Jamie Lee Curtis grateful for mom Janet Leigh blocking her from The Exorcist audition aged 12
Janet Leigh stopped her daughter Jamie Lee Curtis from auditioning for The Exorcist at the age of 12 because she wanted her to have a childhood.
Jamie Lee Curtis is glad she narrowly dodged fame as a child thanks to her late mom Janet Leigh.
The 67-year-old Hollywood legend revealed she was asked to audition for the 1973 horror classic The Exorcist by its late director, Ray Stark - who was friends with her mom - but Janet refused because Jamie was only 12 at the time and wanted her to have a childhood.
During a recent appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, Jamie - who got her big break aged 19 as Laurie Strode in John Carpenter's 1978 slasher, Halloween - recalled: "He called my mom and said, 'Hey, I'm producing the movie of the book The Exorcist. Will you let Jamie audition for it?'
"And at the time, I was probably 12 and, like, cute and kind of sassy, and I had some personality, and I’m sure he saw me at a party and was like, 'Oh, she’d be funny.'"
However, Psycho legend Janet - who had Jamie and actress Kelly Curtis, 69, with her late ex-husband, actor Tony Curtis - gave Ray a firm "no".
Jamie - who lost her mom to vasculitis, an inflammation of the blood vessels, at the age of 77 in October 2004 - explained: "My mom really wanted me to have - thank God - a childhood, which I understand you didn’t get.
"You didn’t get that option. And people didn't step in and say, 'No, [Drew] will have a childhood, she will have protection.'"
Despite Jamie not starring in The Exorcist, with the role going to a then-13-year-old actress Linda Blair, she watched the movie on her 15th birthday with pals.
In 2018, Jamie revealed to Entertainment Weekly: "We had a house that actually had a screening capability, and we screened The Exorcist for my 15th birthday, for my friends.
"It scared me so badly that my friends would taunt me in school."
Elsewhere, Jamie, who cemented herself as a scream queen thanks to her role in 1978's Halloween, said she felt at ease when making the John Carpenter classic.
In 2020, she explained to Variety: "We had nothing to lose; we didn’t know that we had anything to gain. We were just so happy to have this gig.
"The original Halloween was made in 17 days with like 12 people. Everybody was young. There was magic happening and none of us, not one person - I would dare say even [director] John Carpenter and [writer] Debra Hill - I don’t think anybody knew."
