“Hocus Pocus” actor Tobias Jelinek, who played Jay in the classic Disney family-comedy, recalled the time when his co-star Omri Katz, who played Max, got him high on weed right before that major pumpkin-smashing scene in the film.
“Little Thora Birch was in there with us, probably wondering what’s going on with these teenagers,” Jelinek said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, published Monday. His remarks come after Katz previously revealed to EW in 2022 that he was high while filming most of the 1993 flick.
“It was the pumpkin-smashing scene,” Jelinek said, explaining that Katz “convinced” him to smoke from a “giant nug of Californian green weed” during lunch before the two were set to rehearse the scene, which director Kenny Ortega was overseeing.
“I didn’t smoke weed that much. I took a few puffs, I went into that rehearsal, and I was a mess,” Jelinek said. “We were supposed to be running this scene with Kenny. I really couldn’t hang … He was smoking weed throughout that entire shoot, and he knew how to handle it. I remember saying, ‘Never again, Omri!’”
While reflecting on the moment, he admitted that he was “embarrassed” at the time by his actions because he knew his “eyes were red.”
“Kenny was like, ‘What’s going on with you, Tobias?’ I was just toast,” Jelinek said. “I couldn’t hear anything!”
Jelinek, Katz and Birch were part of the cast alongside, Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, Sarah Jessica Parker, Vinessa Shaw and more. The film came out in theaters on July 16, 1993.
