Jamie Lee Curtis almost got her on-screen debut in another horror classic five years before her breakthrough performance in Halloween. She recently shared how her late mother, Janet Leigh, rejected Curtis’s 12-year-old audition to play the young possessed Regan MacNeil in the 1973 William Friedkin-directed film, which centered on William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel. Ray Stark, a friend and producer, encouraged the young actress to try out for the part.
She stated on The Drew Barrymore Show, “He called my mom and said, ‘Hey, I’m producing the movie of the book The Exorcist. Will you let Jamie audition for it? 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.’”
“My mom really wanted me to have — thank God – a childhood, which I understand you didn’t get,” Curtis said, acknowledging that Barrymore did not receive the same “protection” as a child performer. “You didn’t get that option.”
In the end, Linda Blair was cast as Regan in the movie, returning for the 1977 follow-up Exorcist II: The Heretic (and even making fun of the franchise alongside Leslie Nielsen in the 1990 spoof Repossessed).
Despite missing that early opportunity, Curtis went on to become one of the most recognizable figures in the horror genre. At the age of 19, she made her debut in the 1978 picture Halloween. She also acted in films such as Terror Train, Prom Night, and The Fog. In the 2022 film Halloween Ends, she made a comeback as Laurie Strode.
