Jamie Lee Curtis says her reason for taking a role in Fox’s upcoming horror comedy Scream Queens is simple.
Ryan Murphy, the show’s creator and an executive producer, called her.
“He called me on the phone. I picked it up...He said, ‘I’m gonna write a show for you. Please do it with me,’” said Curtis at an event on Monday in New York.
The show, now filming in New Orleans, will follow an anthology format like Murphy’s American Horror Story on FX. Season one takes place at a college campus where a number of murders have occurred. It’s set to premiere in August.
Curtis plays the dean of the university and her co-stars are a who’s who of young Hollywood, including Emma Roberts, Keke Palmer, Lea Michele, Abigail Breslin, Nick Jonas, Ariana Grande and Skyler Samuels.
“They’re lovely,” she said. “They’re all happy to have the gig. There’s not a rotten apple in the bunch. There’s no attitude. Everybody’s here. Everybody wants to support Murphy’s vision. They’re all grateful for the confidence he’s placed in them as I feel. And, look it’s a job. We’re all happy to have it and if anybody starts to not be happy to have it I will be the person to remind them that they should be very happy to have it. Not that I think there’s gonna be one.”
Curtis is known for 1978’s Halloween, Trading Places and A Fish Called Wanda. She says she wasn’t particularly looking to do television, or for work for that matter.
“I don’t care. I did yogurt commercials. I mean honestly. I work, I go home. I’m happy to be doing this. They’re lovely. I’d be very happy to be home,” she laughed.
