Jamie Lee Curtis Says Her Oscar is Nonbinary

Over the weekend, Jamie Lee Curtis took home her first ever Academy Award, winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in Everything Everywhere All At Once. Following her win, Curtis spoke to the Today Show, and while she became emotional at the hosts’ congratulations, she wasn’t going to stand for anyone misgendering her Oscar. Instead, she explained that the statue is nonbinary.

“Here they are,” said a teary-eyed Curtis, showing off the Oscar statue.

“Have we named her?” asked host Samantha Guthrie.

“In support of my daughter Ruby, I’m having them be a they/them,” explained Curtis. “I’m gonna just call them them. They/them. And they are doing great and they’re settling in.”

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Ruby came out to her as trans in 2020, and since then, Curtis has been a vocal supporter, championing her daughter whenever she gets the chance. Just last year, Curtis even officiated Ruby’s wedding.

Her daughter described coming out to Curtis and her husband Christopher Guest in a conversation with People Magazine at the time. “It was scary — just the sheer fact of telling them something about me they didn’t know,” Ruby said. “It was intimidating — but I wasn’t worried. They had been so accepting of me my entire life.”

After receiving an initial text message, Curtis got in contact with Ruby right away. “I called her immediately,” she said. “Needless to say there were some tears involved.”

While in public Curtis can appear to be a model of parental support for a queer child, she also hasn’t sugarcoated the amount of learning and mistakes it has taken to get there. “It’s speaking a new language,” she explained. “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.”

“But if one person reads this, sees a picture of Ruby and me and says, ‘I feel free to say this is who I am,’ then it’s worth it,” she added.

Curtis elaborated on why it is so important for her to publicly support her daughter, particularly in the midst of conservative attacks on the trans community. “I’m not proselytizing, and I’m not trying to force-feed something to people,” she said. “I’m simply saying, ‘This is our family’s experience.’ I am here to support Ruby. That is my job. Just as it is to care and love and support her.”