Jamie Lee Curtis Says Turning 60 Made Her Realize I 'Have No Time to Waste on Toxic People'

Charlotte PhillippFri, March 6, 2026 at 8:18 PM UTC

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Jamie Lee Curtis.Credit: Maya Dehlin Spach/Getty -

Jamie Lee Curtis is opening up about turning 60 in an interview with AARP’s Movies for Grownups

"I turned 60 and realized I was going to die sooner than later," she shared

Curtis, now 67, has been candid about aging in Hollywood and once called the industry "ageist, misogynist and pigeonholing"

Jamie Lee Curtis is opening up about turning 60 —and how the occasion helped her to prioritize the most important people in her life.

Speaking to AARP’s Movies for Grownups for a story published Friday, March 6, the Oscar winner, 67, spoke about aging and the concept of "freedom" in an industry that she once described as "ageist, misogynist and pigeonholing."

"I turned 60 and realized I was going to die sooner than later," she shared, opening up about how she reflects on aging as she makes projects like Scarpetta that deal so heavily with death.

"Sooner than later means sooner than later. And that understanding meant I have no effing time to waste. No time to waste on toxic people, on relationships that don't serve me," Curtis continued.

Jamie Lee Curtis.Credit: Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

"I've been self-retiring since I was 30, saying, 'I'll get out of this,' because the industry I'm in is a cruel, cruel industry, particularly with aging," Curtis added. "There's a dismissal of people. I watched it very much with my parents (Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh). So I have just decided to embrace that."

When it comes to "freedom" in her 60s, The Bear star shared that she accepts her looks wholeheartedly.

"[Freedom means] accepting my crepey skin and showing it anyway," she told AARP. "That's freedom. I understand what I look like. I look in the mirror. I get it. And there's no need for me to alter it."

"Everything I do has to come from emotion," Curtis added. "And to me, emotion is freedom. I feel people. That has been a gift for me as an actor because all acting is emotion with words.

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Jamie Lee Curtis and Nicole Kidman in 'Scarpetta.'Credit: Prime Video

Curtis has been candid in the past about the complicated feelings that surround getting older. In December, she told TODAY that she's "embracing aging fully" — but later joked that the comment was a "total lie."

"And by the way, that's a total lie," she said during a December episode of NPR’s Wild Card with Rachel Martin podcast . “That I don’t care. Of course I care.”

Curtis continued, “When I look in the mirror, I am looking at the problem, I’m looking at the solution. You know, I can’t filter the mirror.”

She explained further, “The deep, dark, truthful mirror is coming for all of us,” she explained. “We can pretend it isn’t… We can alter reality all we want. We can take a photograph, AI-altered, Facetuning, whatever the f--- it is. But my point is simply: You can’t hide the truth.”

Later, she concluded, "When I say I don’t care, I don’t care about hiding the truth anymore.”

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