SAN DIEGO (AP) — In Comic-Con’s Hall H, the massive room that holds the highest profile presentations and hosts the biggest movie and television stars, there is still a strict division between the actors on stage and those in the audience. But Jamie Lee Curtis changed that Friday, walking off-stage during the presentation for the new “Halloween” to embrace an emotional fan.
Wiping tears away, the man used his moment at the Q&A microphone to tell a story about a home invasion he experienced. He said that her character saved his life and inspired him to use knitting needles in defense. He said he was a victor not a victim because of her, and that she was the reason he attended the convention.
A stunned audience watched as Curtis, without warning, left her seat on the big stage and walked down to share a quiet moment with the man.
His comments echoed what Curtis had said just moments earlier about how this new iteration of “Halloween” is so important because it allows her character to reclaim her narrative 40 years after the traumatic events with Michael Myers in John Carpenter’s movie.
“This is a woman who has been waiting 40 years to face the person she knows is coming back,” Curtis said. “40 years later Laurie had no real support, had no real help. PTSD is real. Trauma is real.”
She says her character in this new film gets the chance to “take back the legacy” of her life.
“That weirdly enough seems to be a bit of a thing in the world today,” Curtis added to cheers.
Curtis got a wildly enthusiastic reception from the crowd in the 6,500-seat Hall H throughout the presentation, which also featured some horrifying and bloody footage from the upcoming.
“Halloween,” directed by David Gordon Green, hits theaters on Oct. 19.
