Carrie launched Sissy Spacek’s career, but she wasn’t the first option to play the persona, and many well-known actresses auditioned to play Carrie White. In 1974, all countries of the world encountered Stephen King thanks to Carrie, an epistolary horror novel that imparted readers a perceive of what King’s imagination has to offer. Carrie has become a classic in the horror genre and has been adapted to film, theatre, and TV.

Carrie was also the first of Stephen King’s work to acquire the mount 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 49 th Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress( for Piper Laurie, who toy Carrie’s mother, Margaret White) and Best Actress( for Sissy Spacek ). Prior to Carrie, Spacek had already appeared in three movies and numerous TV assignments, but it was King’s story that propelled her career and constituted her a widely-known( and praised) actress.

Related: Carrie: Why Stephen King Thinks The Movie’s Ending Is Better Than His Book’s

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.

Brian De Palma had an idea of what he demanded for the movie, including the actress for the lead role, and so his first choice was Betsy Slade. At the time, Slade had principally appeared in TV registers, and De Palma chose her based on her execution in Peter Hyams’ Our Time, where she toy a adolescent seeking to get an abortion. Slade continued to appear in many TV movies and series, and her last-place ascribed character was in the short-lived cinema To the Moon, Alice, in 1990. It’s unknown if Slade got to audition for the persona or not, but many other actresses did, among those Pamela Sue Martin, best known for playing the prominent teenage detective Nancy Drew in the Tv succession The Hardy Boys/ Nancy Drew Whodunit 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 subsequent year reprised her character as Regan MacNeil in Exorcist II: The Heretic. Another big name on the register 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-place but definitely not least, Glenn Close auditioned for the capacity as well, which could have been her big-screen debut( which culminated up being The World According to Garp, in 1982 ), and her big break came in 1987 when she toy Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction.

Following Carrie, Sissy Spacek went on to appear in a number of movies and TV programmes, most notably Coal Miner’s Daughter( for which she got an Oscar for Best Actress) and Castle Rock, which made her back to the world of Stephen King but with a slant. Carrie was why Sissy Spacek’s career needed, and the actresses who auditioned for the persona eventually felt their direction and did equally significant or even bigger things than De Palma’s classic.

Next: Why Carrie Defined Stephen King’s Career

Read more: screenrant.com