20 Actors Who Almost Starred In Your Favorite Horror Movies

6. Linda Blair - Carrie White (Carrie)

Poor Carrie, she never had a chance. Her mother was a religious nut, her father was long gone, and she€™s painfully shy. Things at school aren€™t much better, she€™s routinely bullied and treated like a freak. She also struggles with the realization that she posses telekinetic powers (which would difficult to deal with at any age). Carrie White was supposed to be the ripe old age of 16 when Brian De Palma cast a 27-year-old Sissy Spacek to play her in his adaptation of Stephen King€™s hit novel. It wasn't just the age difference that made this seem more like a case of miscasting, though - it was fact that Spacek was thin and rather attractive, as well. The Carrie of King€™s book is overweight, ridden with acne and generally regarded as being horrible and repulsive to look at. An easy target for bullies and nasty teenage girls, as was the point. Linda Blair (who had just found huge success as demoniacally possessed Regan MacNeil in William Friedkin's The Exorcist) was reportedly offered the role but turned it down fearing being typecast. She would go on to star in the terrible Exorcist II: The Heretic not too long afterwards. And Spacek would go on to make a truly memorable and frightening Carrie White, proving all the naysayers wrong.