We should all be familiar of Jamie Lee Curtis‘ scream queen status kicking off with her acting debut in John Carpenter‘s “Halloween,” but her horror career nearly started much eariler than that as the actress reveals she once had an offer to audition for William Friedkin‘s 1973 iconic horror flim “The Exorcist” years eariler, but reveals her actress mother, Janet Leigh (“The Birds,” “Psycho”), decided against the idea.
Curtis, who can be seen in James L. Brooks‘ latest film “Ella McCay,” revealed the tidbit during an appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show” from earlier in the month (via The Hollywood Reporter), stating that her mother was concerned about her daughter being able to have a childhood before moving into the world of acting after turning the audition down from producer before getting into movies.
READ MORE: The 150 Most Anticipated Films Of 2026
“He called my mom and said, ‘Hey, I’m producing the movie of the book ‘The Exorcist.’ Will you let Jamie audition for it?'” Curtis recalled during her interview with Barrymore. “And at the time I was probably 12 and, like, cute and kind of sassy and I had some personality, and I’m sure he saw me at a party and was like, ‘Oh, she’d be funny.’ And my mother said, ‘No.'” She added, “My mom really wanted me to have, thank God, a childhood, which I understand you didn’t get. You didn’t get that option. People didn’t step in and say, ‘No, she will have a childhood. She will have protection.'”
Of course, that memorable part of a young Regan MacNeil (posessed by the Mesopotamian demon, Pazuzu) would go to Linda Blair, who would reprise the part in sequel before the franchise would churn out multiple installments and prequels, including a soft-reboot not too long ago, “The Exorcist: Believer,” from filmmaker David Gordon Green, who just happened to work with Curtis on a trilogy of “Halloween” legacy sequels that attempted to ignore all other films other than the 1978 original.
Fast forward to today, director Mike Flanagan (“Life of Chuck”) is behind a new standalone “Exorcist” installment starring Scarlett Johansson (“Jurassic World Rebirth”) at Blumhouse and Universal Pictures. There seems to be genuine excitement about having Flanagan creatively spearhead the next feature installment, after handling projects like “Doctor Sleep,” a sequel to Stanley Kubrick‘s “The Shining.”
You can watch that exchange between Curtis and Barrymore below.
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
