Photo:Courtesy of Bleecker Street
Courtesy of Bleecker Street
Jane Curtin, the formerSaturday Night Livestar who originated the role of one of the Coneheads alongside DanAykroydin the infamousSNLsketch, is now starring in another movie that yes, is about aliens.
Jules(now playing in theaters), is a charming indie film that also starsSir Ben Kingsley. In the movie Curtin plays a senior citizen in a small town who helps Kingsley’s character hide and protect an alien that crash lands into his backyard.
“It’s a coincidence!” she tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. (The interview was conducted on July 7, before the SAG-AFTRA strikes.) “I don' t think anyone was ever like, ‘Yes, she was born to give the world alien-adjacent content three times!'”
In 1993, Curtin reprised her role as Prymaat Conehead in the feature film based on the SNL sketch, and a few years later, starred in3rd Rock from the Sunalongside John Lithgow. The sitcom, which ran from 1996-2001, was about an alien family who came to earth and had to assimilate to our strange earthly ways. (Curtin played Lithgow’s human love interest.)
Paramount/courtesy Everett Collection
“I know it’s funny, but I really don’t know why it’s the case,” she says about all of her extraterrestrial content. But she does love that a quirky, indie film likeJulesgot made in the day and age, when most movies are full of action and explosions.
“It’s one thing to see Indiana Jones cracking his whip at 80, but it’s another to see a group of 80 year olds just living,” she says. “It’s a wonderful, wonderful film.”
At 75, Curtin says she’s also pleased to still be working as an actress.
Brian Bowen Smith via Getty
“See, I’m one of the lucky ones,” she says. “I never got into this business for prestige or power or anything like that. I’m in it to tell stories. Iloveto tell stories. I like telling stories and I like working and it’s a social thing. I like being around actors.”
She says that’s one of the keys to her happiness — that, and living in nature with her husband of 48 years, Patrick Lynch.
“Find something that makes you happy, and just do it,” she says. “And keep moving!”
source: people.com
