It’s been over 30 years since the popular 1990s Halloween movie Hocus Pocus charmed audiences, and interesting stories about making the film are still coming out. While fans fondly remember the movie for its mischievous Sanderson sisters and nostalgic appeal, one of the stars recently shared a funny, slightly blurry memory from the set involving pumpkins, marijuana, and a promise to never repeat the experience.
Tobias Jelinek, who played the bully Jay in the original Hocus Pocus (but wasn’t in the sequel), recently told Entertainment Weekly that he did smoke marijuana with his co-star Omri Katz (Max Dennison) while filming. However, unlike Katz, who shared in 2022 that he enjoyed experimenting with cannabis during production, Jelinek says his single attempt was a bad experience.
Okay, so there’s this moment in the film – the pumpkin smashing, specifically – and it really struck me. You’ve got young Thora Birch on set, and you just know she’s looking around thinking, ‘What on earth are these older kids up to?’ It’s a funny little detail that adds to the scene’s chaotic energy.
Jelinek recalls that Katz, while working on the film, bought a Volkswagen bus and even brought director Kenny Ortega to a Grateful Dead concert in San Francisco. As a playful gift, Katz apparently left a sizable amount of marijuana in Jelinek’s microwave. Later, Katz persuaded Jelinek to join him for a smoke break before they rehearsed the major Halloween scene. Jelinek added:
I hadn’t smoked much marijuana before. I tried a few puffs right before rehearsal and it completely threw me off. We were working on a scene with Kenny, and I just couldn’t focus. He, on the other hand, smoked regularly during the shoot and seemed totally fine. I distinctly remember telling myself, ‘That’s the last time, Omri!’
Things didn’t get better once the cameras rolled. Jelinek recalled:
I was so mortified afterwards, realizing my eyes were probably really red. Kenny noticed and asked what was wrong, but I was completely overwhelmed and couldn’t even process what he said.
Katz has always been honest about his struggles while filming Hocus Pocus. He admitted in a 2022 interview that he wasn’t performing his best in certain scenes, and Jenna Ortega actually pointed it out to him. He joked that it helped him become more focused and professional, but he still enjoyed the experience.
Former Disney star, now 48, launched his own cannabis company called Mary Danksters. He also continued acting and recently played serial killer Richard Speck in the TV show Monsters: The Ed Gein Story, which premiered in 2025 and is available on Netflix.
Both actors fondly remember working on Hocus Pocus, even if the details are a little hazy now. With Disney planning Hocus Pocus 3, several original stars – including Sean Murray, Vinessa Shaw, and Jason Marsden – have expressed strong interest in returning, and fans would love to see them back after they were absent from Hocus Pocus 2.
In the meantime, you can rewatch the original Hocus Pocus and its 2022 follow-up, Hocus Pocus 2, both available on Disney+.
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2025-10-21 21:02