Jamie Lee Curtis says she came within a phone call of auditioning for one of horror cinema’s most demanding child roles — and her mother shut it down immediately.
Speaking on The Drew Barrymore Show earlier this month, Curtis recalled that producer Ray Stark contacted her mother, actor Janet Leigh, during prep on The Exorcist and asked if he could see Curtis for an audition. Curtis said she was around 12 at the time and remembered Stark pitching her as “cute,” “kind of sassy,” with enough personality that he thought she could work for the film. Leigh’s answer, Curtis said, was a flat “No.”
Curtis framed the refusal as parental gatekeeping that gave her space to grow up before stepping into the industry. In the same conversation, she pointed the contrast directly at host Drew Barrymore, who began acting as a small child and has spoken often about the lack of adult protection around her early fame. Curtis told Barrymore her mother “really wanted me to have — thank God — a childhood,” then praised Barrymore for the care she shows guests on her daytime series.
The moment has resurfaced before. In a 2018 interview, Curtis described learning years later that the call involved The Exorcist, then joked that any lingering curiosity got answered the night her family screened the film for her 15th birthday. “It scared me so badly that my friends would taunt me in school,” she said.
The role ultimately went to Linda Blair, whose performance earned an Academy Award nomination for supporting actress, while The Exorcist landed nominations including best picture. In a separate interview tied to the franchise’s later revival, Blair said she agreed to return in an advisory capacity partly to ensure young performers had support while playing material she called “mean” and “evil.”
