Regular readers will understand the special pleasure my wife, Maggie, and I took in the Oscar awarded to Jamie Lee Curtis for best supporting actress.
We became close to her when she played Maggie in the television movie, Nicholas’ Gift, based on the shooting of our seven-year-old son, Nicholas, in a case of mistaken identity while we were with him and his sister, Eleanor, on a family holiday in Italy.
Jamie Lee Curtis shows her Oscar (Photo by L.A. Times)
The gift of submerging her own (strong) personality into that of the character she is playing — the same gift that earned her the Oscar — was evident from the moment we met. Her very first words to Maggie were, “I hope I won’t let you down.”
And so she worked her way in the movie in stages from the horrifying realization that Nicholas had been struck in the head by a bullet, through the profound grief of a mother losing her precious son to the graceful recognition that out of his death donating his organs could save the lives of some desperately sick people, whom at that moment no one else in the world could help.
It didn’t seem like acting at all but, instead, the reliving of a journey from despair to hope — a hope not just for Nicholas’ seven recipients but for the whole world.
Congratulations, dear lady.
By Reg Green
Nicholas’ Gift has been seen by more than 80 million people worldwide and can be rented online.
Note: This article first appeared in Colorado Boulevard magazine, Pasadena, California. Link: https://www.coloradoboulevard.net/jamie-lee-curtis-the-actress-who-was-my-wife/
The Nicholas Effect 