Oscars outrage: How did Jamie Lee Curtis miss a nomination for ‘True Lies’?

It was July 1994. The summer was sizzling. And so were cinemas. That’s truly no lie.

James Cameron’s action comedy flick “True Lies” opened in theaters on the 15th of the month, knocking “Forrest Gump” from the top of the box office chart in its second week. “True Lies” starred a pre-California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as a U.S. government spy whose occupation is unbeknownst to his own family. (They think that he’s a salesman.) Schwarzenegger was one of the biggest movie stars on the planet at the time, thanks to a string of recent successes including 1988’s “Twins,” 1990’s “Total Recall” and 1991’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” While “True Lies” was judged favorably by most critics, it was the bodybuilder-turned-actor’s onscreen wife Jamie Lee Curtis who received the bulk of the praise. Her nice but naive character was undergoing a midlife crisis, and Curtis injected her with an ingenious combination of heroine, humor and heart.

Like she had done in the “Halloween” slasher series, she simply killed it.

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With “Forrest Gump” and other current releases like “The Lion King” already generating Oscar buzz, I couldn’t help but ask a question that I had pondered many times over the years (both before and after 1994). Could Jamie Lee Curtis earn her first Oscar nomination?

It was a long shot, I knew. Highly commercial summertime releases were rarely the academy’s cup of tea. (Or iced tea, if you will.) But if 1993 was able to generate a Best Picture nomination for “The Fugitive” and a Best Supporting Actress citation for Holly Hunter in “The Firm,” then 1994 could surely do the trick for Curtis in “True Lies.”

By the end of the year, there was one thing that seemed likely to benefit JLC and her Oscar prospects. 1994 did not showcase many great parts for women. Jodie Foster in “Nell” and Jessica Lange in “Blue Sky” appeared to be the sole locks in the Best Actress category. And in the Supporting Actress sweepstakes, Uma Thurman in “Pulp Fiction” and Dianne Wiest in “Bullets Over Broadway” were the only women who seemed certain to fire. I assumed that Curtis would be considered a secondary player, so a race with three wide-open slots was good news for her.

The good news continued when Curtis reaped a Golden Globe nom for Best Film Comedy Actress. (The category placement didn’t concern me; I knew that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association wanted to fill the field with big names.) And big names they were: Geena Davis in “Speechless,” Andie MacDowell in “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” Shirley MacLaine in “Guarding Tess” and Emma Thompson in “Junior.” Curtis had her work cut out for her. But even in those pre-Gold Derby days, I quickly predicted her to win.

And win she did. More importantly, she delivered a moving and memorable acceptance speech that was surely watched by countless academy members. She notably took out a piece a paper on which her daughter Annie had written “True Lies, Mom,” before Curtis had departed for the ceremony. Annie’s words brought her momma Jamie good luck at the Golden Globes. Would the luck continue at the Oscars?

I later learned that Curtis had scored a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Best Supporting Actress for “True Lies.” It was the inaugural year of the awards, so it was unclear how much they would overlap with the Oscars. Nonetheless, most of the likely Oscar contenders were included in the SAG lineups. So I concluded that the Golden Globe-winning and SAG-nominated Curtis might very well make the cut.

On Valentine’s Day 1995, I woke up early to watch the Oscar nominations announcement live as I did every year. I had made my predictions in all of the major categories. My Supporting Actress picks included Curtis, Kirsten Dunst in “Interview with the Vampire,” Thurman, Wiest and Robin Wright in “Forrest Gump.” All five had already competed at the Golden Globes, though Curtis had been classified as lead. Unless SAG entrant Sally Field rode in on a “Forrest Gump” steamroller, I considered Curtis to be reasonably safe for a slot.

So when Academy President Arthur Hiller began to read the Supporting Actress names, I was dumbfounded when he said Rosemary Harris in “Tom and Viv” instead of Curtis in “True Lies.” Alphabetically, I had expected Curtis to be the first name announced. Hiller went on to shock, revealing surprise Supporting Actress bids for Helen Mirren in “The Madness of King George” and Jennifer Tilly in “Bullets Over Broadway.” (The remaining two spots were taken by Thurman and Wiest, as expected.)

Curtis had been overlooked by the academy. And I was outraged. (“True Lies” earned just a single bid, for Best Visual Effects.)

Wiest went on to claim the Oscar, a bookend to the Supporting Actress trophy she had picked up for 1986’s “Hannah and Her Sisters.” Curtis did appear at the Academy Awards to introduce the Scientific and Technical Award recipients. She was one the brightest spots in a rather dull telecast. (It was the year of David Letterman’s infamous “Uma-Oprah” debacle.) If only Curtis had been able to shine as a Supporting Actress nominee.

Four years later, I found myself interviewing Curtis in Los Angeles about her efforts to promote children’s literacy. Of course, the first thing that I said upon meeting her was that she was robbed of an Oscar nomination for “True Lies.” I went on to congratulate her on her Golden Globe victory, and acknowledged how sweet it was that her daughter’s “True Lies, Mom” note had brought her such good fortune.

“I still have that note,” Curtis told me.

As I later bid farewell to her, I expressed hope that she would someday win an Academy Award.

It took a few decades, but she finally did — for Best Supporting Actress of 2022 for the Best Picture champion “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” And her Oscar statuette will likely be joined by a Primetime Emmy Award for Best Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for “The Bear.” (She already holds a huge lead in Gold Derby’s official odds.) From Hollywood Scream Queen to awards magnet. What a career that Curtis continues to have.

But it will always be a shame that Jamie Lee’s original, inventive and undeniably awesome work in 1994’s “True Lies” failed to produce what should have been her very first Oscar nomination. And that’s truly no lie.

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