Jamie Lee Curtis is speaking out about Hollywood’s obsession with plastic surgery and the toll she believes it has taken on women for decades.
In a candid interview, the 66-year-old actress described cosmetic procedures, filters, and AI-altered beauty standards as contributing to what she called a “genocide” of natural human appearance. “I’ve been very vocal about the genocide of a generation of women by the cosmeceutical industrial complex, who’ve disfigured themselves,” Jamie Lee told Emma Brockes from The Guardian.
Jamie Lee, who has become a vocal advocate for aging naturally, shared that her stance is rooted in personal experience. At 25, a comment from a cameraman about her eyes being “baggy” led her to undergo a cosmetic procedure, which she immediately regretted. Since then, Jamie Lee made the decision to wear her hair grey as it naturally changed and to not get any more cosmetic surgeries. The surgery also sparked a struggle with opioid addiction that she has since overcome, maintaining sobriety for more than 20 years.
The Oscar-winning actress believes that Hollywood — and society as a whole — has perpetuated impossible standards of beauty, leaving many women feeling like they are lacking and need to surgically alter their appearance. “We’ve erased what it means to look human,” Jamie Lee said, adding that the rise of AI-driven filters has only intensified the problem.
Despite her strong words, Jamie Lee was careful to clarify that she does not judge individuals who choose to undergo procedures. Speaking about younger women in the industry, including her Freakier Friday co-star Lindsay Lohan, she said, “It’s none of my business. I will never confront someone about it. We all make choices, and I understand the pressures they face.”
Jamie Lee has embraced her natural look in recent years, proudly showing her gray hair and refusing to hide signs of aging. She believes this stance is a powerful way to challenge the entertainment industry’s ageism. “I want to show that you don’t have to erase yourself to be relevant,” she explained.
Her comments have resonated widely among an already hot topic, sparking a broader conversation about the culture of beauty standards in Hollywood and beyond. While she knows her words may be controversial, Jamie Lee insists the discussion is necessary, saying, “We need to re-learn that real beauty lies in imperfection." ~Erin Grace
Freakier Friday opens Friday, August 8, 2025 in theaters nationwide.
when I was growing up, we didn’t have to worry about all this stuff quite the same and now it was Playboy women that’s what men thought. Women should look like which is bad enough, but then we had to start worrying about a Photoshop distorting and changing what women really look like and now it’s AI yes in all this plastic surgery so unnatural mean I can conceivably go. You wanna get a little Botox cause maybe you have a scar that makes it more pronounced in the middle of your forehead because the wrinkles lines I can see you wanting to diminish something like that. I could also see you’re young. You’re just starting to show the signs of wrinkles, crows feet and all that and you might wanna especially if you’re in the industry that you might want to he’s a little Botox to keep that at bail a little while longer so it doesn’t happen you know, I can conceivably understand that but to lift and tuck and pull and remove or enhanced parts of your body decreased parts of your body all an attempt to just look better for who yourself no, you don’t need to do that for yourself you do that because you’re worried about other people perceive you to get jobs. People need to start being more normal looking at their average selves and make a better playing field for everyone, and then people actually may be hired on their merits of what they can do and how they carry themselves and in regarding the industry, how well can they actually act cause they’re gonna be wearing make up anyways for acting OK even if it’s to make themselves look bad like some actresses and actors may have to make themselves look worse than how they really look it’s still all about acting not how you exactly look to just be natural I think especially the Covid years hit and a lot of people who wasn’t able to go out and get their hair done the same, and I think a lot of average day women started to be more comfortable in the gray. Some of them kept it when you go back to the salon and something didn’t feel as comfortable when they start going back to salons whatever but really everybody needs to feel comfortable in the skin. They’re in and not have outward influences and everybody be much better off and so with the kids seeing this all being done, may have to remember it isn’t just us. It is the next check of generations that were affecting. I’ll ever tell my nieces is make sure you take off whatever makeup you have on before you go to bed. and to remember to moisturize their face, their neck, their upper chest, their elbows and knees, hands and feet and anywhere else in between if they need to or can because it counts because you only do your face your neck will show your age and so will your hands if you don’t do it and obviously hydrate hydrate hydrate use simple products, natural soap dove. I’m sure there’s lots of different types of natural soap, oatmeal, soaps, or whatever it is to use they’re much better for your skin less harsh.
Good for her for saying this. Also Pamela Anderson for going to events makeup free. It's time we stopped worrrying about the superficial stuff and giving in to pharmaceutical companies that charge outrageous prices just so we can paint our faces. Men don't have to put up with any of that, no one expects it of them.
I turned 65 this year, and I wear makeup or not, but I am told that I look 45 to 50. I only use soap to wash my face, and I have not been interested in surgery, or any creams, etc., for 'looking younger', or for wrinkles to be reduced, etc. A big waste of $. In my opinion! I am proud of my wrinkles, and my age. I own it! So...kudos to Jamie Lee, and Pamela. And to women wanting to be natural. Of course, to each their own...
Fine time to complain now that Jamie Lee has become an old man
thank you, Jamie Lee, for, once again, standing up for true beauty - the beauty we were born with. I truly admired the full-page ad in Cosmo that you did years ago, showing us what "a woman's body looks like"!! Loved you for it then and love you even more for still standing up for natural beauty!!!! You are a true hero!