Jamie Lee Curtis is opening up about her costar Nicole Kidman’s role in her becoming more than just a producer on the upcoming Prime Video series Scarpetta Sisters.
“Patricia Cornwell has been writing about a medical examiner named Dr. Kay Scarpetta for over 20 years, and I can’t even tell you how many millions of people have bought these books. And Nicole is going to play Dr. Kay Scarpetta,” Curtis, 66, exclusively told Us Weekly on Monday, May 12.
Curtis went on to explain to Us that she first met Kidman, 57, at the Oscars.
“She actually introduced herself to me and we exchanged hellos and a little bit of chick bonding,” she added. “But then we walked away and I was like, ‘Okay, wow. That was crazy.’ And six months later she heard that we were making the Scarpetta show and that I was producing and she basically said, ‘I want to be Scarpetta.’ And then when I went, ‘Okay, great,’ she said, ‘But you’re going to be in it with me, right?’”
According to the Everything Everywhere All at Once star, it was at that moment that she became much more than an executive producer on the project.
“It was that moment of like, ‘Yes, Nicole Kidman. Yes. I’m going to be in a show with you.’ I had no choice,” she explained. You had no choice. I was going to be a producer, and at that moment it was decided that I was going to act in the show.”
Prime Video has already greenlit two seasons of the upcoming show, based on Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta novel series. Kidman will play the forensic pathologist and crime fighter, while Curtis will portray her sister, Dorothy. Kidman is also an executive producer on the project.
Curtis told Us that when it comes to figuring out when to attach her name to a project, just based on her filmography and TV biography alone it’s clear that she’s “not that particular.”
“Usually, if a part comes to me, there’s a reason. It’s not random,” she continued. “I don’t believe you’ll be seeing me playing Lady Macbeth. I don’t think you’re going to see Lady Macbeth in my filmography.”
She continued, “I pretty much do the work that comes to me … I love my life. I just love the fact that I get to be me, that I get to do what I do, that I get to do art and be a part of the art form that I get to be part of — entertainment. I love the combo platter of show business. I’m a marketing guru. I love marketing. And I just love the process of living a creating life. So I got no complaints.”
