Jamie Lee Curtis tells 'The View' she opened up about her Vicodin addiction to help others: ‘You’re only as sick as your secrets’
In today’s episode of ABC’s ‘The View’, American actress, author and activist Jamie Lee Curtis made a special appearance. The actor who made her debut with the iconic 1978 John Carpenter horror film ‘Halloween’, has starred in several blockbuster films like ‘True Lies’, ‘Freaky Friday’, ‘Blue Steel’, ‘Forever Young’ and ‘The Tailor of Panama’.
She spoke to hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Abby Huntsman, Sunny Hostin, Joy Behar and Meghan McCain about her upcoming film ‘Knives Out’. The upcoming American black comedy-thriller film written, produced and directed by Rian Johnson -- a modern take on the classic murder mystery genre -- features an ensemble cast, including Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield and more.
Speaking about the film, Curtis gushed, “I tell you, I have been in a lot of movies. It is absolutely hilarious and fantastic.” She spoke about the political relevance of the film as well.
“I will tell you, ‘Knives Out’ is the absolute perfect movie -- I am not hyping here,” she said in the context of the present political climate filled with polarization and disinformation. She added, “When you see it -- there is this whole big pile of ‘Red Meat’, there is a whole big pile of ‘Blue Meat’, and the ‘Red Meat’ people throw it at the ‘Blue Meat’ people and the ‘Blue Meat’ people throw it at the ‘Red Meat’ people. And in the middle of it is a story about immigration.”
Curtis also spoke about a sensitive issue -- her addiction to Vicodin, an opioid painkiller. In the recent “Recovery Issue” of Variety magazine, Curtis opened up about her addiction and being sober for more than 20 years. On ‘The View’, she said, “I think a lot of people have a lot of secrets. And in recovery, we say, ‘You’re only as sick as your secrets.’ I was sick. I was very very sick.”
“And yet, no one knew,” Curtis said with a flourish, “Because I was fabulous.” She added, “That’s the nature of addiction. You can hide it. The reason I did that magazine (story) because someone else did a magazine in 1999, which is the reason I got sober. I knew I needed to get sober. And I had a couple of signposts along the way of people trying to reach out.”
She spoke about a friend who was one of the first people to voice their concerns about her addiction, “She said, ‘You know I see you, Jamie. I see you with your pills. And you think you’re fantastic. But you’re not. You’re dead. You’re gonna die’.”
“Because she said this and there was this magazine article in Esquire about a man exposing his Vicodin addiction -- outing himself by writing the article -- really gave me the confidence,” Curtis shared. Speaking about the prevalence of addiction in Hollywood, she said, “In my industry, like every other industry, it’s a terrible opiate epidemic, as well as an alcohol problem.”
“The truth of the matter is,” she said, “is it (her Variety story) only needs to help one person. Whatever exposure I get from it will be benefiting if one person gets sober because of it… It will be good.”
'The View' airs weekdays at 2 p.m. ET on ABC.