Jamie Lee Curtis lets it all hang out as she shuns body prosthetics for honest new role

Jamie Lee Curtis has revealed how she defiantly refused to use body prosthetics to play a downtrodden character in her upcoming film Everything All At Once.

Shot just before the coronavirus lockdowns swept the country, the film features Jamie Lee as a stern-looking IRS auditor in a tight-fitting and unflattering polo neck that shows off the star’s tummy. 

The 63-year-old actress, who declined to use a prosthetic for the character’s midriff, uploaded an Instagram photo of herself in character with a candid caption about letting her belly out for the role after ‘sucking in my stomach since I was 11.’

Candid: Jamie Lee Curtis unveiled a first look this week of her character in the film Everything All At Once, which allowed her to let her belly out after ‘sucking my stomach in since I was 11’

Jamie Lee is pictured in character sitting in her cubicle wearing a distinctly unimpressed expression and holding a half-eaten cookie.

‘WELL…. here we GO!’ she crowed in her Instagram caption. ‘Two years ago we made this movie right up until the day the world shut down. We just finished in time. It’s a Magical Mystery Tour of a movie and I’m so excited to see it tomorrow at its premiere opening the @sxsw festival. @everythingeverywheremovie @a24.’

Jamie Lee, whose parents were Some Like It Hot heartthrob Tony Curtis and Psycho star Janet Leigh, wrote: ‘I’m proud to introduce you to Deirdre Beaubeirdra.’

She described her character as an ‘IRS auditor’ as well as the ‘nemesis and bae’ of Michelle Yeoh’s leading character Evelyn Wang.

Pin-up: Jamie Lee – who claims to have been sucking in her tummy since she was 11 – was known in the 80s for her athletic figure (Pictured above in the 1985 film Perfect) 

‘In the world, there is an industry – a billion-dollar, trillion-dollar industry – about hiding things,’ she added. ‘Concealers. Body-shapers. Fillers. Procedures. Clothing. Hair accessories. Hair products. Everything to conceal the reality of who we are. And my instruction to everybody was: I want there to be no concealing of anything.’

Jamie Lee revealed: ‘I’ve been sucking my stomach in since I was 11, when you start being conscious of boys and bodies, and the jeans are super tight. I very specifically decided to relinquish and release every muscle I had that I used to clench to hide the reality. That was my goal.’

The Halloween star dished: ‘I have never felt more free creatively and physically I can’t wait for everybody to see the BRILLIANCE of Ms.Yeoh and @kehuyquan @stephaniehsuofficial @martialclubofficial @andyle_official @dunkwun.’

One of the directors of the film, Daniel Kwan, recently told Entertainment Weekly that Jamie Lee was not wearing a prosthetic stomach for the role.

Chic to the hilt: Jamie Lee is pictured in a glamorous aspect attending the opening gala for the Academy Museum Of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles last year

‘Everyone assumes that her belly in the movie is a prosthetic, but it’s actually her real belly. She was grateful that she was allowed to just let it out,’ he said.

His co-director Daniel Scheinert also offered a glimpse into Jamie Lee’s process of preparing for the sci-fi comedy.

‘Immediately after signing up, she would text us photos of weird outfits and weird hairdos,’ he shared with the magazine.

Bombshell: The actress as seen in the 1985 movie Perfect showing off her athletic figure 

‘There was one photo of an IRS auditor that Dan Kwan had found online – I mean, maybe she worked in a DMV, I don’t know – but this one photo, Jamie was like: “That’s incredible, please let me be her – please, please, please, please.” And that photo became the reference for the hairdo and the outfit.’ 

During an interview with More magazine years ago, Jamie Lee frankly discussed how fixated her movie star mother was on staying svelte.

‘I think the most complicated relationship my mother had, both loving and often cruel, was with her own body,’ said Jamie Lee.

Throwback: Jamie Lee had ‘been sucking my stomach in since I was 11, when you start being conscious of boys and bodies, and the jeans are super tight’; pictured aged 19 in 1978

Throwback: During an interview with More, Jamie Lee discussed how fixated her movie star mother Janet Leigh was on staying svelte; Janet is pictured in the 1960 classic Psycho

‘Her face was undeniably beautiful, like a shot of something strong, and her body – that body was the chaser. She was intoxicating.’

Jamie Lee reflected: ‘Like anyone who becomes famous for what they look like, when that commodity starts to change, the relationship with it deteriorates.’

She dished: ‘Her friends noted her slimness by calling her Bird Legs, and my mother was incredibly proud that she returned to her 20-inch waist mere weeks after pregnancies; she judged other actresses whose bodies grew and softened.’