Jamie Lee Curtis suffers backlash after interrupting awards show hosts

Jamie Lee Curtis appeared to be genuinely telling off the hosts of an awards ceremony in Los Angeles. Photo / News.com.au

Hollywood actor Jamie Lee Curtis is copping a backlash online for her strange outburst on the red carpet at a recent awards show – seemingly unaware that she was dressing down her hosts for the evening.

Curtis was a guest at the recent Las Culturistas Culture Awards at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. The tongue-in-cheek pop culture-themed awards (some sample categories: the Woman of a Certain Age Award and Best Title for the Next Bridget Jones) are the brainchild of comedians and podcasters Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers.

The pair were on the red carpet outside the Orpheum, answering some questions for media outlet Vulture, which had asked them to recite some iconic movie lines into the camera.

Saturday Night Live star Yang was giving it his best Julia Roberts as Erin Brokovich, delivering the line “I’m not talkin’ to you, b****!”, when suddenly Curtis appeared beside them, interrupting the vox pop and looking agitated.

“We’re quoting Julia Roberts,” Rogers explained, perhaps worried Curtis had thought that particular quote was directed at her.

But the Freakier Friday star stood between the comedians and the camera, her arms outstretched, and gave them a firm direction: “Bring the whole f***ing thing down.” She seemed unaware she was talking to the hosts and organisers of the event she was at – and was about to spend several hours watching them on stage.

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“You’re going to hate this show then,” Yang said. “We’re going to be pitching to the rafters.”

Rogers gave Curtis some cheeky advice in return: “Maybe you could bring it up?”

Those who watched the moment on social media were shocked by Curtis’ behaviour, with some asking if the actor was attempting a “bit” or whether she was serious.

“The audacity to interrupt someone’s interview at Their Own Award Show just to shush them is insane,” one person tweeted.

Another said the moment “repulsed” them – “Doing this to [Rogers and Yang] at their own event?”

One person under Vulture’s post dubbed Curtis “the ultimate Karen” – a tag that’s followed her after a string of minor controversies in recent years.

She publicly apologised in August last year after slamming Marvel at Comic-Con, and earlier in 2024 sparked a bizarre feud with Bella Ramsey over a joke the young actor made while presenting an award at the Critics Choice Awards.

She copped further backlash in January of this year when she likened the wildfires that had decimated whole neighbourhoods in Los Angeles to the ongoing war in Gaza.

“The entire Pacific Palisades looks like, unfortunately, Gaza, or one of these war-torn countries where awful things have happened,” she told an audience at a Q&A for her film The Last Showgirl.