Carrie launched Sissy Spacek’s career, but she wasn’t the first option to play the role, and many well-known actresses auditioned to play Carrie White. In 1974, the world met Stephen King thanks to Carrie, an epistolary horror novel that gave readers a taste of what King’s imagination has to offer. Carrie has become a classic in the horror genre and has been adapted to film, stage, and TV.
Carrie was also the first of Stephen King’s work to make the jump to the big screen. Directed by Brian De Palma, Carrie was released in 1976 and was a big commercial and critical success, and even got two nominations at the 49th Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress (for Piper Laurie, who played Carrie’s mother, Margaret White) and Best Actress (for Sissy Spacek). Prior to Carrie, Spacek had already appeared in three movies and various TV projects, but it was King’s story that launched her career and made her a widely-known (and praised) actress.
However, Spacek wasn’t the first choice to play Carrie White nor the only one interested in the role, and many other actresses auditioned for it – and many of them went on to appear in bigger projects years later.
Linda Blair, Glenn Close, and Farrah Fawcett Almost Played Carrie
Brian De Palma had an idea of what he wanted for the movie, including the actress for the lead role, and so his first choice was Betsy Slade. At the time, Slade had mostly appeared in TV shows, and De Palma chose her based on her performance in Peter Hyams’ Our Time, where she played a teenager seeking to get an abortion. Slade continued to appear in various TV movies and series, and her last credited role was in the short film To the Moon, Alice, in 1990. It’s unknown if Slade got to audition for the role or not, but many other actresses did, among those Pamela Sue Martin, best known for playing the famous teenage detective Nancy Drew in the TV series The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries and Fallon Carrington Colby in Dynasty.
Jill Clayburgh also auditioned to play Carrie White, and while she didn’t get the role, her big break came in 1978 when she starred in Paul Mazurky’s An Unmarried Woman, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. Still enjoying the success of The Exorcist, Linda Blair also auditioned to play Carrie, and the following year reprised her role as Regan MacNeil in Exorcist II: The Heretic. Another big name on the list of actresses who wanted to play Carrie White is Farrah Fawcett, who had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with Charlie’s Angels. Last but definitely not least, Glenn Close auditioned for the role as well, which could have been her big-screen debut (which ended up being The World According to Garp, in 1982), and her big break came in 1987 when she played Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction.
Following Carrie, Sissy Spacek went on to appear in a number of movies and TV projects, most notably Coal Miner’s Daughter (for which she got an Oscar for Best Actress) and Castle Rock, which took her back to the world of Stephen King but with a twist. Carrie was exactly what Sissy Spacek’s career needed, and the actresses who auditioned for the role eventually found their path and did equally important or even bigger things than De Palma’s classic.