Jamie Lee Curtis has been an actress since the late 70s, particularly coming into her own in the 90s, where she starred alongside Arnold Swarzenegger at the height of his career in 1994’s action-comedy True Lies. Another legendary movie of the 90s was Independence Day, did the actress also have a part in that movie?
Jamie Lee Curtis was not in the original 1996 Independence Day, or it’s 2016 sequel Independence Day: Resurgence. She has only ever starred in one movie that was considered science fiction in the likes of Independence Day.
Although Curtis has been the victim of otherworldly beings more than a few times in her career, none of them have been the work of the extraterrestrial as in Independence Day. Her adversaries over the course of her acting life have been of the horror variety, such as in her iconic role as Laurie Strode in Halloween.
Scream Queen
She’s not just any old scream queen, Curtis truly sits atop the throne with that crown placed firmly on her head. She’s the original damsel in distress of the Halloween franchise.
Where other characters of a similar archetype fell victim to their predator, Curtis and Strode subverted the trope and defied the movie-goers expectations, surviving another day. She’s essentially the godmother to every spiritual successor that followed, and she did it in style.
Her screams wouldn’t come from aliens or intimidating unidentified flying objects that block out the sun, but from the kind of monstrosities born out of the human psyche. Murderers, monsters dressed as men, the kind of antagonist that defined the slasher genre that she made her wheelhouse.
Although her experience in dealing with the supernatural might have made her a perfect fit for a role in Independence, she was never involved in the movie in any capacity.
Not Quite Independence Day
The closest run-in with alien life that Curtis has ever had on-screen was in 1999’s Virus. Stranded at sea and running into an abandoned Russian research vessel is almost scary enough alone to warrant this movie getting put under the horror umbrella.
Everything quickly progresses from bad to worse over the course of the movie, however, as they discover that there is some kind of alien lifeform controlling the vessel and making their life hell.
Although she did work in other genres, specifically any blend of comedy, action, and romance, this kind of edge-of-your-seat horror thrill-ride more often than not served as her bread and butter. This was her only time that it was with an alien lifeform, however.
Unless you count the deleted scene from The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, a movie with a plotline and script that matches its title in bizarreness. In the unseen footage, Curtis played the mother to the titular character Dr. Buckaroo Banzai, though still didn’t have any close encounters of the third kind.
Who Stars in Independence Day?
Although the always appreciated Curtis didn’t star in the science-fiction epic that brought a healthy dose of aliens and action to the silver screen, who were some of the actors that starred in it instead?
Will Smith is probably the character that comes to people’s minds first and foremost. The real action hero of the movie, Smith’s character presents a relatable and flawed fighter pilot by the name of Captain Steven Hiller.
A lot of the movie’s best moments come at the hands of Smith in this role, one that he managed to snag because of his performance in the movie Six Degrees of Separation. Apparently, both of the writers of Independence Day, Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, had appreciated his role in that movie so much that he was their first choice.
The list of actors in the movie was an A-lister goldmine. Alongside Smith, you had the likes of Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, and Vivica Fox.
Many of the names attached to the project are still huge stars today but were absolutely huge during the 90s. The combination of the star power underneath the hood of the already beautiful and well-written movie made it the perfect vehicle to drive straight into the number 1 grossing movie of 1996.
It didn’t just hit number 1, either, it absolutely crushed it with numbers that would hold up well decades later.