Why Jamie Lee Curtis' mom wouldn't let her audition for 'The Exorcist'

Why did Jamie Lee Curtis' mother reject 'The Exorcist' audition?

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Before she was Laurie Strode, Jamie Lee Curtisalmost got an even earlier start in horror.

The Oscar-winning "Halloween" star, 67, opened up on "The Drew Barrymore Show" about why she's grateful her mother, screen legend Janet Leigh, wouldn't let her audition for a role in the horror classic "The Exorcist."

Curtis explained that one of the producers of the film "was a very good friend of my mother's," so he asked Leigh if her daughter would audition.

"At the time, I was probably 12, and cute and kind of sassy," Curtis said. "I had some personality."

Still, Curtis never auditioned because her mom quickly shot down the idea, not wanting her acting career to start at such a young age.

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"My mom really wanted me to have, thank God, a childhood," Curtis noted.

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The "Everything Everywhere All at Once" star said she's grateful for this, telling Barrymore, who was six when she starred in "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "I understand you didn't get that option, and people didn't step in and say 'No, she will have a childhood. She will have protection.'"

"The Exorcist," released in 1973, wound up starring Linda Blair as Regan, a young girl who becomes possessed. Curtis didn't make her movie debut until five years later with 1978's "Halloween," which she shot when she was 19. Her casting as Laurie Strode, a babysitter targeted by murderer Michael Myers, was especially notable at the time given her mother was a "scream queen" in her own right, best known for starring as Marion Crane in "Psycho."

Laurie Strode ultimately became Curtis' most iconic role, which she reprised repeatedly 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, though, Curtis is famously not a fan of watching horror movies. And it sounds like "The Exorcist" played a role in that aversion.

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"When I was 15, my parents screened 'The Exorcist,' and my friends teased me the next day because I was so freaked out," Curtis previously told Entertainment Weekly. "I loathe being scared by scary movies. I scare so easily. It's the reason that I'm so good at [being in them]. It's a natural response for me."