Who could have played Carrie White in 1976?

Linda Blair had already played the shower game in 1974's Born Innocent and starred in a supernatural film in 1973's The Exorcist so I'd rule her out. It needed to be someone fresh. Imagine a world where we see Cindy Brady's menstrual blood. That would have made the film even more horrifying.

If Anissa Jones had played the role, the subtitle for the film would be: See Buffy's Muffy

Piper Laurie could have played both parts, in a pinch.

I vote for that.

Genie Francis.

No, really. Just saw her play a bitch on a Family episode from around the same time. She was experienced enough to play what the role of Carrie needed.

Jodie Foster? Was she supposed to go to prom with Sue Snell instead and drive to the dance in a U-Haul?

The studio tested Glenn and I together for the parts of Carrie and Sue.

They felt G had the right facial quality for the titlular fug, but unfortunately not the necessary audience sympathy.

Thus it ever was, I suppose

Lucie as Carrie

Vance as Miss Collins

Lucy as Margaret

Jamie Lee Curtis

She had the right horse face for the role. But she always seemed so angry.

Farrah Fawcett

She had amazing acting chops.

Divine

[quote]The studio tested Glenn and I together

Oh dear, what would your Vassar English prof say?

Sachi Parker as Carrie. Guess who could've played Rose White even better than Piper Laurie?

"I" sounds more upper class, R12, even though it is grammatically incorrect. For some reason, "me" just sounds wrong.

Angie Dickinson?

Stockard Channing. It would have made her missing a period in Grease much more poignant.

R13, I can totally see Shirley as Rose.

No Vivian Vance option?

Pamelyn Ferdin.

I think it comes down to whose beaver you'd want to see in the shower room/locker room scene.

Sissy is the one I've ever given a damn about in the role. She played it with just the right amount of freakishness, vulnerability, and scariness. Plus, she could look icky throughout most of the movie and believably glam up for the prom scene and look rather pretty.

[quote] The studio tested Glenn and I together for the parts of Carrie and Sue.

[quote] "I" sounds more upper class, [R12], even though it is grammatically incorrect. For some reason, "me" just sounds wrong.

Sorry, R14 / R6, "I" just sounds wrong as an object (vs. a subject).

R18, Kristin Davis is the new Vivian Vance.

Linda Blair could do it (acting chops-wise), but she came with too much baggage (The Exorcist) that didn't jibe with the Carrie character.

Glynnis O'Connor: yes, she could have done it.

Jodie Foster: voice too low and confident-sounding. Nope.

Genie Francis: Too conventionally pretty. Would not buy her as some type of underdog.

EVE PLUMB: Could have been interesting! This may have worked and definitely would have audiences interested to see how she fared as "Carrie."

[quote]R10 Farrah Fawcett. She had amazing acting chops.

Mmmm… amazing CHOPPERS, maybe.

Kate: Carrie / Jaclyn: Sue / Tanya: Chris / Shelley: Miss Collins

Here's a photo of Susan Olsen in 1976. She could have pulled off the prom queen moment.

Judy Norton in '76

R22, I'm not R6. "Me" just sounds wrong because many people use it incorrectly as a subject, eg. Glenn and me would have been perfect for the role.

Kristy McNichol

[quote]Anissa Jones

She died in 1976 so that may not have worked so well.

[quote] Here's a photo of Susan Olsen in 1976. She could have pulled off the prom queen moment.

The prom queen was an anomalous moment in Carrie's life and she wasn't your typical prom queen. For the most part, Carrie's life was dreary and prison-like. I don't think Carrie would have had a lisp and a baby voice, either.

I was kidding, R25. When Farrah left "Charlie's Angels" and had bigger roles in a few movies, everyone criticised her for her wooden acting.

Only six months separate Spacek and Streep. I think Streep would have been phenomenal.

McKenzie Phillips, pre-incest.

And it's MARGARET White, not Rose. Right?

Carrie Fisher

Bea Arthur as Carrie's mom.

Was Tatum O'Neal considered?

If Tatum had been cast, her costars would have provided an amazing dating pool for Ryan.

Remember DePalma and Lucas had one big casting session and then chose "sides" -- so Amy Irving read for both Princess Lea and Sue, etc. Jodie was up for Princess L too but Teri Nunn, singer of Berlin, was the front-runner.

[quote]Jamie Lee Curtis

Another vote for Jamie Lee Curtis

Pamela Sue Martin

Lisa Hartman

Dana Plato

Sissy was the perfect cast! But Jodie could have been very good too.

Vivian Vance, stupid cunt.

Sissy also very much enjoyed Octavia Spencer's revenge on serving that pie to the mean girl played by Ron Howard's daughter in "The Help".

R29 I think she was a smidge young in '76.

If it were made in 1980, sure.

Pa, they left me off the list.

Diane Kay

Ahem.

Why does Sue Snell always get her way? It's always Susan, Susan, Susan!

It could have been a game changer for Judy Norton.

Moi, of course.

Julie Gholson from Where the Lilies Bloom

R51 I was just about to write your name sweetheart. I mean who else?

Marie Osmond?

Cher. Plenty of 30 year olds have played high school students.

Everyone is forgetting the obvious choice...

Quinn Cummings

Mike Lookingland as Carrie White

DePalma wanted an actress named Betsy Slade for the role (who'd made an impression on him in a Pamela Sue Martin movie.)

He wasn't even that enthusiastic about letting Spacek audition because he thought she was too likeable. Then she blew him away when she read.

Susan Dey. I think she could have plained it down.

Francis Conroy or Patricia Clarkson.

Beth Howland would have been remarkable.

R62, instead of dumping pig's blood they dump a bucket of straws...

Kindly fuck off, OP.

He'd be convincing as the most hated girl in school.

Question: In an era when there was a Black version of so many hit movies (Blackula, Black Godfather, Black Shampoo), why was there never a Black Carrie (maybe Blackarrie)?

I cant't imagine anyone looking impressive in a Pamela Sue Martin movie.

R66, I can see it with Irene Cara as Blackarrie Black and Teresa Merritt as Margaret Black. Teresa Graves would have filled in as the gym teacher and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs as Tommy.

Playing Carrie might have saved Anissa's life.

Small detail: it needed a GREAT actress. Maybe Mare Winningham. Or that Lisa girl who was the daughter in "Unmarried Woman" and 'Turning Point", she was always solid, great resume.

R70, are you daring to say that Susan Olsen isn't a great actress?? She could have drawn on the abuse she suffered from the schoolyard taunts of "Baby talk, baby talk, it's a wonder you can walk."

[quote]R34 McKenzie Phillips, pre-incest.

Bonnie Franklin tested alongside her with the “Eve Was Weak!” scene, but was deemed too angry for the role of Margaret White.

She also dislocated Mackenzie‘s jaw, which didn’t bode well.

There is a passage in Julia Philips great book where she is in bathroom with young actress and the girl's father talking about "Taxi Driver" and doing drugs, the girl wants to play it, the father says no way. Always thought it was Tatum and then, duh, hit me it was MacKenzie and her creepy dad. Only recently.

Lisa Lucas, fyi.

[quote] Plenty of 30 year olds have played high school students.

Some people can be so touchy!

Nasty Edie was already there and looking 40.

How about pre-face slashed Theresa Saldona?

No but Wendie Joe Sperber could have been interesting ugly duckling.

Janit Baldwin.

Anissa Jones late in life.

Barbara Seagull is Carrie!

Belinda Carlisle in 1976 could have launched a fantastic film career as Carrie.

Belinda Carlisle was more of a Chris.

Plumb and O’Connor could pull it off. The rest you would have to recast the mean girls they would out of place with Jodie foster and some of the others as Carrie.

Barbra Streisand could have done it. She would have arranged to have the ending re-written where her mother recognized she was really beautiful after all and deserved to be loved and be prom queen.

Edie McClurg

Louise Foley

Kristin Davis is an interesting choice...if Carrie had been 10 years old!

I've got it. Cindy as Carrie and Pennie as Chris.

Both Piper and Sissy have slight Southern accents in the film. Was that deliberate? I always thought the story took place in California (it was definitely filmed there).

"De Palma's first choice for the role of Carrie was Betsy Slade, who received good notices for her role in the film Our Time (1974)."

Who?

Olivia Newton-John (or Stockard Channing) - or the Beauty School Dropout

“Mother…that Sue Snell is a VULGARIAN!!!”

The person who PERFECTLY fits the book description both physically and facial expressions is... Lena Dunham.

Anissa Jones. It may have saved her.

Ooooooooo!!

I’m gonna tell Miss Collinnnnnns!

see the link r90. Slade made an impact in that film. It was about a back alley abortion that Pamela Sue Martin and Parker Stevenson arrange for their friend. She played the quirky friend.

Eve Plumb or Jodie Foster would have been great.

Spacek's story of getting the part is interesting. She had made a splash with Badlands. DePalma hired her husband as the art director like he had been on other films. Spacek read the script and said tell Brian I'll do the lead. She thought they would jump at the chance to hire her since it was a low budget film and she had a bit of a name.

DePalma was less than enthusicasic which shocked her. So she went to the meeting all depressed and feeling awkward and unwanted....which made for a perfect Carrie.

DePalma said he was going by the book where Carrie is sort of outwardly repulsive to the other kids and he thought audiences see Sissy and want to take care of her. He felt that the actress needed to repel people at the beginning and then win them over at her Prom entrance. (in the book she's so nervous about going to the prom that she can't eat and loses a ton of weight so her appearance at the prom is sort of a shock. Tommy is surprised at how good she looks.

I guess DePalma didn't look at overweight actresses since it was a short shoot and they wouldn't have time for a large girl to do a De Niro and lose or gain weight.

He said once he saw Spacek audition he felt like a fool that he didn't see it before and all the other people he was considering started to seem ridiculous.

Amy Irving seems a bit bitter in that AMC behind the scenes. She went to that group audition and wanted to be Princess Leia. (she doesn't say so but I'm sure she wanted Carrie too.)

Was she sleeping with DePalma?

I never understood the influence she had on that film.

She got her mother, ex-boyfriend (William Katt) and her sister (who wrote and I think sang the song Carrie dances to at the Prom, something like I never Dreamed someone like you could want someone like me.)

Jodie Foster was too young.

Glynnis O'Connor is an easy choice out of this line-up.

R79 Great choice and ironically starred with Spacek in Prime Cut. Apparently she remain very good friends. Malick filmed scenes with Janit as Sissy's friend in Badlands but they were cut out of the final film.

Vicki Lawrence would have been an interesting choice.

It is not widely know but Brian had cast me as Carrie. Nothing was signed but I was all set to play the role. Brian loved my work on Eight is Enough.

However, Steven Spielberg and Barbra Streisand made him drop me from the film.

R103, interesting Susan, especially Eight is Enough didn't premiere until 1977.

I don't know if the southern accents were deliberate r90 or if Laurie adopted one because Spacek couldn't disguise hers yet.

It sort of works. Makes them seem more like outsiders. And Margaret does threaten to move if Carrie goes to the prom so it makes me think they are from some place else and have moved a bit during Carrie's life.

Eve Plumb would have put an interesting spin on the role. A few years later, she was nearly cast as the lead in Prom Night. As per IMDB: "According to "The Horrors of Hamilton High", a documentary about the making of Prom Night, Eve Plumb was all set to play Kim. At the last minute, Jamie Lee Curtis' people expressed an interest and Eve was replaced."

Maybe Kim Richards. Not sure how old she was at the time.

Would y'all consider a New Yawker?

How about the two of us as Carrie and Tommy?

Maybe the actress that played "Molly" on the Brady Bunch.

This was Streep in 75/76. She could have done it and Jessica Lange was also in same age category. The choices were all much younger than Spacek/Streep/Lange.

Sandy Dennis would have been superb as Margaret.

A younger Sandy Dennis probably WAS Carrie White.

R107 The first season of Eight is Enough was filmed and in the can. Brian was looking at every young actress at the time and was shown the first season before it aired on TV.

I completed the filming of Eight is Enough just as Carrie was being cast.

Carrie was film only a few months before it was released. Everything happened so quickly.

R111 There is no way either Streep or Lange could have passed for teenagers in their mid twenties. They looked like they were in their 20s. I know some of the cast looked too old so maybe in some of the other roles they could have been cast but not Carrie White.

*as Carrie*

Excellent choice, R116. Jill would have definitely won an Oscar. 😆

Dodie from "My Three Sons". A lot of folks hated her.

R85 Babs could have also performed the two songs played at the prom.

[quote]R90 "De Palma's first choice for the role of Carrie was Betsy Slade, who received good notices for her role in the film Our Time (1974)." [bold]Who?

Stop whining r46. You had your chance 5 years later with Midnight Offerings

.,.,

Dinah Manoff. She plays outsider types well (Family, Ordinary People) but she was also a Pink Lady in Grease!

I should have and could have played the role. I would have won my first Oscar!

G. could have made her film debut as my mother Margaret. Might have won her an Oscar as well and taken away decades of pain.

She looks fantastic. And her speech seems much better than it was when she first publicly revealed her condition.

^ huh?

I think it was supposed to be the Selma Blair thread. ^

Carrie Fisher auditioned. For some reason George Lucas and Brian DePalma held auditions together, and they saw every young actress in Hollywood, and Fisher described auditioning for these two stone faced young directing nerds.

Honestly, I can't imagine anyone worse for the role of Carrie than Fisher, because Carrie is a person who just can't have a sense of humor. If she could laugh at her troubles or her tormentors, she wouldn't be a tragic figure.

Also, Carrie Fisher, may she rest in peace, was not a good actor. A good writer? Yes. A good actor? Not so much.

130 posts and nobody has mentioned the obvious: Charlene Tilton. She was chunky but not too chunky, could play an outsider (I believe she could legally receive benefits because of her height or lack thereof) and also a rambunctious she-cat as evidenced by her turn on Dallas.

I would second r107's Kim Richards, even though she was too young in 1976. That scene during the first season of RHBH where Kyle and Camille were going at each other in the restaurant with Kim looking like a nervous Chinese Crested dog wanting to run for cover shows she can play mousy and nervous well. But she was pretty when young. She's actually a very good actress.

I would have been a FLAWLESS Carrie!

Kay Lenz? She played a Carrie White-like character in the TV rip-off version.

[quote]R128 Carrie is a person who just can't have a sense of humor. If she could laugh at her troubles or her tormentors, she wouldn't be a tragic figure.

In a prayer closet, no one can hear you laugh.

Bailey Quarters.

Kay Lenz was too wooden.

Susan Dey -- or better yet, the girl in the Partridge Family who played the tambourine badly

How about Sacheen Littlefeather?

Well, her Oscar bit was an act, so that counts for some experience in front of an audience.

Eve could have done her scary inner voice "I'm the new Carrie White. Let's set some people on fire!"

She could have produced George Glass for real!

Would Eve have worn a black merkin she purchased from Marcia Wallace for the shower scene?

R135, only if I get to play Chris Hargensen with my husband playing Billy Nolan. Give me the pig's blood!

Pig's blood! That's not kosher, Mrs. Brolin!

Frances Bavier

Diane Lane sans nudity would've been perfect. She always had a sad essence and the acting chops even as a teen. And she was already a magazine cover girl.

She was 11 in 1976 r146.

[quote]R138 How about Sacheen Littlefeather?

The Mazola Margarine girl, Tenaya Torres, would have brought more star wattage.

How about Kim Darby from "True Grit"? Had she aged out?

Jamie Smith Jackson

Laurie Prange cornered the market on playing fragile weird girls in the '70s.

Susan Sennett

Bonnie Franklin IS Carrie White!

In the Bonnie Franklin version there will be a 10 minute mirror soliloquy before the prom at her house

And a special tap dance routine by Carrie at the prom

“I hate to menstruate but I love to tap!”

Adrienne Barbeau as Carrie. Margaret White would have spontaneously combusted after she got a load of those "dirty pillows"

Dirty Pillows Delight

If they had made the musical version for the big screen soon after the original Liv UIlmann would have been great in the lead role.

I never miss a Liv Ullmann musical.

So what did you think about Mr. Hearn as Liv's leading man in "I Remember Mama", Bette?

[quote] Adrienne Barbeau as Carrie. Margaret White would have spontaneously combusted after she got a load of those "dirty pillows"

If this means Bea Arthur as Margaret White, then I’m all in!

Geraldine Page might have been an amazing Margaret.

La Page would have eaten the school, the house and every other piece of scenery in the movie.

R160, Watch it sucka!

LaWanda would have made a terrific Margaret White, though she would've wound up beating Carrie with her purse instead of being killed.

For shame. I can SEE your Dirty Pillows!

R130, but Charlene was a rotten actress.

The more I think about it, Geraldine Page would have made it the performance of her career. I can hear her spouting every one of Margaret White's lines. The hysteria in "they're all going to laugh at you" would be unforgettable.

Page would have been chewing scenery left and right. The role needed someone with a little more subtlety.

If the story had been transported to France, Isabelle Adjani would have slayed.

Fuck you R166, she's the greatest actress in the English Language

Page is served at Easter with pineapples.

One reason Piper Laurie is so unique in this is because her ex-husband was a film critic and told her DePalma makes black comedies. Then at her audition/interview she mostly sat around with DePalma and they laughed so much (he had a childhood crush on her and called her in when he saw her name on a casting list just to meet her) so she went in playing for laughs.

Then after her first rehersal with Spacek she went back to her hotel and called her husband and said I think we are wrong. I think this is a drama. Sissy is taking the role really seriously.

So she shifted the performance slightly and it came out pretty brilliant. (If you think about it she's terrifying but also kind of funny. The way she tells Sue's mom I pray you find Jesus" for example with her hand held out so oddly.)

Geraldine Page was too old for the part. Piper Laurie - a decade younger than Page - is great because clearly she could go out and get a man and have a normal life, but she’s just throwing her life away with her isolating religious mania.

Mia and Liz could have reworked their "Secret Ceremony" number.

R171 I'll drink to that.

Mackenzie Phillips played an awkward teen in "American Graffiti" (1973). She was 13 when that movie was released, so she would have been around 16 when "Carrie" was released.

Pamela Sue Martin

I don't think anyone could have done a better job than Sissy Spacek, but these actresses were working steadily around the time Carrie was shot:

Jamie Smith-Jackson, from Go Ask Alice and Satan's School for Girls.

Veronica Cartwright, a few years prior to Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Alien.

Susan Dey could have been an interesting choice.

Meg Foster?

Melissa Gilbert

Elizabeth Walton

Tammy Faye Bakker

Totie Fields

Dana Plato

Barbara Hershey as Carrie and Jessica Lange as Chris.

Vicki from Small Wonder.

It needs to be someone who can look freakish. Shelley Duvall.

Karen Black could have played the mother.

I don't know if she was quite old enough, but I sincerely think Kim Richards could have pulled it off.

You've got to go back to the start of the thread. Meryl Streep and Geraldine Page, the two greatest actresses in the English Language. Ironically, although she didn't look the part, Lange would have acted the hell out of the role because she, like Vanessa Redgrave show an extraordinary empathy with characters who are outcasts.

Except Plato couldn't act wet in the shower, R181.

Diana Canova!!

Mink Stole

Lange would have been all wrong. She would have been too hammy. Duvall might have worked. Karen Black with decent direction would have worked.

I coulda played all the parts.

And directed it too.