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At one point or another, most of us have turned to our parents for advice. Scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis, who is known for her role as Laurie Strode in the Halloween franchise, is no different. However, her parental words of wisdom come from Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, two stars in their own right.

Decades before Jamie Lee Curtis fought Michael Myers in Halloween, her mother Janet Leigh was the infamous shower victim in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Tony Curtis was one of Hollywood’s first “pretty boys.” Think of him like Brad Pitt before Brad Pitt was born.

Although her parents had immense star power, Curtis rarely spoke with them about her career. “It’s not like we talk shop,” Jamie Lee Curtis says during a spotlight panel at New York Comic Con 2022. “Who talks to their parents about their work, really. I remember my mom. Early on I think she understood that I was insecure.”

“My mom recognized that, because she said to me at one point just be yourself. Somehow she knew that’s what I needed to hear. Now, I didn’t heed her advice, and if you go back on the internet and look back on haircut, and outfits, and really bad choices, it was my attempt at something. I have finally landed now at 64, this is it. But then I was searching, which we all do.”

Curtis doesn’t have many memories of her father, Tony Curtis, but she says he gave her two essential lessons that have helped her career. “My dad, I swear to you guys, this is literally the truth, I didn’t know him very well. I didn’t grow up with him, and I didn’t know him very well. He said two things that pertained to show business which make me laugh. One thing you’re not going to really understand unless you’re a film student. We were in a car, we pulled up to a stoplight, and I was sitting here and he was driving, and I remember he turned to me and he said, ‘[Tony Curtis impression] Never let them shoot you with anything less than a 50.’”

“He was trying to explain that anything less than a 50-millimeter lens was going to distort your face, that a 35-millimeter lens or a 28 or whatever is not going to make you look so good. Now, I have a face the size of a door wedge, so the truth of the matter is a wider lens actually works because I have a little skinny face. But weirdly, Tony Curtis for some reason felt like he needed to share that with me.”

“The other thing that was crucial, and it’s advice I give to everybody alive who signs their name to something. He said remember that whatever you sign, there are two little words in the legal description that says in perpetuity, which means forever. That is what you’re about to give them by presenting yourself in whatever it is that they’re filming, that it’s theirs forever. And he said use that as something to be reminded about.”

While some of the Hollywood advice may not apply to us, the advice here is pretty good. Pay careful attention to every contract you sign and consider every word. And most importantly, always be your most authentic self. We can’t all have famous parents, but that doesn’t mean we can’t use their life lessons.

For more on Halloween, check out our Halloween guide and learn how to watch the horror franchise in release and chronological order.