How Trading Places Changed Jamie Lee Curtis' Career

One of Jamie Lee Curtis' biggest early roles was Ophelia in Trading Places, a part that would forever change the actress' career trajectory.

Summary

• Jamie Lee Curtis credits "Trading Places" with changing her career trajectory, leading to her later Oscar win.
• Director John Landis fought to cast Curtis in the film, despite pushback from Paramount Pictures.
• Curtis fondly remembers working with Eddie Murphy, praising his talent and professionalism on set.

Veteran actress Jamie Lee Curtis has one of Hollywood's most impressive resumés, and she credits Trading Places with forever changing her career trajectory. Released in 1983, Trading Places is a comedy directed by John Landis and inspired by Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper. In the movie, business executive Louis Winthorpe (Dan Aykroyd) and street con artist Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) are forced to swap life circumstances because of a bet between two millionaires. Curtis plays Ophelia, a sex worker who helps Louis. Trading Places was lauded by critics, who praised the film's smart social satire, and was Murphy's breakout movie role.

While Jamie Lee Curtis didn't get nominated for a Golden Globe like her co-star Eddie Murphy, Trading Places marked a shift in her career. Hollywood royalty, Curtis' parents are Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis. Curtis made her screen debut on Quincy, M.E., but quickly became a legendary scream queen, playing Laurie Strode in the Halloween movies. Though Curtis reprised her role as Strode later in her career, she pivoted from horror to comedy. This served her well, as she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2023 for her performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once, which might never have happened had Curtis not been cast in Trading Places.

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Jamie Lee Curtis Credits Trading Places Director John Landis For Her Casting

Though Curtis was having success as a horror movie final girl throughout the '70s and early '80s, she worried that continuing to act in the genre would hurt her career (via Yahoo). She developed a working relationship with Blues Brothers director John Landis when he approached her to narrate his documentary Coming Soon, about Universal's monster movies, and Landis was so charmed by Curtis' sense of humor that he knew she was the perfect person for the role of Ophelia in Trading Places. Of her experience working on the documentary and bonding with Landis, Curtis said:

“I spent three or four days with him on the backlot at Universal cracking wise, and being who I am — besides doing this very sort of boring narration in this documentary. So he spent four days with me. And by the end of that, he was the one who gave the part in Trading Places to me.”

According to Curtis, Landis had to fight Paramount Pictures to cast her, which is a fight the film studio is likely happy to have lost, as Trading Places was a box office smash and grossed over $90 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo). Curtis' career benefited astronomically, as her performance inspired John Cleese to cast her as Wanda Gershwitz in 1988's A Fish Called Wanda, a role that earned Curtis her first Golden Globe nomination. Curtis said, "it's all because John Landis saw something in the four days that we spent on the backlot at Universal. He felt I could be Ophelia in Trading Places, which then changed everything."

What Curtis Said About Working With Eddie Murphy On Trading Places

Curtis' career wasn't the only one to have benefited from Trading Places. At the time, Eddie Murphy was a young, up-and-coming comedian on Saturday Night Live. Following 1982's 48 Hrs., Trading Places was only Murphy's second film role. The actor stole the show as Billy Ray Valentine, which scored him heaps of critical acclaim and a Golden Globe nomination. Curtis has fond memories of working with Murphy but divulged that he was a little green when it came to making movies. She told EW:

"He was sweet, he was funny. I remember when we were doing the table read in Philadelphia, Eddie was late, and John went out in the hall and explained to him that being late, ever, was not part of the gig. Eddie came in, and apologized to all of us that he was late, and never was late again for John. So, you know, he was young."

Curtis is famous for admiring her co-stars, as seen with her enthusiastic support of her Everything Everywhere All at Once co-star Michelle Yeoh's awards success, and Murphy is no different. In 2019, Curtis and Murphy reunited at the Toronto International Film Festival, which they both attended to promote their respective movies, Knives Out and Dolemite Is My Name, and from the photographs, it's clear that the Trading Places actors are very fond of each other (via LA Times). Whether it's her co-stars or directors, Curtis always has something nice to say about the people she's worked with.

Watch Trading Places

Sources: Yahoo, EW, LA Times

• Trading Places

  Summary:

  A snobbish investor and a wily street con artist find their positions reversed as part of a bet by two callous millionaires.

  Release Date:

  1983-06-08

  Assistant Director :

  David Sosna

  Budget:

  $15 million

  Cast:

  Eddie Murphy, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche, Dan Aykroyd, Denholm Elliott

  Cinematographer:

  Robert Paynter

  Director:

  John Landis

  Distributor :

  Paramount Pictures

  Genres:

  Comedy

  Producer:

  Aaron Russo

  Production Company:

  Paramount Pictures, Cinema Group Ventures

  Runtime:

  116 minutes

  Sfx Supervisor:

  Andy Perillo

  Writers:

  Timothy Harris, Herschel Weingrod

  Main Genre:

  Comedy