Jamie Lee Curtis spoke about “The Lost Bus” at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.The Oscar winner revealed that she was stunned to learn that mom Janet Leigh had a romantic connection to the real person who inspired the film.Curtis said it was proof that the inspirational film was “born from something much bigger.”<\/p>\n
Working as a producer on\u00a0Matthew McConaughey<\/a>‘s new movie,\u00a0The Lost Bus,<\/a>\u00a0led\u00a0Jamie Lee Curtis<\/a>\u00a0to find a stunning connection between the material and her late mother,\u00a0Janet Leigh<\/a>, who died in 2004.\n<\/p>\n The Oscar-winning actress revealed Friday night at the film’s world-premiere screening at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival<\/a> that, after boarding the Paul Greengrass<\/a>-directed project alongside producer Jason Blum<\/a> in 2021, she wanted to meet with the real-life people who inspired the film’s story.\n<\/p>\n Curtis recalled to the audience her first meeting with the real Kevin McKay (McConaughey), a bus driver who, alongside teacher Mary Ludwig (America Ferrera<\/a>), navigated to safety a school bus packed with children during California’s deadly 2018 Camp Fire.\n<\/p>\n Jamie Lee Curtis at the Amazon 2025 Upfront.<\/p>\n Dia Dipasupil\/Getty<\/p>\n She said McKay informed her of “the last happy memory” he had with his mother prior to the fire, which he said involved taking his mom out to see Curtis in 2018’s Halloween sequel.\n<\/p>\n “That was very moving,” Curtis observed. “Immediately, I felt a kinship. Then, I spoke to Mary. Mary was much more guarded than Kevin. Kevin was gregarious. Mary was a little more concerned.”\n<\/p>\n Curtis remembered that Ludwig, too, recalled a “weird connection” to the actress.\n<\/p>\n “She said, ‘My father dated your mother.’ [I asked], ‘For real?’ I said, ‘Where?’ She said, ‘Merced, Calif.,” Curtis recounted. “Now, you guys know my mother as Janet Leigh, but before she was Janet Leigh, she was Jeanette Helen Morrison from Merced, Calif., and Mary Ludwig’s father dated Jeanette.”\n<\/p>\n The audience inside the city’s Princess of Wales theater gasped at Curtis’ admission, with the performer noting that the connection surprised her as well.\n<\/p>\n Curtis stressed that “this moment with Kevin and Mary was born from something much bigger,” and celebrated “the fact that we’re all here together with you at the world premiere of a movie about their story told by a master produced by a master, is just a thrilling, weird, connect-the-dots [moment]” before the event ended.\n<\/p>\n Jamie Lee Curtis at the premiere of ‘Freakier Friday’.<\/p>\n Brendon Thorne\/Getty\u00a0<\/p>\n In an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly, McConaughey opened up about making the movie<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n “Hell\u00a0yeah!”\u00a0the Oscar-winning Dallas Buyers Club star said when asked about experiencing any close calls with actual flames during production.\n<\/p>\n