Jake Gyllenhaal Called Jamie Lee Curtis And Got Her To Do More "Halloween" Movies, Plus 10 More Behind-The-Scenes Stories She Shared About The Franchise

"Laurie Strode has been able to learn to live alongside her grief. It doesn't consume her. It allows her to exist. And maybe for a second, you get this idea that maybe Laurie Strode can be okay...and then the rest of the drama begins."

🚨Warning: There are MAJOR spoilers ahead for the Halloween movies!🚨

1. Laurie Strode was Jamie's first acting role and she was 19 when she starred in the movie. Jamie even called the role an "acting part" because, at the time, she was nothing like Laurie and had to make the audience believe she was.

Compass International Pictures /  Everett Collection

She said at New York Comic-Con, "So when I was 19, I was not like Laurie Strode. Laurie Strode was an acting part. You know, you would have hired me to play Linda. I was a little snarky, and I was a little promiscuous. But I was not Laurie Strode. What was amazing to me was an acting part. She didn't look like me. She didn't dress like me. She didn't think like me, barely out of high school. She was like the valedictorian of her class, you know? And there was a real opportunity for me to be an actor, which I hadn't had that opportunity before. And for me, that was incredible."

But now, 44 years later, Jamie says that she and Laurie have become woven together, all thanks to the franchise's fans.

Photo Credit: Ryan Green / ©Universal/courtesy Everett / Everett Collection

She said, "I think Laurie Strode is everybody's sister, everybody's friend, everybody's daughter, granddaughter, niece. She represented pure innocence and kindness when she comes into conflict and collision with Michael Myers, who is the epitome of evil. You care about her, and when I say you guys have cared for me, you have cared for her, you love her. At this point, Jamie and Laurie have become woven together, there is no separation. I don't have anything in my life without Laurie Strode, nothing. I wouldn't have a career. I would not have a family. Everything comes from you loving her. Whatever I do, forever. Laurie Strode is because of you. And I thank you, truly from the deepest reserve of my being."

2. Halloween was filmed in just 17 days.

Compass International Pictures / Compass International Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection

Jamie joked that she's been on press tours longer than the time it took to film the movie. 

3. The Halloween crew dedicated Steely Dan's "Hey Nineteen" to Jamie, and she still likes to remember it as her song.

Compass International Pictures / Compass International Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection

She added, "Here's my memory. I swear Steely Dan's 'Hey Nineteen' was a hit back then. And the crew kind of dedicated it to me, which I just thought was unbelievable, because the crew was 25 dudes under 30. And I was 19. And guys were saying, 'Hey, here's your song, Jamie.' So anyway, that's my memory. That somehow 'Hey Nineteen' by Steely Dan was about me."

4. Because the film was shot out of order, Jamie numbered her scenes on a "terror meter," so she could make her performance fit the context of the movie better.

Compass International Pictures / Compass International Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection

She said, "I numbered 0–10 — 10 being the most intense part of the movie, which is after she finds her friends, and the chase is on. I numbered the script so I could have sort of a terror meter of where I was just emotionally. I just wanted to make sure I was sort of in the zone."

5. Director John Carpenter told Jamie the one thing he wanted was for Laurie to be "vulnerable," but she didn't quite understand what that meant.

Universal / ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection

Jamie said that after making the movie, she went to a packed movie theater showing Halloween. At the moment right before Laurie is about to come head to head with Michael Myers, an audience member stood up and yelled "DON'T GO IN THERE, THERE'S A KILLER IN THE HOUSE!"

Compass International Pictures / Compass International Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection

Then, as several more audience members began yelling similar phrases, Jamie understood that playing Laurie as "vulnerable" meant that viewers genuinely cared about her.

Compass International Pictures / Compass International Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection

She said, "It was in that second that I went, 'That's what he meant!' He wanted her to be vulnerable so that you cared about her and you didn't want her to get hurt. And you guys haven't wanted me to get hurt for 44 years." 

6. Jamie said that fake blood is the hardest thing to wash off, but Dawn dish soap is what has surprisingly done the trick for her.

@jamieleecurtis / instagram.com / cdc.gov

7. Jamie was actually the one who pitched Halloween H20: 20 Years Later.

Dimension Films / ©Dimension Films/Courtesy Everett Collection

"It was me calling John [Carpenter] and Debra [Hill] and saying 'Hey, you know, in two years, the movie is gonna be 20 years old. Nobody has ever made a movie 20 years later using the same actor and writer, director, or producer. Let's do it.' John ultimately didn't write it. Debra ultimately didn't produce it. But I was in it and it was conceived as what happens when you run from fear."

8. H20 was supposed to end with Laurie killing Michael once and for all. But right before they were about to begin filming, Jamie had seen the script with a different, more ambiguous ending than the one she'd first conceived and almost dropped out of the movie.

Compass International Pictures / Everett Collection / Everett Collection

She said, "So the [concept] of the movie was that there's this moment, of course, where he comes back. And there's this moment where Laurie has to choose, I'm going to fight him and die, maybe, but I'm kind of dead already. But if I win, I'm going to be alive. That was the conceit of the movie, but it was supposed to end him. Like, end him. That's what we talked about. That's what I signed up for. It was all going along great. And then I got this script, and it was a vague ending. It was like a car going off a cliff and a fire or whatever. And it just kept happening. I kept going back and going like, 'I thought we were, like, ending this?'

Now, this is a train that's gone. I mean we're ready to go. I said, 'I'm not doing it. I'm not going to tease an audience again.' I said, 'I came up with this idea to end it.' I said, 'I won't do the movie. I won't do it. Laurie Strode has to kill Mike.'"

Kevin Williamson is the one who came up with the movie's actual ending, where Laurie thinks she's killed Michael but it turns out it was actually an innocent paramedic.

Dimension Films / ©Dimension Films/Courtesy Everett Collection

9. Because of the way H20 ended, Jamie wanted Laurie to be killed off in the next movie, Halloween: Resurrection, because she couldn't live knowing that Laurie was a killer.

Miramax / ©Miramax/Courtesy Everett Collection

She explained, "I said to them, 'Okay, if you're gonna do that, and it looks like Laurie Strode has ended it. And my audience is going to be feeling like it's ended. ... Okay, I'll do it. But you have to pay me a lot of money in the next movie, and you have to kill me in the first 10 minutes because I've now killed an innocent man. And I can't live with that.' That's why the end of H20 is what it is and why I'm in the beginning of Resurrection."

10. After Laurie's "death" in Resurrection, Jamie never planned on being in another Halloween movie, but a call from Jake Gyllenhaal, her godson, is what ended up changing her mind.

Miramax / ©Miramax/Courtesy Everett Collection

On the call, Jake said that director David Gordon Green had a new idea for a reboot of the movies, and he put the two of them in touch. 

David Gordon Green wanted to frame the new movies showing Laurie Strode 40 years later where she's "living behind barbed wire, emotionally, physically, spiritually."

Universal / Everett

Jamie said, "He sent me the script, and what David Gordon Green did is this: Laurie Strode, at 17, survived that night. Her friends were killed. And I believe that Laurie Strode went to school on Nov. 2, 1978, with a Band-Aid on her arm. And at that moment, nobody said a word. There was no therapy. There was no hope. Laurie Strode at the age of 17 went back to school and was sort of the freak — the girl that survived. She had survivor's guilt and nobody ever talked about it. David Gordon Green sent me a script where he said, 'I think Laurie's been spending 40 years living behind barbed wire, emotionally, physically, spiritually. And that's her only purpose in life at the expense of her daughter and her granddaughter. She knows Michael Myers is coming back.' And it was this incredibly beautiful film about Laurie and her trauma — I've seen the fucking meme, don't worry. It's funny."

11. And finally, Halloween Ends will take place four years after Halloween Kills, and at this point, Laurie has gone through grief therapy and has "finally been given the help she's always needed."

Universal / Everett

"Laurie Strode has finally been given the help she's always needed. She never got anything before. And now Laurie Strode has been given grief therapy. You know, after the death of Karen at the end of Kills, Laurie Strode has been able to learn to live alongside her grief. It doesn't consume her. It allows her to exist. And maybe for a second, you get this idea that maybe Laurie Strode can be okay...and then the rest of the drama begins. But there's a moment, I do believe there's a little hope in this movie."

Check out our exclusive interview with Jamie Lee Curtis here.