After Jamie Lee Curtis‘s self-esteem was crushed by a cinematographer at a young age, the legendary actress made a life-changing decision she still regrets.
“He was like, ‘Yeah, I’m not shooting her today. Her eyes are baggy.’ And I was 25, so for him to say that, it was very embarrassing,” Curtis, who was filming the 1985 movie “Perfect” at the time, said during Sunday’s episode of 60 Minutes. “So, as soon as the movie finished, I ended up having some plastic surgery.”
“That’s just not what you want to do when you’re 25 or 26,” she continued. “And I regretted it immediately and have kind of sort of regretted it since.”
“I’ve become a really public advocate to say to women, ‘You’re gorgeous, and you’re perfect the way you are.’ So, yeah, it was not a good thing for me to do,” she added.
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The Golden Globe Award-winning actress, who has been open about her past dependency on drugs throughout the years, said she became “enamored” with the effects of drugs.
“I became very enamored with the warm bath of an opiate,” said Curtis. “You know, drank a little bit … never to excess, never any big public demonstrations. I was very quiet, very private about it, but it became a dependency, for sure.”
In 2019, Curtis described her former self as a “controlled drug addict and alcoholic” in Variety’s “The Recovery Issue.”
“I never did it when I worked,” she told the outlet at the time. “I never took drugs before 5 p.m. I never ever took painkillers at 10 in the morning. It was that sort of late afternoon and early evening — I like to refer to it as the warm-bath feeling of an opiate. . . . I chased that feeling for a long time.”
Curtis attended her first recovery meeting in February 1999, after reading Tom Chiarella’s essay “Vicodin, My Vicodin” in Esquire magazine.
“I was terrified [of being recognized]. I was just terrified that someone in the recovery community was going to betray my trust,” Curtis confessed. “But it is my experience that that doesn’t really happen and that my fear was unfounded.”
In 2021, she opened up about the plastic surgery procedure that led her down the dangerous road of addiction.
“I tried plastic surgery, and it didn’t work. It got me addicted to Vicodin. I’m 22 years sober now,” Curtis shared with Fast Company at the time.
“The current trend of fillers and procedures, and this obsession with filtering, and the things that we do to adjust our appearance on Zoom are wiping out generations of beauty. Once you mess with your face, you can’t get it back.”
That same year, Curtis celebrated her sobriety journey on social media.
The actress took to Instagram, where she posted a throwback photo of herself holding an alcoholic beverage.
“A LONG time ago… In a galaxy far, far away… I was a young STAR at WAR with herself,” the 62-year-old wrote. “I didn’t know it then. I chased everything. I kept it hidden. I was [as] sick as my secrets.”
“With God’s grace and the support of MANY people who could relate to all the ‘feelings’ and a couple of sober angels…I’ve been able to stay sober, one day at a time, for 22 years,” Curtis continued. “I was a high bottom, pun kind of intended, so the rare photo of me proudly drinking in a photo op is very useful to help me remember. To all those struggling and those who are on the path…MY HAND IN YOURS.”
Fox News Digital’s Stephanie Nolasco contributed to this post.
