Jamie Lee Curtis grateful that her movie star mom made her wait to star in horror films.
During a recent appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show (via People), Curtis said the producer wanted her to audition for The Exorcist. However, her mother, Janet Leigh, shut down that possibility, shielding her then 12-year-old daughter from early fame and any potential trauma that might come from starring in one of the scariest films ever made.
“He called my mom and said, 'Hey, I'm producing a movie based on the book The Exorcist.' Will you let Jamie audition?” – Curtis recalls. “And at the time I was probably 12 and I was cute and a little sassy and I had some personality and I'm sure he saw me at a party and said, 'Oh, she'd be funny.' And my mother said, “No.”
She then told host Barrymore: “My mother really wanted me to have, thank God, a childhood that I understand you didn't have. You didn't have that opportunity.” Barrymore's first role was in the film E.T. She was only seven years old playing Elliot's little sister.
Linda Blair will eventually play the role of the possessed child Regan. She was nominated for the 1974 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for this role.
Curtis eventually became synonymous with the horror genre, first appearing in the 1978 classic Halloween when he was 19 years old. In subsequent years, Curtis starred in films such as The Fog, Prom Night and Terror Train. Most recently, she reprized her role as Laurie from 1978's Halloween in the 2022 film Halloween Ends.
