Before she was Laurie Strode, Jamie Lee Curtis almost got her start in horror even earlier.
The Oscar-winning “Halloween” star, 67, explained on “The Drew Barrymore Show” why she’s grateful her mother, screen legend Janet Leigh, didn’t let her audition for a role in the horror classic “The Exorcist.”
Curtis explained that one of the film’s producers “was a really good friend of my mom,” so he asked Leigh if her daughter would audition.
“At the time, I was probably 12 years old, cute and kind of sassy,” Curtis said. “I had a certain personality.”
Yet Curtis never auditioned because her mother quickly rejected the idea, not wanting her acting career to begin at such a young age.
Jamie Lee Curtis attends the premiere of “Ella McCay” in Hollywood on December 9, 2025.
“My mother really wanted me to have, thank God, a childhood,” Curtis noted.
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The “Everything Everywhere All at Once” star said she was grateful, telling Barrymore, who was six when she starred in “ET the Extra-Terrestrial,” “I understand that you didn’t have that option, and people didn’t step in and say, ‘No, she’ll have a childhood. She’ll have protection.'”
“The Exorcist,” released in 1973, ultimately starred Linda Blair as Regan, a young girl who becomes possessed. Curtis didn’t make her film debut until five years later with 1978’s “Halloween,” which she filmed when she was 19. Her casting as Laurie Strode, a babysitter targeted by murderer Michael Myers, was particularly notable at the time given that her mother was a “scream queen” herself, best known for playing Marion Crane on “Psycho.”
Jamie Lee Curtis attends a screening of “Ella McCay” at the Museum of Modern Art on December 2, 2025 in New York.
Laurie Strode ultimately became Curtis’ most iconic role, which she reprized several times over the years, most recently in 2022’s “Halloween Ends.” The slasher classic also led her to star in several other horror films, including “Prom Night” and “The Fog.”
In real life, however, Curtis is not a fan of horror films. And it seems “The Exorcist” played a part in that dislike.
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“When I was 15, my parents showed ‘The Exorcist’ and my friends teased me the next day because I was so freaked out,” Curtis told Entertainment Weekly. “I hate being scared by horror movies. I get scared so easily. That’s why I’m so good at it.” [being in them]. It’s a natural response for me.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jamie Lee Curtis Almost Starred in ‘Exorcist’ Before Mom Intervened
