Jamie Lee Curtis and Colin Farrell recently got candid during their 'Actors on Actors' conversation with Variety, from speaking about their childhoods to bonding over their sobriety journeys.
Following the success of Curtis and Farrell's respective 2022 projects - Everything, Everywhere All At Once and The Banshees of Inisherin - the pair discussed the art of film, which led them onto the topic of legacy.
Farrell quizzed the legendary scream queen on her own interpretation of the term, she said: "Being sober is going to be a legacy, for sure.
"Because I’m stopping what has been a generational issue in my biological family," Jamie answered honestly.
"It’ll be the single greatest thing I do, if I can stay sober," she said with her heart on her sleeve, "Because generations of people have had their lives ruled and ruined by alcoholism and drug addiction.
"For me, sobriety first. Always," she let the moving statement ring out.
This struck a chord with her fellow actor, as Farrell echoed how struggles with addiction are universal: "The whole reason art exists is because it’s an expression of the human condition.
"And no matter what blessings I have or what wealth I experience in my life, I have no more or less of the human condition than the gentleman who’s living without a roof over his head," Farrell told Curtis.
The 64-year-old actress branded sobriety as a "gift", to which, the Total Recall star said that particular term "resonated” with him.
Jamie's sobriety journey began in 1999 as she sought help for a dependency on alcohol and addiction to opiates. She told PEOPLE in 2018: "I’m breaking the cycle that has basically destroyed the lives of generations in my family, getting sober remains my single greatest accomplishment."
Farrell also faced addiction in 2005 after struggling with drugs and alcohol since his teenage years, and in 2018 he checked himself into rehab as a preventative measure to avoid relapse.
"The rules apply to you just like they apply to other people. That's what legacy is: making friends and loving your people really well," the Knives Out star stated.
Later on, in their poignant conversation, Colin made a grand statement: "The only two things I know as certainties are, we’re going to die and we’re going to make serious mistakes."
Provoking Jamie to ask him if that's something he's always known, even before his sobriety, the 48-year-old actor responded: "No. I had suspicions, before I got sober, of how painful life could be. But I had no ability to hold that without being self-destructive and without living in it.
"I don’t live in that now," Farrell confessed, "I feel these things that we’re talking about, at times. And I consider life greatly at times. And other times, I’m as frivolous as I was when I was 6 years old on a good day."
The pair of Hollywood stars connected throughout their open conversation, with Jamie sharing her gratitude for Colin’s honesty as the interview came to a close.
“Thank you for this,” she said, to which he replied, “this was incredible for me, God I loved it so much.”