalist) Christian love.
This. So many Christians think their full time job is to root out anyone the least bit different and hate them. And I believe many would go so far as to think it is also their right to murder them.
I think the Republicans are doing a really good job of scaring people about the medical side of transitioning. Surgery, puberty blockers etc. which is really making the reaction violent.
A lot of people don’t like “weirdos” or anyone different than them. I’ve always felt like “The Mob Song” from Beauty and the Beast sums it up: “We don’t like what we don’t understand, in fact it scares us.”
I’m an intersex woman with an intersex chromosonal condition (Turner’s Syndrome). It’s terrifying to tell people. They don’t understand and you don’t know how they’ll react. It’s scary because I never know if/when it’s safe to be myself. And I’m Cisgender and heterosexual.
I can only imagine what my trans brothers and sisters go through.
I had a deaf student who kept getting called his dead name by his interpreter, despite my continued corrections. It made him (the student) drop my class. My complaints about it went nowhere. The hostility towards folks who are just trying to be authentic is tragic.
@Rapunzel, ❤️
Rapunzel, my oldest grandson let us know over 10 years ago that he is trans. His mother’s family (devout Christians) insist on calling him by his dead name to this day. They also disowned their younger grandson who just came out as gay. Luckily, they have no issue with the granddaughter who was diagnosed as an alcoholic at 15 (she is a functioning drinking alcoholic now in her 20’s).
Good for Jamie! The types of bigotry in this country right now are a massive, and dangerous, game of whack a mole. We can’t afford to take our eyes off of any of it. I wish there was more we could do besides, learn, speak out and VOTE.
Keep talking, Jamie! We need everyone to speak up.
Yet another thing (some) parents need to better teach their children is: Mind Your Own Bloody Business. If one of my neighbours is gay, or has a transgender child, or likes to partake in a spot of swinger action, or collects creepy dolls, or likes to get naked and eat cereal in the Moonlight at 3 am, or paint his house purple with pink stripes… how is this my business? They are not interfering in my life, or anyone else’s. Some people think they are entitled to stick their nose in where it doesn’t belong, pass judgement, and worse, want to lecture people on how they should run their lives – people who have no bearing at all on their lives. Bloody control freaks. I detest them
I completely don’t understand why people are so angry over how other upstanding citizens live their lives. To me, the most baffling one is the brouhaha over pronouns. There’s no argument over “science” or bathrooms or other incendiary items. It’s just a simple he/she/they. It has ZERO effect on anyone’s lives.
I’m a queer person and it’s been all over the news recently what happened here locally – a man stood up and said, with his whole chest, that LBGTQIA2S+ people should be killed at a school board meeting. People applauded him. I’m tired of living in fear.
Wow, that is scary. I think I remember seeing that in the news. I am so sorry you have to live there, I’m sorry there are people who think that way & would actually applaud that hatefulness.
Lately I feel like I’m living in the 1930s, and not in a good way. In the “just before fascist shit hit the fan” way. It “only” took 90-100 years to repeat the cycle.
I might be so wrong for this, but I saw the header photo and thought “Why is Jamie with Lena Dunham? Is Lena in Halloween?” I am so sorry :)))
Thanks for covering this issue. There are too many people out there that want to interfere in the lives of others yet say they seek non-governmental interference. So hypocritical!
This is related, so bear with me.
Yesterday the NY Times reported a 4% spread, Republicans over Democrats, in the mid-terms.
Oddly enough, the only group that went full-on Red was age 45-64. All the other age groups went Democratic, so I don’t quite get the stats there.
One way we speak, as a democracy, is with our vote.
The Republicans have shown they don’t respect women’s rights, they don’t respect LGBTQ rights, they don’t respect the rights of people of color. With Trump, they’ve also shown they don’t respect the rule of law.
It’s not a presidential election, but control of the House and Senate are at stake.
Plus state races–they are making decisions now regarding reproductive freedom.
So, just a reminder: please vote! It’s just three weeks now…
Most People – Who is “Ruby”??
…yeah, I didn’t even know JLC had kids, actually 😛
Hecate, every word you wrote is the gospel truth. Jamie Lee Curtis is a frigging queen and must be one of the NICEST people in Hollywood. I LOVED her performance in Everything, Everywhere All the Time. She and Michelle Yeoh dominated the movie for me and it was brilliant. Speak your truth, Jamie. Anti-trans bullshit is SO unnecessary and hateful. People are people.
We love the Harry Potter books, movies and culture in our house but yeah, Rowling has tried her damnedest to ruin it all.
If we buy HP merch now, I make sure not to get official stuff. I buy stuff made on Etsy. I don’t want Rowling to make a single additional penny from us. She’s a disgrace.
Honestly, where is all the hatred coming from? And the rage? People are very interested in controlling other people’s bodies (anti-abortion, anti-trans). Why is that, really?
Mama of a 15 year-old transgender daughter here: everyone, please keep talking and normalizing transgender people, and keep highlighting how shameful and antisocial transphobia really is. It is a ROUGH world out there, and it’s hard to believe how much hatred there is for people like my daughter and how many folks think they have the medical expertise (from watching FOX news) to dismiss her right to exist. We need all the allies we can get, and we APPRECIATE THE HELL out of you all!!! (p.s JK Rowling totally broke my daughter’s heart)
Ash, sending you and your daughter peace, love and understanding. God bless.
Jo Rowling should come out of the closet.