As the Scream Queen of our time, Jamie Lee Curtis has a storied past that includes a near-miss with horror film stardom at a young age. During a recent appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, the Oscar winner shared a fascinating anecdote about a producer who wanted her to audition for 1973's The Exorcist.
"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 recounted, her voice tinged with nostalgia. "I was probably 12 at the time, cute and kind of sassy, with a bit of personality. I'm sure he saw me at a party and thought, 'Oh, she'd be funny.'" But her mother, Janet Leigh, had other ideas. "No," she said, protecting her daughter from the early trappings of child stardom and any potential trauma that could have come from starring in a scary movie at such a young age.
Looking back, Curtis is grateful for her mother's decision. "My mom really wanted me to have, thank God, a childhood," she said, referring to Barrymore's own onscreen debut at the age of 7 in 1982's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. "People didn't step in and say, 'No, she will have a childhood. She will have protection.'"
While Linda Blair ultimately played the possessed child, Regan, in The Exorcist, Curtis made her horror debut at 19 as Laurie Strode in 1978's Halloween. And throughout her decades-long career in Hollywood, she has starred in numerous scary movies, including other installments in the Halloween franchise, The Frog, Prom Night, Terror Train, and Road Games, establishing her legacy as a true horror icon.
