In the last few years, Jamie Lee Curtis and writer/director David Gordon Green have developed a wonderful working relationship. When the filmmaker was given the keys to the Halloween franchise, he rejuvenated Curtis' legendary character, Laurie Strode, to phenomenal effect, and the end result thus far has been two great and successful films – with a third set to arrive just in time for the titular holiday in 2022. Beyond the terror of Michael Myers, Gordon Green will also soon try to apply his magic touch to a semi-reboot of The Exorcist, which was announced as in development this past summer, and should the door be open for her to participate, Curtis has a wonderful idea of how she could be involved: she wants to voice the devil.
Jamie Lee Curtis already has a ridiculous amount of cred in the horror world, as she is not only the star of the Halloween franchise, but also John Carpenter's The Fog, but she recently revealed to Entertainment Weekly that she would love to add The Exorcist as another notch on her genre belt. The reason for this is actually personal, and goes beyond just her friendship with David Gordon Green, as she identifies the William Friedkin-directed original as a film that truly terrified her when she was young. She explained,
I'm brave, but I am afraid of scary things. When I was 15, my parents screened The Exorcist and my friends teased me the next day because I was so freaked out. I loathe being scared by scary movies. … Maybe I should be the voice of the devil like Mercedes McCambridge.
For those who don't understand the reference, Mercedes McCambridge was an Academy Award-winning actor (winning Best Supporting Actress for 1949's All The King's Men), and during her time she was particularly famous for her work on the radio. By the early 1970s she was doing primarily television work, but the power of her voice led William Friedkin to cast her as the disturbing and traumatizing voice of the demonic Pazuzu in The Exorcist.
Should she actually get the opportunity, Jamie Lee Curtis is confident that it would be an aspect of the new film that would shock audiences and potentially make them cheer, adding,
You see, if David gives me a part in the new Exorcist trilogy as the voice of the devil, then it is a full-circle return for me, in a meta way. That would blow people's minds.
Rather than just being a funny and odd pipe dream, this is something that very well could become a reality. The magazine caught up with David Gordon Green and proposed Jamie Lee Curtis' idea of voicing the devil in his upcoming Exorcist project, and he was definitely very open to the idea:
I'll have to get her to audition for that one. You know, she did the crying baby for the last Halloween movie, so she's a talented voice actor as well.
David Gordon Green is now developing not just one new Exorcist movie, but a whole trilogy that is being produced by Universal Pictures as an exclusive for the company's Peacock streaming service. Ellen Burstyn will reprise her role from the original film, and she will be joined in the cast by Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr. The first title in the new series presently has a October 13, 2023 release date, so look out for a lot more updates about the development of the features next year.
