Jamie Lee Curtis Reveals Surprising Connection to ‘The Lost Bus’

Jamie Lee Curtis has a surprising connection to one of her new projects. 

At the Toronto International Film Festival premiere of The Lost Bus on Friday, Sept. 5, Curtis, 66, joined stars Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera, director Paul Greengrass and producer Jason Blum to share her involvement with the film as producer. The survival drama (in select theaters Sept. 19 and on Apple TV+ Oct. 3) tells the real-life story of a bus driver and teacher who transported 22 children to safety amid the 2018 Camp Fire, one of California’s deadliest natural disasters.

Schoolteacher Mary Ludwig, portrayed by Ferrera onscreen, was “guarded” in conversations with Curtis, recalled the Halloween star. “When you’re a producer calling someone to say, ‘Hi, we want to tell your story and make a movie about your life,’ obviously there must be trepidations and some concerns. You know, we’re basically from Hollywood. And this is a true story.”

The “concerned” Ludwig told Curtis, “You know, Jamie, we have a weird connection,” remembered the Everything Everywhere All at Once Oscar winner. “I said, ‘Really? What is it, Mary?’ She said, ‘My father dated your mother.’ ”

As it turns out, Curtis’ late mother, Janet Leigh, was romantically involved with Ludwig’s father in Merced, California — prior to the Psycho star changing her name from “Jeanette Helen Morrison,” noted Curtis, “before she was Janet Leigh.”

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Bus driver Kevin McKay, played by McConaughey in The Lost Bus, similarly told Curtis of a connection, she said. The last time he went out with his mother before the devastating fires, he saw Curtis’ 2018 Halloween movie. “That was very moving, and immediately I felt a kinship,” she said.

“This moment of trust between Kevin and Mary was born really from something much bigger,” Curtis continued. “And the fact that we’re all here together with you at the world premiere of a movie about their story told by a master [Greengrass], produced by a master [Blum], is just a thrilling, weird connect-the-dots. And I’m very proud to be here.”

The Lost Bus costars Yul Vazquez, Ashlie Atkinson and McConaughey’s son Levi and mother Kay. The latter two attended the Toronto premiere alongside the Oscar winner’s wife, Camila. (The couple, married since 2012, also share daughter Vida and son Livingston.)

The Lost Bus is in select theaters Sept. 19 and streaming on Apple TV+ Oct. 3.