Horror icon Jamie Lee Curtis Admits She Doesn't 'Really Love' the Genre

For four decades Jamie Lee Curtis has been coined horror's scream queen, but the actress has admitted that she's not necessarily a fan of the genre.

via: EW

Jamie Lee Curtis' life and career have been defined by horror movies, but that doesn't mean she needs to like being scared.

"I don't really love it," the Halloween star said of the genre that helped launch her career at a SXSW panel over the weekend. "I'm not joking; I'm not into it. It doesn't mean I don't appreciate it. It's just not my genre, not my thing."

She added, "I owe my life to the genre, but I don't have to pretend that I'm a genre girl and that I love it.

Curtis' relationship with horror started at a young age. She was a child when her mother, Janet Leigh, had her most iconic role, starring as the ill-fated Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Curtis later made her film debut in John Carpenter's Halloween, playing the "final girl," Laurie Strode, in the 1978 slasher classic. Curtis soon became the scream queen of a generation, appearing in six Halloween sequels as well as 1980's The Fog, starring opposite Leigh.

While she's never been in love with the genre," Curtis has always been drawn to "independent filmmaking aspect" of horror. Speaking the day before Sinners was a big winner at the Academy Awards, Curtis spoke of how the view of horror has evolved over the years.

"The fact that it's a genre that now is getting more understanding and appreciation, of course I'm happy," she said. "It's fantastic that the Academy is moving along with that and changing and growing, like any good institution."