{"id":371998,"date":"2025-12-26T22:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T22:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/371998\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T22:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T22:59:09","slug":"why-psycho-star-janet-leigh-didnt-let-daughter-jamie-lee-curtis-audition-for-the-exorcist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/371998\/","title":{"rendered":"Why \u2018Psycho\u2019 Star Janet Leigh Didn\u2019t Let Daughter Jamie Lee Curtis Audition For \u2018The Exorcist\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jamie Lee Curtis<\/a> almost had a shot at the lead role in The Exorcist.<\/p>\n

During a December 18 appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show<\/a>, the 67-year-old actress revealed that her mother, Janet Leigh, was friends with a producer of the iconic 1973 horror movie.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Ray Stark] called my mom and said, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m producing the movie of the book The Exorcist. Will you let Jamie audition for it?\u2019\u201d Curtis recalled. \u201cAt the time I was probably 12 and, like, cute and kind of sassy and I had some personality and I\u2019m sure he saw me at a party and was like, \u2018Oh, she\u2019d be funny.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Warner Bros \/ Digital Press Photos\/Newscom\/The Mega Agency<\/p>\n

The Psycho star<\/a>, who died in 2004 at age 77, said no, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom really wanted me to have \u2014 thank God \u2014 a childhood,\u201d Curtis explained, and the role ultimately went to Linda Blair, who received a best supporting actress Oscar nomination for her portrayal of possessed tween Regan MacNeil.<\/p>\n

As for Curtis, she became a Scream Queen, herself, with the Halloween franchise, playing O.G. Final Girl Laurie Strode.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Xavier Collin\/Image Press Agency<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told about an audition for a low-budget horror film,\u201d she wrote in a 2002 essay for People<\/a>. \u201cI was to do the scene where Laurie is on the phone with her friend and then looks out and sees Michael staring at her from her backyard, and she recoils. She looks back \u2014 he\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curtis, of course, got the part.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one knew that Halloween would become the most successful independent film at that time,\u201d noted the actress, who was only paid $8,000 for the 1978 film. \u201cI still can\u2019t tell you why people like to be scared. I certainly don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story Why \u2018Psycho\u2019 Star Janet Leigh Didn\u2019t Let Daughter Jamie Lee Curtis Audition For \u2018The Exorcist\u2019<\/a> first appeared on National Examiner<\/a>. Add National Examiner as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jamie Lee Curtis almost had a shot at the lead role in The Exorcist. During a December 18…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[182434,71970,88,20055,32129,206,146954,51409,182435],"class_list":{"0":"post-371998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-beitia-archives","9":"tag-digital-press","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-jamie-lee-curtis","12":"tag-janet-leigh","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-national-examiner","15":"tag-press-agency","16":"tag-ray-stark"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}