Jamie Lee Curtis is opening up about how much she is learning with her daughter’s transition.
via People:
The “Knives Out” star and her daughter Ruby, who came out as transgender last year, spoke publicly about her journey for the first time — and how it changed Curtis — in a new interview with People.
Ruby, the 25-year-old daughter of Curtis and comedy director Christopher Guest, recalled that on the day she wanted to come out to her parents she felt a little scared, “just [for] the sheer fact of telling them something about me they didn’t know.” So she ended up not saying anything.
She later texted her mother, who called her immediately.
“Needless to say there were some tears involved,” Curtis, 62, said, adding that from that moment on it became a process of learning about something new.
“It’s speaking a new language,” she said. “It’s learning new terminology and words. I am new at it. I am not someone who is pretending to know much about it. And I’m going to blow it, I’m going to make mistakes. I would like to try to avoid making big mistakes.”
The Golden Globe Award-winning actress said that she “knew Ruby had had a boyfriend. I knew that Ruby had used the word bi,” but noted that gender identity and sexual orientation “are two separate things.”
She also knew that Ruby played female avatars when playing video games. “But when you ask, ‘Did you have an inkling that Ruby was trans?’ I would say no. But when I replayed Ruby’s life, I went, ‘Hmm, that, that, those, hmm.’”
Curtis, who had already shared that she watched Ruby’s transition “in wonder and pride,” said that she continues to learn from her daughter.
“I am here to support Ruby. That is my job. Just as it is to care and love and support her older sister Annie in her journeys,” she said. “I’m a grateful student. I’m learning so much from Ruby. The conversation is ongoing. But I want to know: How can I do this better?”
If Jamie can learn and adapt to change at her old age — so can everyone.
