1994 was the year of great movies: Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, and The Lion King to name just a few. However, none of them reached the same heights at the box office that year as James Cameron’s spy action comedy True Lies.
Not only did True Lies become that year’s highest-grossing movie, but it also became the first movie ever with a $100 million budget, according to the Guinness World Record. It cemented Arnold Schwarzenegger as an action movie star, confirmed James Cameron as a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood, and proved that Jamie Lee Curtis could indeed do no wrong.
Ditching her horror roots for high-octane action and humor, Jamie Lee Curtis stars as Helen Tasker, the wife of computer salesman Harry Tasker. Helen leads a relatively boring, ordinary life, and is under the impression her husband does too. Except, in reality, Harry is not a computer salesman — he’s a government spy. His “work trips” that frequently take him away from his family are actually life-or-death government operations.
Helen’s desire to live a more exciting and fuller life ends up landing her in trouble. Harry quickly steps in to remedy the situation while attempting to keep his double life a secret, but in the end, the pair wind up on an unforeseen roller coaster ride that is full of its own life-or-death situations.
How old was Jamie Lee Curtis when she starred in True Lies?
By the time she starred as Helen Tasker in True Lies, Jamie Lee Curtis had already played Laurie Strode in both Halloween and Halloween II. She’d also already played the no-nonsense cop, Megan Turner in Blue Steel (1989) and starred opposite Mel Gibson in Forever Young (1992) as Claire Cooper.
When it came time for her to play Helen in True Lies, Curtis was 36 years old. In fact, she celebrated her birthday by dangling off of a helicopter over the ocean, a stunt she refused to let her body double do in her place.
The iconic striptease scene that True Lies – and Curtis – is often remembered for actually contained a bit of authenticity some fans might not know of. Not only were the matching bra and panties that Curtis wore her own, but the “accidental” fall she endured mid-striptease – the one that caused Schwarzenegger’s character to sit up in alarm – was actually choreographed by her and James Cameron without Schwarzenegger’s knowledge, according to the film’s trivia on IMDb.
The scene in question drew criticism for being perceived as misogynistic but it was later confirmed that it had Curtis’ stamp of approval. She heavily collaborated with Cameron on the scene to get it right, and it was per her recommendation that Helen donned the bra and panties and danced in the light. Previously, her character was supposed to dance nude but entirely in the dark.
Schwarzenegger made sure to clarify to his wife Maria Shriver, that he did not enjoy a single second of it, saying, “Honey, I hated every hour of it!” For her part, Curtis called the filming of True Lies, “Without question, the greatest experience of my professional life so far.”