Jamie Lee Curtis is sharing a piece of family history.
The actress, 66, revealed that she found a connection between the movie “The Lost Bus,” which she recently produced, and her late mother, Janet Leigh, who died in 2004 at 77.
The film is based on true events from the 2018 Camp Fire in the town of Paradise. The wildfire still remains one of the deadliest in California’s history.
On Friday, while at the project’s world premiere screening during the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, Curtis said she met the real-life people behind the story.
Matthew McConaughey stars as school bus driver, Kevin McKay, who, alongside school teacher Mary Ludwig, (America Ferrera), “battle to save 22 children from the terrifying inferno.”
Ludwig ended up recalling a “weird connection” to Curtis when they met.
“Mary was much more guarded than Kevin. Kevin was gregarious,” Curtis reflected. “Mary was a little more concerned.”
“She said, ‘My father dated your mother.’ [I asked], ‘For real?’ I said, ‘Where?’ She said, ‘Merced, Calif.,” recounted the Oscar winner. “Now, you guys know my mother as Janet Leigh, but before she was Janet Leigh, she was Jeanette Helen Morrison from Merced, Calif., and Mary Ludwig’s father dated Jeanette.”
Curtis explained that “this moment with Kevin and Mary was born from something much bigger,” and celebrated “the fact that we’re all here together with you at the world premiere of a movie about their story told by a master produced by a master, is just a thrilling, weird, connect-the-dots [moment].”
McKay, meanwhile, detailed “the last happy memory” he had with his mother before the wildfire.
He recalled taking his mom to see Curtis in her 2018 film, “Halloween.”
The actress stated, “That was very moving. Immediately, I felt a kinship.”
Curtis’ parents were actress Janet Leigh and actor Tony Curtis. The pair was married from 1951 to 1962. Tony died in 2010 at age 85.
In February 2023, Curtis gave a shout out to her parents and sister Kelly during her acceptance speech at the SAG Awards.
“I’m wearing the wedding ring that my father gave my mother. They hated each other, by the way, by the end of it,” she began. “But my sister Kelly and I were born from love. My father was from Hungary, and my mother was from Denmark, and they had nothing, and they became these monstrous stars in this industry.”
Meanwhile, “The Lost Bus” had a second family connection.
McConaughey’s 17-year-old son Levi, and his 93-year-old mom Kay, also had parts in the film.
“I had no idea that this young man, my son, was interested [in acting],” the actor, 55, revealed during a Q&A following the screening, “but when I pitched the script to the family, as I always do before work, the part about Kevin [McKay] having a son, he asked me one day, ‘Well, how old is he?’ I said, ‘He’s about your age.’ And then he goes, ‘Think I could read for it?’ And I didn’t say anything. That wasn’t enough to make me say ‘maybe’ or anything.”
Levi continued to ask his dad about auditioning for the role.
McConaughey explained, “He came back four more times and I said, ‘Okay, now he’s working for it, for the idea.’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ I knew they hadn’t cast the part. Pulled out the camera, worked with him on a scene, and sent that to [casting director] Francine Maisler, and I said — remember I had a note?”
“I said, ‘I think it might be good enough for a callback.’ And she wrote back, ‘I think it might be good enough to show to Paul.’”
Before director Paul Greengrass got his hands on the footage, the Hollywood vet had one request.
McConaughey recalled telling Maisler, “When you do that, will you do me one favor? Will you pull the last name off so it’s just, there’s no McConaughey on the end of that?”
“She said yes,” the Texas native shared. “Next call I got, [Paul] said, he goes, ‘That’s the guy, that’s the son.’ And then he was told, ‘Well, that happens to be Matthew’s son.’ And in Paul fashion, he was like, ‘Even better!’ … So this is all due to Paul. My family’s in this film because of this man to the left.”
“The Lost Bus” hits theaters Sept. 19, and will be available to stream on Apple TV+ Oct. 3.
