Jamie Lee Curtis before she gave her debut breakthrough performance in the 1978s Halloweenwas also initially offered to audition for the popular horror film, The Exorcist.
Producer Ray Stark wanted 12-year-old Curtis to audition for the role of young, obsessed Regen MacNeil in the classic 1973 horror film, but her late mother Janet Leigh turned down the offer.
The Cool Friday the actress recalled how Stark called her mother to make the request.
She opened up: “He called my mom and said, ‘Hey, I’m producing the movie of the book The Exorcist. Would you let Jamie audition for it?'”
“And at the time I was probably 12 and like cute and sassy and I had a certain personality and I’m sure he saw me at a party and said, ‘Oh, she’d be fun.’
Jamie revealed on The Drew Barrymore Show that her mother just said ‘No’ and thought that her daughter should experience her childhood first.
She explained: “My mother really wanted me – thank God – to have a childhood that I understand you didn’t get. You didn’t get that opportunity.”
Today, the 67-year-old feels grateful that her mother turned down the offer to play the possessed character on screen.
Later, the role was played by Linda Blair, who played it in two films.
Scarlett Johansson has reportedly signed on for the upcoming reboot of the exorcist, which is being directed by Mike Flanagan.
