The Fearless Jamie Lee Curtis: A Look at Her Stunt Work in True Lies and Everything Everywhere All At Once

True Lies: Jamie Lee Curtis' Surprising Stunt Requests

When filming True Lies, Jamie Lee Curtis did some of her own stunts - and had only one request to make them safer. Jamie Lee Curtis was involved in her own stunt work for True Lies - and made only one surprising request for her safety during the big action sequences. The '90s action-comedy stars Jamie Lee Curtis alongside action superstar Arnold Schwarzenegger as husband and wife Helen and Harry - a secret agent and his wife who wants more adventure in her life. From this premise, the film goes on a wild ride through secrets and lies, as Helen and Harry end up joining forces to take down his enemies. True Lies was a box office hit on release in 1994, and was even nominated for an Oscar, quickly become a true modern classic of the genre. A sequel was originally planned for the movie, and was even scripted and ready to shoot, however, it never saw the light of day. It was originally intended for a release in 2000, but delays pushed this back - and by the time that filming was ready to start, the September 11th attacks caused director James Cameron to put the brakes on the film. Concerns over depictions of terrorism in comedy meant that True Lies 2 was no longer workable in its original form, and rather than re-writing it, the film was simply dropped. However, a True Lies TV series was released in 2023.

true-lies-dana-helen-and-harry

Unsurprisingly for a blockbuster action movie, there are plenty of huge action scenes in True Lies, including a helicopter stunt and a limo stunt, both of which involved Helen being strapped in. Because of fears of the stunt going wrong, and potentially becoming trapped, Jaime Lee Curtis requested that she have something available to cut herself free if the worst should happen. For the limo, that meant a knife, whereas for the helicopter, she wanted someone with wirecutters on board. (As per Indiewire) 'I asked for two things for both the helicopter stunt and all of the limousine stunt work: The concern in the limousine would be that I would be expelled — like, if for some reason the limousine hit the wall, that I would be catapulted out of it. My only condition was that there be a knife embedded in the upholstery of the limousine... The only thing I didn’t want to do was go down with the limo into the water. And I wanted the strap to be made of seatbelt material, so that I could cut it loose and have my chances. And the exact same thing was in the helicopter. I wouldn’t do it unless there was a guy in the helicopter with wire cutters. Because again, if the helicopter had to ditch over the ocean, I just didn’t want to be tethered to it. And I wanted to be able to be cut loose from it and then take my chances free falling.'

Arnold Schwarzenegger as Harry Tasker and Jamie Lee Curtis as Helen Tasker on beach in True Lies

Thankfully, nothing went wrong on either stunt, but it's clear that the actress was more than willing to do the dangerous stunt work herself - with only relatively minor precautions! Of course, as with any action movie, there would have been far more safety measures than this involved in such big stunts, but as Curtis said in the same interview, 'All of that was real people, real places The speed was real, because you can’t do it slowly, you have to do it at speed.' - and that also means real danger.

Arnold Schwarzenegger in a fighter jet in True Lies

Jamie Lee Curtis' Fearless Stunt Work in Everything Everywhere All At Once

Jamie Lee Curtis isn't just known for her iconic role in True Lies; she has also displayed fearlessness in performing her own stunts in more recent projects, such as Everything Everywhere All At Once. True Lies isn't the only movie where Curtis does a lot of her own stuntwork - the actress is committed to her work, and has described herself as 'fearless' when it comes to stuntwork. More recently, in Everything Everywhere All At Once, stunt coordinator and fight choreographer Timothy Eulich spoke to Looper about how most of the cast were involved in their own stunts.

Everything Everywhere All At Once Jamie Lee Curtis as Deirdre Beaubeirdra

They all wanted to come in and do as much of their action as they possibly could and they did. You can really see that in the final edit of this film. Jamie wanted to do everything. We were putting her up into some pretty big wire rigs and flying her around the space. She had that professional wrestling sequence with the Waymond character, picking him up and spinning him around over her head before breaking his back over her knee. She put a lot of time into that. We also spent a lot of time with her at the stairwell, flying down the stairs.

Harry (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis) embrace in True Lies.

Despite the fact that Everything Everywhere All At Once came almost twenty years after True Lies, it's clear that Curtis has lost none of her fearlessness when it comes to on-screen danger.

Harry and Helen embrace in True Lies