Jamie Lee Curtis on Playing Nicole Kidman’s ‘Maneater’ Sister in New Series: ‘I Have to Look Cute and I Hate It’ (Exclusive)

At this point in her career, Jamie Lee Curtis prefers to disappear into her roles. “It’s all I’m looking for,” she says.

Her recent résumé would suggest as much: Curtis, 66, won an Oscar for playing dowdy IRS auditor Deirdre Beaubeirdra in Everything Everywhere All at Once, took home won an Emmy as The Bear’s chain-smoking matriarch Donna Berzatto, and, in her latest role — a cocktail waitress in The Last Showgirl — she wears a “red shag” wig and has a “leathered” look thanks to a spray tan.

But for her upcoming Prime Video series, Scarpetta, starring Nicole Kidman as medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, Curtis is going glam, which is taking her some getting used to. 

“I have to look cute and I hate it,” Curtis quips to PEOPLE. “She’s a maneater and it’s all about what she looks like.”

“Look at these,” continues Curtis holding up her manicure. “I’ve got her French tips. And of course, I have to look really cute and fashionable and sexy.”

According to an official release about the series, which is based on the novels by Patricia Cornwell, “The mystery thriller, based on the hit book series, follows Kay Scarpetta (Kidman), the Chief Medical Examiner, as she returns to Virginia and resumes her former position with complex relationships, both personal and professional — including her sister Dorothy (Curtis), with plenty of grudges and secrets to uncover.”

Curtis, who is an executive producer on the series along with Kidman, said in a statement last fall that she had long-wanted to bring Cornwell’s books to the screen.

“I know the ardent fans of the books will be very happy, and the new audience will be compelled by the characters, crimes and mysteries that are the trifecta of Patricia’s masterful storytelling,” she said.

But before that series premieres at a later date, Curtis is focusing on The Last Showgirl, starring Pamela Anderson as a Las Vegas dancer whose show is closing after decades on the strip.

The former Halloween scream queen tells PEOPLE she signed on to the movie because she knew former Baywatch star Anderson — who is getting the best reviews of her career and is nominated for a best actress Golden Globe — would sink her teeth into the lead role of Shelly. 

“I understood the opportunity that this was going to present to her to be an artist. I made horror movies when I was 19 years old, and I’ve waited a long time to be an artist. And I get to be an artist now,” says Curtis.

The Last Showgirl is in theaters on Friday, Jan. 10.

For more on Jamie Lee Curtis and Pamela Anderson, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE.