Why Jamie Lee Curtis asks crew members to wear name tags on set
Call them by their name.
Jamie Lee Curtis appeared on a recent episode of Kevin Hart‘s SiriusXM podcast “Gold Minds” to reveal that she has an unusual practice on set: asking the members of the crew to wear name tags.
“There’s something really uneven about our position on a set, on a movie, in this arena,” said the Oscar-winning actress, 65.
“You guys know our names, we don’t know yours. There’s something inequitable to me about that,” she added.
Aside from being a Hollywood legend in her own right, Curtis is a “nepo baby,” the term first popularized in 2022 for actors who had parents in showbiz.
Curtis, who is married to “The Princess Bride” actor Christopher Guest, and is the daughter of “Psycho” actress Janet Leigh and “Some Like It Hot” actor Tony Curtis, called the conversation around nepo babies “damaging” in a 2022 Instagram post.
“I have been a professional actress since I was 19 years old so that makes me an OG Nepo Baby,” she wrote at the time.
She added, “It’s curious how we immediately make assumptions and snide remarks that someone related to someone else who is famous in their field for their art, would somehow have no talent whatsoever.”
The “Everything Everywhere All At Once” actress said, “I have suited up and shown up for all different kinds of work with thousands of thousands of people and every day I’ve tried to bring integrity and professionalism and love and community and art to my work. I am not alone. There are many of us. Dedicated to our craft. Proud of our lineage. Strong in our belief in our right to exist.”
Curtis, who recently reprised her Emmy-nominated role in “The Bear,” said on Kevin Hart’s podcast that she thinks the name tag practice makes everything feel more egalitarian.
“On a movie set, if we were all working together, we would all be wearing name tags so that tomorrow when we came in, I would be able to then say ‘Good morning [Sabine]’ without even […] thought because I’ve learned her name.”
Curtis, who is also gearing up for a “Freaky Friday” sequel with Lindsay Lohan, continued, “I just want it to be equitable because it’s an important thing. It’s art — there isn’t hierarchy in art. It’s supposed to be a group of people.”
In 2021, she also told the Hollywood Reporter about doing the name tag practice on set of “Halloween Kills,” the latest installment of the iconic “Halloween” horror movie franchise. Curtis has starred as Laurie Strode in seven of the movies, starting with 1978’s “Halloween.”
After filming her last scene, “the entire crew were standing in silent solidarity with their hands behind their backs,” she recalled at the time.
“And everyone was wearing a name tag. And the name tag said, ‘We are Laurie Strode.'”
