Actress Jamie Lee Curtis of Halloween and Scream Queens fame, has had quite a year.
She’s the only person she knows who attended EVO, San Diego Comic Con and BlizzCon in 2015. That’s quite a feat for a 57-year-old mom who didn’t even game until her teenage son introduced her to Street Fighter.
The actress is now auctioning off her little black dress from True Lies, and offering backers of the Indigogo.com campaign for Twin Galaxies multiple chances to meet her in person. She and her husband, director Christopher Guest of This is Spinal Tap fame, are helping producer Jace Hall raise $250,000 to expand its services and build out a network that celebrates the positive elements of gaming across the world. The goal is to launch a social media platform, a mobile app, eSports competitions, and an enhanced TwinGalaxies.com site to preserve top video game scores.
Curtis explains why she understands the power of League of Legends and eSports in this exclusive interview.
Did you end up doing any cosplay at the big gaming and pop culture cons you attended this year?
I did a little cosplay for EVO. I did a little cosplay for BlizzCon. I did not do cosplay for Comic Con because I was actually there for the TV show Scream Queens, so I had to go as myself.
For BlizzCon who did you dress up as?
I went as an Orc, but that was after another costume that I ordered. I told my son Tom that I needed to put a mask thing together because I had to cover my face, so I ordered the most random Venetian full-faced mask from the Internet and I had an extra black cloak and cape and I bought a Maleficent staff that lit up from Amazon. So I told Tom what I was going to wear and he said, “But that’s not a character.” I said, “I understand. It’s just I need to hide my face.” And he told me I’d stand out in a bad way going dressed in a random Venetian masked person. They’d be like, “Who are you and why are you here? You’re not a member of our thing.” So I ended up wearing an Orc mask that has purple hair and horns coming out of his head.
How did you end up getting involved with Twin Galaxies?
“I was shocked and awed by the power of eSports – not only the fan worship, but the amount of money these people made.”
My son found Jace Hall, who was someone who spoke “gamer.” I don’t know if you’ve ever listened to his music, but his song about Street Fighter is amazing. So we’re now being introduced to Jace Hall through this music that my son is loving. He starts loving Jace Hall’s show. So now my husband and I are familiarizing ourselves with Jace Hall and then for Tom’s 15th birthday I weirdly enough IMDB’d Jace Hall to find his company to get a signed picture or something and it turns out he’s managed by the same woman who was the Spinal Tap manager, Harriet Sternberg. This is a woman I’ve traveled to London with when Spinal Tap played Liverpool. I’ve known Harriett Sternberg for years, so she made the introduction with Jace and then through all these years we’ve just gotten to know him. And Tom has become a part of the Jace Hall crew, and so that’s how this all links up you know. That’s how we’re doing what we’re doing right now.
Gamers can bid on some cool collectibles from you and your husband.
Well, I wanted to offer what I could. I’m a 57-year-old woman so it’s not like I’m going to have a heck of a lot of merch that anybody’s going to want. First of all, I don’t merch because I’m an actor. But I have kept just a few things. And one of the things that I’ve kept is this True Lies dress because at the end of the movie I took them. So when Jace was talking about the Indiegogo campaign that he was going to do to create the gold standard of gaming through Twin Galaxies, he asked if we had anything that’s tantalizing. Weirdly enough, as we were looking for stuff in our basement I opened my husband’s suitcase and found [This is Spinal Tap character] Nigel’s traveling suitcase. So when Nigel Tufnel would go out on the road with Spinal Tap, this suitcase went with him. It had this gross moldy T-shirt, a pair of jeans, and this pair of Nikes, and I said, “Oh, Nikes, people will go mad for those,” and my husband looked at me and he said, “Jamie, they’re from 1982.” I was like, “I know, but that’s vintage honey.” So the Nikes ended up on that site. There isn’t much left of original Spinal Tap stuff. It just doesn’t exist.
What are your thoughts about the gaming culture today?
One of my favorite movies is Dogtown and Z-Boys because the filmmaker who documented those skateboarders before skateboarding was anything, knew that these young people had created something that was just on the precipice of being a juggernaut. They didn’t do it for money, or fame, or anything—maybe for girls, but they did it for the love of it. I’m the mother of a gamer and he’s not doing this for money. He’s not doing this for fame. He’s doing this for the legitimacy and for the love of the sport. I really love the fact that Jace Hall, who was a Pied Piper of gaming, is saying I bought Twin Galaxies and I will legitimize it and make it a gold standard so gamers all over the world can feel that their contributions are being recognized through an archival system. That’s why I got passionate about it.
“My mind was exploded by the possibility that 10 young people sitting in front of computers could get the Staples Center on its feet.”
What are your thoughts on eSports?
My son started playing League of Legends. And we went to an event and were standing in line like everybody else, but because I’m a recognizable person people kept coming up to me in the line and wanting to get a lot of selfies taken, which is the new celebrity currency. The reason I don’t go out is because I’m embarrassed because I just don’t want to take 1,000 selfies all day long. I just don’t want it. So the people at League of Legends asked if we wanted to come inside and we ended up in a secure area. And we met the people there and blah, blah, blah, we ended up becoming associates of these people and we ended up at the League of Legends Finals at Staples Center. My mind was exploded by the possibility that 10 young people sitting in front of computers could get the Staples Center on its feet. I was shocked and awed by the power of eSports – not only the fan worship, but the amount of money these people made.
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Who’s your League of Legends team?
We’re Team SoloMid fans. They’re the team we follow. But we follow the sport. But even if Tom isn’t playing League of Legends today, the fact that I’ve been exposed to League of Legends has been mind blowing. There is a huge opportunity in the world for eSports.
