Jamie Lee Curtis Reveals the Sweet Way She Got a 'Visit' from Late Dad Tony Curtis on theFreakier FridaySet

Mar. 15, 2025

Tony Curtis and Jamie Lee Curtis in 1989.Photo: Ron Galella Collection via Getty

Tony Curtis, Jamie Lee Curtis

Jamie Lee Curtisrecently experienced an unexpected run-in with her late father in the most unlikely of places.

While filming the upcoming sequel to Disney’sFreaky FridaywithLindsay Lohan,Curtis looked up and saw her dad, actor Tony Curtis, staring back at her.

“He has been an icon. He is iconic,” the 65-year-old actress told reporters Sunday night, Sept. 8,after winningoutstanding guest actress in a comedy series at 2024 Creative Arts Emmys for her role as Donna Berzatto inThe Bear. “The other day we were shootingFreaky Fridayin a record store, in this cool record store in Hollywood, and there was aSgt. Pepper’s.”

Her late father Tony Curtis, of course, appears in the collage on the cover of the Beatles’ 1967 album alongside other Hollywood greats likeMarlon Brando, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West andMarilyn Monroe.

Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan in 2024.Andrew Eccles/Disney

Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan on the set of the sequel to “Freaky Friday”.

Andrew Eccles/Disney

“I was doing a scene with Lindsay Lohan. I was overacting like a b—-, and all of a sudden I kind of looked up and there was my father,” she recalled.

Curtis admitted that she didn’t own a copy of the album herself, and said she bought it on the spot.

“And I forget. I forget because of course I’m old and have my own life, but there he was, and I understand why they chose him to be in [the collage]," she said. “And I’m honored to be his daughter and my mother’s daughter, and this [Emmy] is an absolute stunner for me.”

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“The current conversation about nepo babies is just designed to try to diminish and denigrate and hurt,” the actress added. “For the record I have navigated 44 years with the advantages my associated and reflected fame brought me, I don’t pretend there aren’t any, that try to tell me that I have no value on my own.”

Jamie Lee Curtis on ‘The Bear’.Chuck Hodes/FX

THE BEAR - Jamie Lee Curtis as Donna

Chuck Hodes/FX

(WARNING: Light spoilers ahead)The episode ended with a bang — literally — and Curtis has since returned to the series in a few brief moments in subsequent episodes.

“When I saw the first episode last summer and Sugar asks Carmen if he had spoken to their mother, in that second I knew that I would play her. Don’t ask me how. I just knew,“Curtis wrotein an Instagram post about the series in June 2023 after the episode dropped. “A year later, after the wild success of the brilliant first season, Chris Storer offered me the role of a lifetime.”

The Bearis streaming now on Hulu.

source: people.com