'Portals to Hell' Stars Jack Osbourne and Katrina Weidman Talk Resilience to 'Negative Energy' Ahead of Season 3 Premiere (Exclusive)

By Stephen Andrew

Hit Travel Channel series Portals to Hell is coming back for Season 3, and the show's stars recently discussed what it was like to film during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as how they handle "negative energy." Speaking exclusively to PopCulture.com, Jack Osbourne and Katrine Weidman discussed the upcoming new season of their paranormal investigation series and some of their encounters with the supernatural realm. Interestingly, Osbourne explained that this season was a little easier to film due to mass COVID-19 shutdowns, which meant "a lot of locations became available."

He elaborated, "Normally they were tourist attractions and it was too much money for them to shut down and let a film crew in for a week. It was too much of a loss for them or too much for us to afford. In some cases, it actually opened up locations, which was great. And then it just added like an interesting spin as far as investigating goes, because most of the time we're investigating places that have a high volume of traffic. And then all of a sudden, these places have sat abandoned for two years pretty much. It just adds a different kind of element to the investigation. Is it something to do with people being here or not people being here? Does that have an effect?" Osbourne then quipped, "And then there's a bunch of boring cost implications of filming through a pandemic, which I won't bore you with."

When it comes to all the negative energy they encounter during their investigations, Osbourne explained that it isn't so much that they become used to the energy as it is they "get resilience to environments." He continued, "And I notice I'm coming back, if it's the first two, three episodes of a new season, it's like, 'Oh, OK We're back in like cold, dingy, dark, dusty, abandoned buildings.' And it takes a minute to acclimate yourself to, 'This is my work environment for the next four to six months.' And that takes a minute."

Osbourne added that "the jump factor takes a minute to get callous again. But it depends. Every investigation's different. It's every location it's super unique." He then quipped, "At the end of the day, I always jokingly say it. Our job, I think, before being ghost hunters, is really taking a tour of America's most random towns." Wiedman chimed in, "And you find gems in there too. Like Marfa, Texas, that was the gem of a town."

Wiedman then offered her thoughts on encountering unfriendly spirits and likened it to "when you meet negative people." She explained, "People always like those really negative personalities. The first couple times you interact with someone like that, or you get involved with somebody like that, you don't know the ins and outs of it yet to be able to put up your boundaries to protect yourself. And I think it's kind of the same thing with whatever this energy is. The first couple times you encounter it, your defenses are low. But once you understand it and recognize it, and you're able to get a few feet ahead of it, you're better able to put up those walls and boundaries."

One important element of paranormal investigation, the pair clarified, is not having expectations based on the appearance of a building or property. "I've investigated places which were just an old haunted house and it was absolutely terrifying. And then gone to some place where you would expect it to be worse and it's not," Osbourne said. "And I think that's what keeps me wanting to answer the question. Try and find the answer to these questions is what is this? What makes this? Why does this keep happening?"

Wiedman, agreeing with Osbourne, added, "I think one of the things I learned really, really early on was not to have any expectations going in. There was a case I did a really long time ago that, honestly, we thought there was nothing to it. And we're like, 'Well, the family needs help. We'll go.' And it ended up being a really active, somewhat negative case. And I just remember in that moment thinking like, 'All right, I really don't know what this stuff is.' Because I came into it, probably having the same thoughts that everybody does. That a ghost does this. And this is what it does and blahdy-blah. And once you get into the field, you realize, really, we don't know. I mean, otherwise it wouldn't be in the paranormal umbrella." Portals to Hell Season 3 premieres Saturday, April 9, on the Travel Channel and discovery+.

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