Jamie Lee Curtis: Her 10 Best Performances
2. A Fish Called Wanda
This John Cleese-penned crime comedy, directed by Charles Crichton, is a film packed to the brim with excellent performances. Cleese himself is incredible, Michael Palin is side-splittingly funny, and Kevin Kline literally won an Oscar for his supporting role as the ever-idiotic Otto.
In a cast of such funny people, it would have been easy for Jamie Lee Curtis' Wanda to get a bit lost in the shuffle. But Curtis doesn't miss a beat, stepping right up to the plate and actually winds up outdoing each and every one of her co-stars. Wanda is a flirtatious and not-so-loyal thief who uses her good looks and sexuality to get the upper hand in every relationship she's a part of, manipulating the men in her life with ease.
Curtis' performance is brimming with confidence in a way that is incredibly befitting of Wanda. Even in the film's most ludicrous scenes, such as her and Otto's sex scene or her attempted seduction of Cleese's Archie Leach going horribly awry, Curtis never bats an eye. She not only partakes in the lunacy, she indulges in it. Her remarkable comedic timing and ability to act solely through physical motion has never been put to greater use than it is here.
Moments such as her darting around Archie's room to hide from his wife or her falling on the floor when Archie begins to speak a multitude of languages to her are so funny and so affecting because Curtis' performance is perfection.