Even before she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her work in Everything Everywhere All at Once in 2023, Jamie Lee Curtis was already a legend. From her silver-screen debut in Halloween in 1978 to her excellent run in 1980s comedies like Trading Places and A Fish Called Wanda to her recent work in Knives Out and The Bear, the 65-year-old actress and former Scream Queen doesn’t need to establish her badass credentials.
So it’s somewhat surprising that she agreed to star in Borderlands, Eli Roth’s new adaptation of the popular video game franchise. Despite being a self-professed gamer, Curtis has never starred in a video game adaptation, nor has she appeared in a purely mainstream sci-fi action picture. So why the sudden change of heart?
The answer may surprise you. In an interview with Digital Trends, the actress reveals the only reason why she appears in the movie as Dr. Patricia Tannis. “I signed up to do the movie because Cate Blanchett was going to be in it, and I was going to be in scenes with her. Full stop,” she reveals. “To be perfectly honest, if it had just been a movie about the dictionary, I would be like, ‘Cate Blanchett is going to be saying words, and I say words back to her?’ They would say, ‘Yes.’ I would say, ‘OK, I’m doing it.'”
The actress goes on to further confess that she wasn’t an expert on the game before she received the script. “I really didn’t know much about it [the game]. I knew what was on the page of the script, which is an adaptation of a game. It takes the lore of the character, but it doesn’t do it really [full] justice because you’re serving the narrative story of the movie.”
She doesn’t regret her decision, though. “I’m happy with how it all [came] together. A lot is going on.”
Borderlands is now playing in theaters nationwide.
