Jamie Lee Curtis Calls “New Girl” a ‘Great Show’ but Admits She ‘Hated’ Filming Her Guest Appearances

The actress is now executive producing and starring in the new NBC multi-camera sitcom ‘Newlyweds’

NEED TO KNOW

• Jamie Lee Curtis says she “hated” filming her guest appearances on New Girl because of its single-camera format
• The actress is now executive producing and appearing in Newlyweds, an NBC multi-camera sitcom starring Téa Leoni and Tim Daly
• Curtis says she has wanted to do another sitcom for years and is enjoying being “the boss” on her new show

Jamie Lee Curtis has a lot of love for New Girl, just not for the experience of filming it.

During NBCUniversal’s Summer Backlot Experience on Monday, Aug. 10, Curtis was asked if she had taken anything from her experience on the multi-camera sitcom Anything But Love and brought it to her new comedy Newlyweds.

“I’m telling you, I have begged my agents to do [it]. And by the way, I did a single camera, which I hated,” Curtis said about New Girl.

Curtis, 67, was quick to clarify that her issue wasn’t with the Zooey Deschanel-led comedy itself.

“It’s a great show, New Girl, very funny, but doing it is just like doing a movie,” she said. “You know, you’ve got a camera crew, and nobody laughs. It’s silent, and it’s awful. For me, awful. Single-camera comedies, for me, not fun.”

New Girl starred Deschanel as Jess, a quirky woman who moves in with three single men after a breakup, with the group eventually becoming close friends. Jake Johnson, Max Greenfield, Lamorne Morris and Hannah Simone also starred in the seven-season comedy, which was created by Elizabeth Meriwether. Curtis appeared as Jess’ mother, alongside the late Rob Reiner as Jess’ father. The show followed the single-camera format, as opposed to the multi-camera format, in which sitcoms are often filmed in front of a laughing studio audience or feature laugh tracks.

The Freakier Friday star said she has spent years asking her agents to find her another multi-camera sitcom, similar to Anything But Love, which she starred in with the late Richard Lewis from 1989 to 1992.

“I’ve just simply been begging, begging people to do it,” she said.

Curtis is now bringing that idea to fruition with Newlyweds, an NBC multi-camera comedy led by real-life spouses Téa Leoni and Tim Daly. In addition to her behind-the-scenes role as an executive producer, she also appears on the show in a recurring guest capacity.

The series follows a free-spirited woman and a buttoned-up professor who impulsively marry after a whirlwind romance, according to NBC. Curtis and fellow executive producer Gail Lerner wanted the comedy to explore love, change and the possibility of finding something new at any stage of life.

“I want everyone to watch this show and look at the spouse you have not really looked at in quite a while and be like, ‘Hello,’” Lerner previously said. “Or just anything you have love for — photography, ceramics, animals — just to be open to finding new love at any age.”

Curtis also drew inspiration from her own relationship with her husband, Christopher Guest, whom she said she married after seeing his picture in a magazine and spending no more than 72 hours together at a time before their wedding.

“There’s something really delicious about watching people figure out life when they’re filled in a life with other people,” Curtis said. “And that’s ultimately what we kind of wanted the show to be.”

The project has also given Curtis the opportunity to step into a role she has long wished to take on.

“I like to refer to myself as the HBIC. Head bitch in charge,” Curtis said with a laugh. “I’m 68 years old. I’ve wanted to be a boss my whole life.”

Curtis said she’s spent much of her career wanting to have more of a say behind the scenes.

“I’ve been doing it not as a boss for a long, long time. And now I’m a boss, and I love it,” she said.

For Curtis, the sitcom format has remained a longtime passion. After filming a sitcom pilot in 1988 that wasn’t picked up, she continued telling her agents she wanted to return to the genre.

“Every single year, all I’ve ever said to my agents is ‘I want to do a sitcom, all I want to do is a sitcom,’” she said elsewhere during the panel.

“I love the whole part of it, every aspect of it, the dance with the cameras, the idea that you actually get to rehearse something and work it and learn a joke and play it,” she added.

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Eventually, Curtis decided to help create the opportunity herself.

“I just never got to do it, and so I just decided to basically kind of create my own job,” she said. “I met Gail [Lerner], and that’s why we are all here.”

Fans can catch Curtis in Newlyweds when the new sitcom debuts Oct. 23 at 8:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

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