Academy Award winner Jamie Lee Curtis kicked off her career as a young adult, finding roles in TV, and finally debuting on the big screen in the 1978 slasher Halloween.
The film launched her to stardom, giving her a scream queen association that ran in her family since she was a baby, when her mother, Janet Leigh, became one of the most famous women murdered onscreen in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic, Psycho.
While she had a wealth of knowledge in her famous parents (also as the daughter of legendary actor Tony Curtis), one thing was for sure, her mother wanted her to have a childhood before she had a career.
Curtis explained on The Drew Barrymore Show that she had a shot at another iconic horror flick when she was a kid:
“Ray Stark, who was the producer of The Exorcist, was a very good friend of my mother’s. And 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.’ And my mother said, ‘No.’”
She went on to connect with Barrymore, who herself, did not have protection as a child, and though she was given many incredible opportunities in Hollywood, was not given the option to live a normal life. Curtis explanied:
“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.’”
Some kids know they want to act at a young age, and that can be navigated carefully, but for many, it has gone famously poorly, and in Curtis’s case, it sounds like her mom had her best interest in mind. Jamie has gone on to star in many great films, and it sounds like she appreciates the care her parents gave her.
