Jamie Lee Curtis Discusses 45-Year Friendship with Melanie Griffith (Exclusive)

Jamie Lee Curtis is reflecting on her special decades-long friendship with Melanie Griffith.

While speaking exclusively to PEOPLE at the premiere of her new movie, Ella McCay, on Tuesday, Dec. 9, Curtis, 67, discussed how her bond with Griffith came about nearly 45 years ago.

Although the actresses are both daughters of famous parents — Curtis’ mom is the late Janet Leigh and her father is the late Tony Curtis, while Griffith, 68, is the daughter of Tippi Hedren, 95, and the late Peter Griffith — she explains that they “never knew each other” until their early 20s.

“We were daughters of Hitchcock Blondes, raised in Los Angeles, didn’t know each other,” Jamie tells PEOPLE.

The two women’s mothers both worked with horror director Alfred Hitchcock, who famously used powerhouse blonde actresses in his films, with Hedren starring in 1963’s The Birds and 1964’s Marnie, while Leigh appeared in 1960’s Psycho.

Still, Jamie says her and Melanie’s friendship really began when they starred in 1981’s She’s in the Army Now.

“We were in a TV movie called She’s In the Army Now … for ABC about women in the army and she and I were in it. And it was like that idea of meeting somebody and going like, ‘Oh my God, where have you been my whole life?'” the Halloween icon recalls.

“And then we were party friends for quite a bit of [time] and had a lot of fun,” she adds. “And we’ve known each other all these years, and we’ve reconnected in the last 10, 15 years in a much stronger way. And we’re just dear friends, dear old friends.”

Jamie admits that, “without question,” there are some unique things the pair share that make their friendship special.

“None of which I can tell you,” she teases. “Not one second can I tell you about it.”

Jamie’s comments come four years after she and Melanie spoke about their moms and their experiences working with Hitchcock during a chat with Interview.

“I don’t know how he was with your mom, but he apparently was not very good with my mom,” Melanie said at the time, noting that Hitchcock got “very psychologically crazy” with Hedren behind the scenes. Hedren claimed in 2016 that the filmmaker stalked and sexually assaulted her in the ’60s.

“You know, she was of the #MeToo movement, and it was not accepted at that time. She was shunned and he made sure that she was shunned,” Melanie said.

Jamie, however, admitted she didn’t think her mom “would have ever acknowledged if there was any bad behavior” behind the scenes.

“She was, it’s a bad term, but kind of Pollyannaish about the industry,” Jamie said in the interview. “I think the #MeToo movement would have really upset her. It’s not fair to unpack that, because she’s dead and I’m going to put words in her mouth, but knowing her, I think she would not say that he misbehaved in any way. But it’s interesting that maybe our mothers were in competition with each other.”

Leigh died at age 77 in October 2004, following a long and private struggle with vasculitis, which is a group of disorders that attack blood vessels through inflammation.

Jamie shared in the 2021 Interview chat, “I don’t think Janet would ever have acknowledged anything, because from her standpoint, she was just grateful. That was very much her take. I think she would have looked at it as, ‘That was just the way it was.’ ”

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Jamie’s latest film, Ella McCay — which follows Emma Mackey as a young woman who becomes a state governor after her boss (Albert Brooks) is promoted to a federal-level cabinet position — hit theaters Dec. 12.