Jamie Lee Curtis on New Book - Jamie Lee Curtis Interview - Good Housekeeping
At 53, Jamie Lee Curtis has a very well-defined look  from her signature cropped hair to her monochromatic style ("I wear navy, black, or white. All one color, period")  and a very well-defined persona. She's known for a no-nonsense outlook that's led her to pose for a magazine without makeup and admit to her regrets about having tried Botox and liposuction.But now Curtis is ready to step outside her comfort zone. Sure, everything in her life has been humming along: Her career is booming, and she just celebrated her 28th wedding anniversary with her husband (actor Christopher Guest), with whom she's raised two kids (Annie, 25, and Tom, 16), but she's reached a point where she needs to shake things up. For instance, "I've had my hair like this for probably 10 years now, and I'm feeling like it may be time for a change," she says.That's in the spirit of her latest children's book (her 10th), My Brave Year of Firsts: Tries, Sighs, and High Fives. In it, Curtis zeros in on the joy of children experiencing things for the very first time. "As I focused on how we encourage kids to take risks, I realized that as adults, we don't do anything new," she says."We eat the same food. Sleep with our husbands the same way. We don't try new things, yet we want our children to do that every day of their lives. Trying something new and challenging yourself is what life is all about," says Curtis.So she's now practicing what she preaches; she's made it her mission to try a series of new life adventures: joining a book club (it's not your typical gabfest with wine), learning to make dolls, and cooking her way through a recipe-book series.And for this story, she tackled one of her biggest fears: running a race. "I know that seems crazy for many people, but a 5K was a big deal for me," confesses Curtis. Sure, she's a regular on the tennis court and an avid golfer, but "when they used to make me run in high school PE class, I was dead last," she recalls. "I was top-heavy, so my chest hurt. None of it's natural for me."Curtis invited Good Housekeeping to track her training, to watch the big race  and to chat with her about the thrill of trying something new...even something she knew she might not have a knack for.GOOD HOUSEKEEPING: Your latest children's book is all about firsts. How did this concept come about?JAMIE LEE CURTIS: Nothing I ever do starts with an intention. It usually starts with my hearing something, and it's like a key unlocks my brain. I was in a coffee shop in Sun Valley, Idaho, talking to this lovely guy, Todd, who owns it. I asked how his daughter was doing, and he said, "She's having this amazing summer of firsts." And I did that thing where it truly felt like I'd been struck by lightning: "Really? Tell me more!" I came home thinking about firsts  about being brave, about having fear, and about trying new things. When kids try something for the first time, what are they afraid of? Getting hurt, looking bad, being embarrassed, people making fun of them.GH: Why do you think that it's important for adults to continue to try new things?JLC: Life is not supposed to be this calcified experience where you don't change. I'm a middle-aged woman who is changing. Your hair, body, and mind change. And we fight the change. How many women spend all of this money trying not to change? We don't welcome it or encourage it in ourselves or in our friends, yet we do in our children  which basically makes us contradictory and flawed as people. Do as I say, not as I do. GH: Are you good at getting outside your comfort zone?JLC: No. I'm 53 and starting to pare down to the essentials. It's harder and harder for me to try new things. But I think it's important to show your kids you don't know everything, and the best way to demonstrate that is to do something where you fall down.GH: To prove your point, you ran a 5K for this story. You had never run before?JLC: No! My husband once said he'd never met anybody who walked so fast and ran so slowly. As I said, it's a little hard for me to try new things, and this was me facing a fear that I'd had my whole life. Since I had no experience running, I felt like a failure before I'd even begun.What looks effortless for most people isn't natural for me. This was a big deal physically.GH: Tell us how you trained for the race.JLC: There's an app on my iPhone called C25K (Couch to 5K) that I utilized. It helped me understand how to gradually increase my running time from one minute to 45 minutes. I would get on a treadmill and run or walk/run while watching Millionaire Matchmaker reruns. Thank God for Bravo! GH: How was it when you actually ran the race?JLC: I tried to make it look like I was having a good time, but to be honest, five minutes after the start of the race, I was already going, Oh, there's no way I'm going to finish this.GH: What got you through to the race's end?JLC: I talked to myself. [I thought,] Jamie, you can do this; just relax. I tried to find a rhythm, and I stopped comparing myself to anybody else. One of the great phrases for me is "Compare and despair." If I compare myself to Kate Middleton or Dame Judi Dench, I'm going to come out at the bottom and be sad.During the 5K, I found myself looking around at all these people, young kids racing past me, and I realized that I needed to stay within myself, that it was OK to go slowly  and then I slogged along.GH: But you actually finished pretty well.JLC: I did, but that's the problem  I understand "Compare and despair," but I'm competitive. After the race, a friend of mine said, "If you had just picked up your pace, you would have been in the top 10 of your age group." And then, all of a sudden, my head started going, Should I do it again?GH: So, will you do it again?JLC: No, I don't think so. I enjoyed doing it, but it took a lot of time out of my world. It was a commitment of time every day: warm up, run for half an hour, then cool down. It's a good hour in a day where I have a lot of other stuff to do; I gave up some reading, and I like to read every day.I did it to show myself I could do it. Do I want to run a marathon? No. I've got an aging lower back and aging knees and ankles. I would rather go play golf with my husband.