Jamie Lee Curtis recently shared her relief over her mother’s decision to refuse a well-known horror role for her at the age of 12.
During an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show earlier this month, Curtis recounted being considered for a part in The Exorcist in the early 1970s. However, her mother, Janet Leigh, declined the opportunity.
Curtis described how Leigh’s acquaintance with producer Ray Stark led to a request for her to audition. At the time, Curtis was just 12 years old.
“He called my mom and said, ‘Hey, I’m producing the movie of the book The Exorcist. Will you let Jamie audition for it?’” Curtis recalled to Barrymore.
“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.’ And my mother said, ‘No’.”
Leigh was determined for Curtis to enjoy her childhood without entering the entertainment industry too early.
“My mom really wanted me to have, thank God, a childhood, which I understand you didn’t get. You didn’t get that option,” Curtis mentioned.
She eventually began her acting career with several TV appearances before making her horror film debut as Laurie Strode in Halloween at 19.
Barrymore, on the other hand, has often reflected on her own early start, having been thrust into fame at the age of five with her role in Altered States.
As a young actress, Barrymore was frequently seen at parties with her mother and her friends, attending events up to five times a week, as she shared with The Guardian in 2015.
She further disclosed that Steven Spielberg was the only ‘parental figure’ she had ever known.
Their first encounter was on the set of E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial, a film that launched Barrymore’s career.
She cherished her relationship with Spielberg, telling Vulture: “[He is] the only person in my life to this day that ever was a parental figure.”
Spielberg later expressed his concerns regarding Barrymore’s tumultuous childhood.
In an interview with Vulture, he remarked: “She was staying up way past her bedtime, going to places she should have only been hearing about, and living a life at a very tender age that I think robbed her of her childhood.
“Yet I felt very helpless because I wasn’t her dad. I could only kind of be a consigliere to her.”