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Jamie Lee Curtis cops backlash for Ana De Armas comments

“Why would she admit that?” Jamie Lee Curtis is copping a fierce backlash over comments she made about a co-star from a recent hit film.

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Actress Jamie Lee Curtis is copping heat online for some eyebrow-raising comments she made about former co-star Ana De Armas in a recent interview.

Curtis starred alongside De Armas in the 2019 hit film Knives Out – and she offered some words about their first meeting in a new Elle profile of the Cuban-Spanish actress, who was 30 and had starred in a string of Hollywood films including Blade Runner 2049 and War Dogs by the time she landed a leading role in Knives Out.

Ana De Armas (left) and her Knives Out co-star Jamie Lee Curtis.
Ana De Armas (left) and her Knives Out co-star Jamie Lee Curtis.

“I assumed — and I say this with real embarrassment — because she had come from Cuba, that she had just arrived. I made an assumption that she was an inexperienced, unsophisticated young woman. That first day, I was like, ‘Oh, what are your dreams?’” Curtis told the outlet.

In fact, Armas, who grew up in Cuba, moved to Madrid at 18 before relocating to Los Angeles in 2014, five years before Knives Out was made.

She also told Elle that she offered to introduce her co-star to Steven Spielberg or to her godchildren, Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal – and was “surprised (De Amas) already knew Jake.”

Curtis’ comments were met with a mix of bewilderment and backlash online, with many questioning why exactly she volunteered this information so forthcomingly and accusing the actress of casual racism for her assumption De Armas was “inexperienced (and) unsophisticated”:

Elsewhere in the profile, De Amas’ fellow Knives Out co-star offered more straightforward praise of the actress, telling Elle: “I’m a fan first. There are certain people on camera you can’t stop watching, and her range, from power to vulnerability, is incredibly wide. She can go from almost dangerous to exposed, gentle and soft in one scene.”

L-R: Knives Out’s writer and director Rian Johnson, Michael Shannon, Jaeden Martell, Daniel Craig, Katherine Langford, Don Johnson, Ana de Armas, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis and Ram Bergman at the film’s 2019 premiere. Picture: Getty
L-R: Knives Out’s writer and director Rian Johnson, Michael Shannon, Jaeden Martell, Daniel Craig, Katherine Langford, Don Johnson, Ana de Armas, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis and Ram Bergman at the film’s 2019 premiere. Picture: Getty

It’s not Curtis’ first foot-in-mouth moment in recent months. Back in May, the Everything Everywhere All At Once actress mounted a one-woman campaign to attract more viewers to her acclaimed indie movie – by dissing Marvel’s latest offering, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Curtis in Everything Everywhere All At Once.
Curtis in Everything Everywhere All At Once.

She posted poor reviews of the Marvel film to her Instagram account, bragging that in contrast her film “has a deep BEATING heart and BRILLIANT visual treats, EXTRAORDINARY performances and FANTASTIC BEASTLY FIGHT SCENES...... AND it COST LESS than the ENTIRE craft service budget on Doctor Strange and/or any other Marvel movie.”

Curtis also pre-empted complaints about her unfiltered post, writing: “COMPETITIVE? F**k YES. I wasn’t head cheerleader in high school for nothing.

But Curtis’ “competitive” move backfired, with the star copping an overwhelmingly negative response from those who thought it an unessecarily negative way to draw attention to her film.

Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/jamie-lee-curtis-cops-backlash-for-ana-de-armas-comments/news-story/64d5afed37fccf7e398dfde2985fa7d4