Jamie Lee Curtis revealed that she almost auditioned for the iconic role in the horror film The Exorcist, but her mother turned it down.
Appearing on The Drew Barrymore Show, Curtis said the 1973 film’s producer wanted her to audition for the role of the possessed Regan MacNeil that was eventually played by Linda Blair.
“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 told 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.’”
The Exorcist, released in 1973, is based on William Peter Blatty’s bestselling novel of the same name and stars Blair as a young girl whose mother seeks medical help after her daughter starts displaying oddities like levitating and speaking in tongues.
The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing almost $441m (£337m) worldwide and landing 10 Oscar nominations and two wins.
Curtis went on to say that she was thankful her mother, the late actor Janet Leigh, said no and it allowed her to have a childhood, something other child actors like Barrymore lacked.
“My mom really wanted me to have, thank God, a childhood, which I understand you didn’t get. You didn't get that option,” she told Barrymore. “And people didn't step in and say, ‘No, [Drew] will have a childhood, she will have protection.’”
Barrymore began acting at the age of five, appearing in the film Altered States before landing her breakthrough role in Steven Spielberg’s ET two years later.
Curtis began acting at 19 in television before making her film debut in John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978), a role that launched a long-running career in horror and mainstream film.
Last month, it was revealed that Scarlett Johansson had joined a forthcoming Exorcist film helmed by writer-director Mike Flanagan. The new film is set to be produced by Flanagan under his Red Room Pictures banner and by Blumhouse-Atomic Monster and Morgan Creek Entertainment for Universal Pictures.
Following the poor reception of 2023’s The Exorcist: Believer, it was announced last year that Flanagan, best known for directing The Haunting of Hill House and Doctor Sleep, would develop an original story instead of a sequel.
The “radical new take” will be set in the original Exorcist universe.
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