Eve Plumb Auditioned for 'The Exorcist'?!
That and other tidbits gleaned from her NYC Q&A for the memoir 'Happiness Included'
April 29, 2026
Meet the old Jan Brady!
Now 67 — and looking sensational, and smartly attired — ageless Eve Plumb arrived at Barnes & Noble in NYC for a somewhat offbeat Q&A, holding 150 or more fans in her thrall as she touched on aspects of her life and career from her pre-Brady Bunch TV work to her present status as a self-taught painter.
FULL Q&A:
The event, which was standing room only, was moderated by a publishing exec who seemed not quite prepared for the task. I guess any big fan would feel they could have done a better job, but asking Plumb if her parents had typed up her résumé (leading to a scintillating sidebar about 8.5”x11” vs. 8”x10” paper) felt like a Cousin Oliver move.
As you’ll see in the video, Plumb pushed back when a question’s framing was incorrect, but mostly the vibe she gave off was as a no-nonsense total professional. This is a person who was hitting her mark at an age when we were learning to tie our shoes. As evidenced by her admission that she has no memory of the fact that she and Brady co-star Maureen McCormick did a commercial together before working on the series, Plumb has probably forgotten more about the biz than most of her younger peers will ever know about it.
She spoke without rancor about her parents’ decisions that placed her at various inflection points in her career (they let her try out for Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway when she was 17, a sex-worker part she landed and that was released when she was 18) and seemed quite happy to delve into Brady tidbits.
As she said on CBS Mornings, she has never resented the show that put her on the map — she really only ever skipped one Brady opportunity, the ridiculous(ly fun) variety series.
Eve also revealed she’d auditioned for The Exorcist, which really gives one pause:
The Q&A ended with a sort of lightning-round of written questions from the audience, which ranged from suck-up material about her interest in philosophy to asking about the middle-child syndrome her performance as Jan personified.
At the end, we all got to meet her and get a book signed. They made us do over-the-table photos (which is hot death) but she was very nice, actually, and enjoyed my comment that Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway was scarier to me as a kid than The Exorcist would’ve been.
It had me thinking how unfortunate it is that Eve has ever had any defensiveness about “Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!” or other parodies of her work as Jan.
It’s not that she was bad, it’s that she was so singular her performance was simultaneously deeply effective and camp. She was like the teen Joan Crawford — she was flawless, and her over-the-top flawlessness was perfect fodder for send-ups.
As much as I loved the entire series, and while I was ga-ga for the older boys and obsessed with Marcia, it was really Jan whose storylines packed the most punch — not wearing her glasses and ruining the family photo, going into histrionics over the thought she might grow up to resemble Aunt Jenny (Imogene Coca), that incredible brunette wig.
Turns out that, to a large extent, The Brady Bunch was really about, “Jan! Jan! Jan!”
Happiness Included: Jan Brady and Beyond is on sale now. ⚡️