Jamie Lee Curtis appeared at NBCUniversal's Summer Backlot Experience on Monday to promote her new NBC sitcom Newlyweds, which she co-created, executive produces and guest stars in, and while there made a comment about New Girl that spread significantly faster than she anticipated.
"I did a single-camera comedy, which I hated," she said, referring to New Girl, where she appeared in six episodes as Zooey Deschanel's mother between 2012 and 2018. "It's a great show, New Girl, very funny, but doing it is just like doing a movie. You've got a camera crew, and nobody laughs. It's silent, and it's awful. For me, awful. Single-camera comedies, for me, not fun."
She was praising the multi-camera sitcom format, the one with a live studio audience that gives performers instant feedback, which she has spent 40 years asking her agents to get her back into.
She was not trying to start a feud with the New Girl cast. The internet treated it otherwise.
By Tuesday night she was on Instagram asking everyone to calm down. "As if we don't have bigger issues facing Americans and the world at large... than to be concerned about a flip comment picked up at a press moment promoting Newlyweds," she wrote.
She clarified she was simply explaining how much she loves performing live in front of a studio audience versus a camera crew that stays silent.
Newlyweds premieres October 23 on NBC at 8:30 PM.