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It’s hard to believe one of horror’s most iconic stories almost never made it to the screen the way we know it. Join us as we uncover wild production trivia, casting surprises, forgotten plans, and behind-the-scenes chaos from the world of “Carrie” as it celebrates 50 years of terror, tragedy, and telekinetic mayhem. Which revelation shocked you most?
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00:00Carrie White, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
00:09Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most fascinating facts behind the Carrie franchise.
00:16I came out to LA and it was just a magical thing that one of the first auditions I went
00:20on was this dual audition that George Lucas and Brian De Palma had.
00:25Number 10, the unlikely backdoor pilot.
00:27When was the last time you saw Carrie White alive?
00:31At school, before the prom.
00:34Turns out, there's a bizarre alternate timeline for the telekinetic team.
00:38Did you know the 2002 adaptation starring Angela Bettis was actually a secret backdoor pilot for an ongoing series?
00:45In a wild departure from the source material, this version ends with Carrie faking her own death and running away
00:50with Sue.
00:51What happened? What happened? What did I do?
00:57The plan was for Carrie to hit the road, traveling from town to town and using her telekinetic powers to
01:02help people or solve mysteries.
01:04We are absolutely serious.
01:07No, it doesn't fall at all in line with the themes of the story, but hey, there is money to
01:12be made.
01:13Unfortunately for the ambitious creators, the network decided they were no longer interested in greenlighting the full series,
01:18and this strange road trip concept was ultimately scrapped.
01:22Are you okay?
01:31Do you want me to pull over?
01:35No.
01:36No.
01:36Number 9, Betty Buckley's Unique Crossover.
01:39What happened?
01:40Nothing.
01:41Was it one of the girls?
01:44Did one of the girls do something to you?
01:46No.
01:47There's a fascinating piece of actor trivia that bridges the gap between the legendary movie and the infamous Broadway adaptation.
01:53If you look closely at the casting sheets, Betty Buckley provides a unique connecting thread.
01:58In the classic 1976 film, Buckley delivered a sympathetic performance as Miss Collins,
02:04the supportive gym teacher who tries to protect our protagonist.
02:07Hey, you can't order someone not to take someone to the prom.
02:10Well, you know, I can make sure that you don't hurt Carrie White anymore.
02:14However, she returned to the horror franchise 12 years later when the story transitioned to the Broadway stage.
02:19In a dramatic twist, Buckley took over the intense role of the violently abusive mother, Margaret White.
02:24She bravely stepped in after original actress Barbara Cook famously quit the struggling production during its notoriously troubled run in
02:31England.
02:32Did any of you ever stop to think that Carrie White has feelings?
02:38Do any of you ever stop to think?
02:44No, I guess you're too busy thinking about your dates and the prom.
02:49Number 8.
02:50The Million Dollar Paperback Windfall
02:52It was a story that was clearly going to outgrow any of the markets that I sold to.
02:57They were mostly the sort of magazines where you turn them sideways, a picture falls out.
03:01When the hardcover edition of Carrie was originally published, Stephen King received a meager advance of $2,500.
03:08The novel went on to sell around 13,000 copies, a respectable sum, but hardly an earth-shattering blockbuster.
03:15It said, congratulations, Carrie officially a double-day book, advance $2,500, the future lies ahead. Love, Bill.
03:25But everything changed just a few months later when the official paperback rights were purchased by Signet Books for a
03:30staggering $400,000.
03:32Under his specific publishing contract, King received exactly half of that massive total.
03:38This financial windfall allowed him to quit his day job as a high school English teacher and pursue his creative
03:43writing dreams as a dedicated author.
03:45Thanks to the success of Carrie, one of the most legendary horror authors in history was born.
03:50It sold as a novel, it's a skinny little thing, but it made me what I am today.
03:59There were a lot of times that they wanted to shoot my feet going upstairs, they wanted to shoot my
04:04hands, and they wanted to send me home and use a stand-in, and I was adamant about doing all
04:10my own foot and hand work.
04:12Everyone knows the iconic final scene of the movie, when Sue visits the grave of Carrie and gets a nasty
04:17surprise.
04:18Well, director Brian De Palma originally planned on using a stunt double for this scene.
04:23This is quite a common movie practice whenever the actor's face isn't necessary for the scene.
04:28That, plus the scene required the performer to be under a bunch of dirt and stone.
04:32However, Sissy Spacek insisted on doing the physical stunt herself to make it as authentic as possible.
04:38So, they dug a hole, and then they put plywood on it, I got in the hole, and then they
04:44had a hole cut with pumice rock, so it was just really pretty awful when I brought my arm up.
04:50She was carefully buried inside a specialized wooden box deep underground, and breathed through a plastic tube that was fed
04:56to the surface.
04:58So when you see Carrie's arm come shooting out of the ground, just remember, that is actually Sissy Spacek under
05:03all that dirt.
05:04And at the right moment, I hollered to Sissy to grab, and she got her hands up through the charcoal
05:11and stuff to grab Amy.
05:17I no longer have an agent, but a wonderful woman who had been my agent years before in New York
05:23City called and said,
05:24I have a script here, I'm going to set it up and read it.
05:27So I did, and I thought it was sort of a cliché part, and I didn't get it.
05:33Here we have a hilarious misconception that created a legendary cinematic performance.
05:38When Piper Laurie first read the script to play Margaret White, she misunderstood the fundamental tone of the production.
05:44Laurie honestly believed the movie was meant to be a dark comedy rather than a genuinely frightening piece of horror.
05:49And I was talking to my husband that evening, and I said, no.
05:53He said, well, you know Brian De Palma has a comedic approach to just about everything he does.
06:00And I thought, oh, that's the secret. I didn't read it properly.
06:05So I reread it, and I thought, oh, this is a satire.
06:08Because she thought the project was a parody, she played the abusive mother with an over-the-top, almost campy
06:13theatricality.
06:14Director Brian De Palma liked the energy she brought to the performance, but informed her that it wasn't a comedy.
06:20Regardless, White still leaned into the camp grandiosity of her character and earned herself an Oscar nomination in the process.
06:26What Tommy gave me, Mama? Aren't they beautiful?
06:35I can see your dirty pillows. Everyone will.
06:42Breasts, Mama. They're called breasts. And every woman has them.
06:47Number 5. The Legendary Broadway Disaster.
06:50He's gonna laugh at you. They're all gonna laugh at you.
06:53We turn our attention from the silver screen to the theatrical stage for an infamous disaster.
06:58In 1988, a massive musical adaptation opened on Broadway and quickly became a historic, record-breaking flop.
07:06The misguided production was plagued by dangerous technical issues, including a falling set piece that nearly decapitated Barbara Cook.
07:17Audiences were also bewildered by shifting thematic tones and bizarre dance numbers involving simulated pig slaughters.
07:24The disastrous show was heavily panned by critics and ultimately closed after just five official performances, losing its entire $8
07:32million investment.
07:33This book and score would fail a college course in musical theater. The direction and staging are even worse.
07:40The embarrassing debacle became so notorious that it inspired author Ken Mandelbaum to write his essential book,
07:46Not Since Carrie, 40 Years of Broadway Musical Flops.
07:49I'm sorry, pussy.
07:51Trust me, Carrie. You can trust me.
07:54Number 4. Sissy Spacek's Sticky Dedication.
07:56The iconic blood-soaked prom sequence took several grueling weeks to properly film.
08:02This would usually be a nightmare for continuity, but luckily for them, Sissy Spacek was an absolute trooper.
08:08Blood was made from Cairo syrup and food coloring, red food coloring.
08:13And they warmed it, so it felt like a heavy, warm blanket. It was an amazing sensation.
08:19But after it started to dry, it got sticky.
08:22The messy substance was actually a sticky and uncomfortable mixture of Cairo syrup and red food coloring.
08:28And it was everywhere. All over her body and even stuck in her hair.
08:33Amazingly, Spacek often refused to wash this substance off and even chose to sleep in the soppy dress some nights.
08:40We mean, it was either that or go through the agonizing makeup process every single day.
08:45She took one for the team to ensure perfect continuity and the results couldn't be better.
08:49That bloody look remains one of the most iconic visuals in cinema history.
08:54Just keep your d***s on, and I'll let you pull the rope when the time comes.
09:01I plan to.
09:03I know.
09:04Number 3. The Tragic Real-Life Inspirations.
09:07Mom? Mom? Mom? Mom, stay, Mom. They laughed at me.
09:14Stephen King actually based the titular outcast on a heartbreaking composite of two different girls he personally knew in school.
09:21One was a desperately poor student who was severely tormented by her peers for wearing the same exact clothes every
09:27single day.
09:28She tragically took her own life years later after suffering from postpartum depression.
09:33The other was an extremely quiet girl who grew up trapped in a strict and eccentric religious household.
09:38Don't lie to me, Carrie Heather. Don't you know by now I can see inside you. I can see the
09:42sin as surely as God can.
09:44King wrote the novel to help process the relentless cruelty that he witnessed these poor girls endure, and the fact
09:50that he did nothing to help.
09:51It gave his terrifying story an empathetic foundation for readers to discover, and this realism helped the novel come across
09:57as more of a warning than an entertaining piece of fiction.
10:00Dude, what are you doing? What are you doing?
10:04Number 2. The Star Wars Joint Casting Session.
10:07First time that I met Brian was in a casting session, and he and George Lucas were sharing a casting
10:13session.
10:14Carrie is part of a pop culture collision of epic proportions. Promising young director Brian De Palma and his good
10:20friend George Lucas were casting their respective movies at the exact same time.
10:25To save essential time and limited studio resources, the two ambitious filmmakers sensibly decided to hold joint auditions.
10:31George and I are both looking for unknowns, so we sat together and basically went through hundreds of boys and
10:38girls looking for the cast for Carrie and Star Wars.
10:42Because of this historic collaboration, we got a ton of fun overlap.
10:46Carrie Fisher auditioned for Carrie White, and a ton of Carrie actors originally auditioned for Star Wars.
10:52Sissy Spacek, Amy Irving, and William Catt all auditioned for roles in the sci-fi epic, but were chosen by
10:58De Palma instead, who cast them as Carrie, Sue Snell, and Tommy Ross, respectively.
11:03It's one of the coolest what-ifs in movie history.
11:05I think they were sitting there going, oh, I like him, and I want him, I want to make sure
11:09I call him back, and ultimately I didn't get Luke Skywalker, but I got Tommy.
11:17Before we continue, check out this single from Current, EDM Transformed. Check out the full track and album below.
11:30Number 1. Rescued from the trash can.
11:33Had she read it?
11:34She read it after she fished it out and brushed off the cigarette butts, yeah, she did.
11:39The iconic story was nearly lost to the garbage.
11:42Stephen King started writing his seminal novel while living in a cramped trailer and working as a high school English
11:48teacher.
11:48However, he struggled with capturing the authentic perspective of a teenage girl.
11:53Frustrated and convinced that the book wasn't working, he crumpled up the first three pages and tossed them in the
11:58trash.
11:58She liked it. She liked it. And I said, well, what do you like about it?
12:03And she said, it's not like your usual man fiction at all.
12:07And that was it for Terry. Thankfully, his wife Tabitha fished those discarded pages out of the garbage, read them,
12:13and told her husband that he had something special.
12:16So, he grudgingly carried on and finished the book.
12:19It was the best decision he ever made.
12:22Without Tabitha's crucial intervention, the legendary master of horror might have never been discovered.
12:29That's great. That's fantastic.
12:31Which fact do you find most interesting? Let us know in the comments below.