Jamie Lee Curtis said she discovered an unexpected connection between her latest project, the film The Lost Bus, and her late mother, actress Janet Leigh, during the movie’s world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.
Curtis, 66, attended Friday’s screening at the Princess of Wales Theatre as a producer on the film, which dramatizes true events from the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California. The picture stars Matthew McConaughey as school bus driver Kevin McKay and America Ferrera as teacher Mary Ludwig, who together tried to shepherd 22 children to safety as the wildfire advanced.
At the premiere Curtis said she met the real-life people depicted in the film and learned of a personal link to her family. She described the two central figures as having distinct demeanors: “Mary was much more guarded than Kevin. Kevin was gregarious,” Curtis said. “Mary was a little more concerned.”
The Lost Bus recounts the harrowing evacuation and rescue attempts during the Camp Fire, which remains one of the deadliest wildfires in California history. The film centers on the actions of McKay and Ludwig as flames surrounded their vehicle and the community of Paradise.
Curtis has spoken previously about her work as a producer and her interest in stories that explore courage and survival. At the TIFF screening she emphasized meeting survivors and family members connected to the real incident, and the emotional resonance of bringing their story to the screen.
Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera headline the cast, portraying the bus driver and teacher whose decisions became focal points of the rescue effort. The film aims to dramatize those moments and the broader human and communal impacts of the fire on Paradise and its residents.
Curtis’s revelation linked the film’s subject matter to a personal family history: her mother, Janet Leigh, a prominent actress who died in 2004 at age 77. Curtis did not elaborate publicly at the premiere on all specifics of the connection, but described the meeting with the survivors as meaningful.
The Lost Bus received its world premiere in Toronto amid the festival’s fall slate of films that revisit recent events through dramatization. The Camp Fire has been the subject of reporting, memorialization and community recovery efforts since 2018; the film represents one of several artistic attempts to reckon with the human stories that emerged from the disaster.
Curtis’s participation as a producer and her onstage reflections at TIFF underscore the film’s intent to center survivors’ experiences. Festival screenings often provide filmmakers with a first public response and an opportunity to engage with those whose lives informed a project; Curtis’s comments and her encounter with the real-life figures will likely accompany coverage of the film as it moves toward wider release.