Halloween, Curtis got little work off of it, with Carpenter then writing a role specifically for her in The Fog to give his friend a job.
Jamie Lee Curtis soon became horror royalty, starring in a slew of slasher or thriller movies. Prom Night is one of the better known Halloween-style slashers from that era, and she also appeared in New Year's Eve horror Terror Train and Hitchcockian thriller Road Games. Curtis has since stated she knew that if she continued to appear in horror movies, the "Scream Queen" label would never go away. She turned down a role in Psycho 2, and only agreed to return as Laurie for 1981's Halloween 2 as a favor to Carpenter and producer Debra Hill. It was also, in her mind, a goodbye to the genre.
Director John Landis later cast her in 1983 comedy Trading Places, where a pompous businessman named Winthorpe (Dan Aykroyd) has his life destroyed by his two millionaire bosses. These evil brothers place a bet to see if a person's background really influences how they do in life, so they fire Winthorpe and replace him with Eddie Murphy's street hustler Valentine. Jamie Lee Curtis - who was wasted in Halloween Kills - played Trading Places' Ophelia, a sex worker hired as part of the ruse to ruin Winthorpe, who later helps him seek revenge on his bosses.
Trading Places helped Jamie Lee Curtis break out of horror, and she was cast against the wishes of the studio. By then, Curtis was so well known in the genre they didn't think she would work in a major comedy, but Landis insisted. While she had played strong characters previously, Trading Places allowed her to show off a lighter, comedic side. While Murphy - who was coming off the back of 48 Hrs - and Aykroyd may take the limelight, Curtis more than holds her own throughout the movie, including when she dons a disguise towards the finale.
It helps that Trading Places was a huge success, meaning other filmmakers got to see Jamie Lee Curtis outside of the horror genre. She branched further out with the likes of A Fish Called Wanda and Blue Steel, though she did eventually make a horror return with Halloween H20 in 1998. Curtis has since warmly embraced her horror roots with the Blumhouse Halloween series, but Trading Place was a real breakthrough that allowed her to explore other kinds of roles.
