Jamie Lee Curtis cries at ‘The Last Showgirl’ premiere over ‘harsh reality’ for women

Jamie Lee Curtis was moved to tears at the world premiere of her new movie The Last Showgirl at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.

“We had never seen it, so we’re sharing that moment with you,” Curtis told the audience through tears after the screening. “There’s this Nanci Griffith song, ‘It’s a Hard Life Wherever You Go.’ It’s a really hard life for people, and in Vegas it’s a really hard life.”

Director Gia Coppola’s highly anticipated drama stars Pamela Anderson as Shelley, a veteran Las Vegas entertainer who, after 30 years on stage, must confront the next chapter of her life after her show abruptly closes. Curtis plays Annette, a cocktail waitress who used to be a showgirl with Shelley in Le Razzle Dazzle, the last showgirl show in Sin City.

“I just think the poignancy of the storytelling of every single person’s story through [screenwriter] Kate [Gersten]’s words and Gia’s direction, and the beautiful camera work, it’s explicit to see,” Curtis said. “And I am just a product of that same reality. You know who Annette is — every single one of you know an Annette. It’s a movie about dreams and going after your dreams but of course, the dreams become a really harsh f—ing reality. And for women it’s a really harsh reality that men don’t have as much.”

Curtis then joked that “a spray tan helps a lot” when getting into character for this film. “I’d never had one,” she added as she laughed through her tears. “And you have to stand there and they put it everywhere. I had never done that, but I’ll shut up and stop crying.”

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Earlier in the post-screening Q&A, Anderson revealed that she had “been getting ready my whole life for this role.”

“Also it’s the first time I ever read a good script,” she added. “I never had a script given to me that was coherent. So I was like, ‘I’m the only one who can do this.’ I’ve never felt that strongly about something… After that I thought, ‘You know what, I have nothing to lose. I’m just going to do it. Just be it.'”

TIFF runs Sept. 5-15.