Hocus Pocus Star Sean Murray Says He Had His First Panic Attack Watching Himself in the Movie 

Sean Murray loves Hocus Pocus, but when he first watched the movie, he had an intense reaction.

Murray, 47, opened up about his role in the Disney Halloween classic on the Oct. 28 episode of The Patrick LabyorSheaux podcast, hosted by Little House on the Prairie alum Patrick Labyorteaux.

During the episode, Murray reflected on some of his most embarrassing moments in Hollywood. “I remember when Hocus Pocus came out on like opening night, going to a theater somewhere in Universal City and and like hiding in the back of the theater and watching it,” he said. 

His character, Thackery Binx, falls victim to the Sanderson sisters who place a curse on him in 1693, making him an immortal cat. Jason Marsden voiced the cat version of Thackery. After a strong effort, the local children were able to break the curse, releasing Thackery to ghost form.

"And I remember, I didn't know what a panic attack was until that evening," he said. “The feeling of seeing myself on a screen like that. I was so terrified. I've never been more terrified in my life.”

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That feeling has stayed with him. “And maybe that was so traumatizing that that's why I don't watch myself typically. Because I remember watching myself on a giant screen and going, ‘Oh my god, I can't handle this. I can't handle this.’ ”

Elsewhere in the episode, Murray reflected on how Hocus Pocus wasn’t a success when it was first released in July 1993. “It didn't do well at all,” the NCIS star said. “I remember Bette Midler making some public comment about, you know, that it was a bomb or something. So, it was just sort of generally agreed upon that it was the Disney Halloween bomb movie.” He remembered that Free Willy opened that same weekend and became “a phenomenon.”

“Hocus Pocus just kind of fizzled out pretty quick. But, I got to give it up to Disney and the machine that they are because . . . through rentals, through VHS . . . it became a thing that people were watching and got into,” he said. “And it's funny because I didn't think about at the time, but it's sort of been brought to my attention [that] there's not a lot of like Halloween themed movies with kids that where it's kind of fun and accessible and the whole family can enjoy it. It's usually something way too dark or something.”

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He said, “It's way more popular now than it was when we made the movie. It's wild.”

The actor also said that he “never expected” to reprise the role in the sequel (which was released in 2022). “It was always going to be about those three witches,” he said of Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy’s Sanderson sisters. 

Murray also remembered that Leonardo DiCaprio, who he starred with in 1993’s This Boy’s Life, was originally set to play Max Dennison, but turned it down to star in 1993’s What's Eating Gilbert Grape. It ended up earning DiCaprio his first Oscar nomination. At the time, he said, he didn’t understand why DiCaprio turned down a “big Disney movie” for a “strange indie film.”