Hocus Pocus 2 star Kathy Najimy might want to stay away from exercise equipment while making her next movie. During a break in filming late last year, the King of the Hill star said she broke a rib while using an inversion table. Najimy plays Mary Sanderson in the Hocus Pocus sequel, which was released on Disney+ on Sept. 30.
“The day I wrapped, I went over to my friend’s house. And I saw that she had one of those machines that you put your legs in and you go upside down and it stretches you because I have one,” Najimy told PEOPLE last week. “And I said, ‘Oh my God, I have one of these in-home.’”
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Najimy went right over to the machine, but her foot “didn’t quite make it” and she “fell like an accordion” when it flipped her upside down. She broke a rib and spent the holidays healing.
“So my whole week off that we were supposed to enjoy the holidays, I was healing, but it’s fine,” Najimy told the magazine. “And then I was back at work wrapped up. Half the movie, I have a broken rib.”
Although she was in pain during the second half of production, Najimy said she “loved” doing her own stunts. “I’ve jumped out of an airplane twice,” she said. “I love heights, I love to be scared, I love the whole thing. So [with] the flying, I kept saying, ‘More, keep me up. Don’t bring me down. Keep me up.’” She joked that she and Sarah Jessica Parker would ask the crew to leave them ‘flying’ during lunchtime.
The long-awaited Hocus Pocus sequel was finally released 29 years after the first film. Najimy had no trouble playing Mary Sanderson again, but eagle-eyed fans will notice that her crooked mouth is on the other side of her face. There really was no big behind-the-scenes story for the change, Najimy told Entertainment Weekly.
“It’s on the other side mainly because it’s so hard for me to do it on the side I did it on 30 years ago. I’m sure the fans are going to go into deep detail about why it’s on the other side,” she told EW. “It’s just something I came up with the first week. This is a big comedy, so you don’t have to be subtle or have a 40-page Shakespearean backstory.”
However, there is a joke in the movie that quickly explains the tweak. “We can justify it because there’s a scene at the beginning where Winnie slaps me, and my mouth goes to the other side, and then she slaps me again and it goes to the other side, and sticks,” she said. Hocus Pocus 2 was directed by Anne Fletcher and also stars Bette Midler as Winnie Sanderson and Parker as Sarah Sanderson. Sam Richardson, Doug Jones, Whitney Peak, Elissa Escobedo, Tony Hale, and Hannah Waddingham also star.
As for a third Hocus Pocus, Najimy is sticking with “never say never,” she told PEOPLE. “It was fun, but it’s not nothing. It’s a lot, but who knows? Who knew that almost 30 years later we’d be doing this sequel?” she said. “I think if we did it 30 years later again, well, there would be walkers and canes involved. The flying might just be a little one-foot blip off the ground.”
