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Jamie Lee Curtis says 'people lost their minds' when she posed topless at age 50

Jamie Lee Curtis says her 2008 topless cover caused a stir. (Photo: REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni)
Jamie Lee Curtis says her 2008 topless cover caused a stir. (Photo: REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni)

On Saturday night, actress Jamie Lee Curtis was honored with the Career Achievement Award from AARP The Magazine. But it's not the first time the publication — which shines a spotlight on people aged 50 and older — has shown the star some love.

In an Instagram post shared ahead of the magazine's annual Movies for Grownups Awards, Curtis, 64, reflected on appearing topless on the cover of its May/June 2008 issue. Then 50, the Halloween star posed naked in a swimming pool for the Andrew Eccles-lensed shoot, causing quite a stir.

"People lost their MINDS that I was TOPLESS!" Curtis, who just scored for her first Oscar nomination for her supporting turn in Everything Everywhere All at Once, shared. "A perfect statement about how weird people are about older people having any sexuality whatsoever."

Curtis's post drew support from the likes of Naomi Watts and her former Freaky Friday co-star, Lindsay Lohan. Supermodel Paulina Porizkova, no stranger to provocative photo shoots that challenge conventional thinking about aging, commented, "Yup. Apparently, older women should give that up."

Curtis has been unapologetic about aging on her own terms. In the 2008 issue, the True Lies star spoke about letting her hair — now silver, nearly 15 years later — go gray and learning to love the mature version of herself.

"I want to be older," she told the magazine. "I actually think there's an incredible amount of self-knowledge that comes with getting older. I feel way better now than I did when I was 20. I'm stronger, I'm smarter in every way, I'm so much less crazy than I was then."

In more recent years, the Trading Places actress has spoken out about society's obsession with plastic surgery — which she has admitted trying and hating — and using filters to look younger.

"I've also been an advocate for not f***ing with your face," she said during an appearance on the U.K. talk show Lorraine in 2021. "And the term 'anti-aging.' What? What are you talking about? We're all going to f****ing age. We’re all gonna die. Why do you want to look 17 when you're 70? I want to look 70 when I'm 70!"

Last year Curtis shared that she is focusing more on acceptance and less on vanity.

"When I brush my teeth, of course, I look in the mirror," she said during a talk at the Radically Reframing Aging Summit. "When I pluck my eyebrows, of course, I look in a mirror. But when I get out of a shower, I just don't stare at my now 63-year-old body in the mirror. I'm not denying what I look like, of course I've seen what I look like. I am trying to live in acceptance. If I look in the mirror, it's harder for me to be in acceptance. I’m more critical. Whereas, if I just don't look, I'm not so worried about it."

Speaking at the Movies for Grownups Awards this weekend, Curtis expressed her appreciation for aging.

"At the end of the day, what I love most about grownups is that we are more alike than different — grownups suit up and show up each day, regardless of the way our cards were dealt," she said in her acceptance speech. "It's the beauty of grownups and I'm honored to be considered one because it's a badge of honor that I wear proudly on my face, on my body, in my mind and in my soul."

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