Kathy Najimy reveals why her Hocus Pocus 2 character Mary Sanderson’s crooked smile is now on the other side of her mouth
Nearly 30 years after the original Hocus Pocus debuted, the sequel Hocus Pocus 2 arrived in Disney Plus, though fans noticed a distinct difference in one character.
Kathy Najimy’s Mary Sanderson – one of the three Sanderson sisters with Bette Midler’s Winifred and Sarah Jessica Parker’s Sarah – stood out with a crooked smile on the right side of her mouth.
The 65-year-old actress revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the smile has now shifted to the left side because the right one has become too difficult.
Smile: Kathy Najimy’s Mary Sanderson – one of the three Sanderson sisters with Bette Midler’s Winifred and Sarah Jessica Parker’s Sarah – stood out with a crooked smile on the right side of her mouth
Difficult: The 65-year-old actress revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the smile has now shifted to the left side because the right one has become too difficult
“It’s mostly on the other side because it’s so hard for me to do it on the side where I did it 30 years ago,” Najimy began.
“I’m sure fans will be talking at length about why it’s on the other side,” she joked.
“It’s just something that came to mind in the first week. This is big comedy, so you don’t have to be subtle or have a 40-page Shakespearean backstory,” Najimy added.
So hard: “It’s mostly on the other side because it’s so hard for me to do it on the side where I did it 30 years ago,” Najimy began.
Backstory: “It’s just something I made up the first week. This is big comedy, so you don’t have to be subtle or have a 40-page Shakespearean backstory,” Najimy added
The actress added that she also came up with a clever way to explain the smile change in the film.
“We can justify it because at the beginning there’s a scene where Winnie hits me and my mouth goes to the other side, and then she hits me again and it goes to the other side and gets stuck,” Najimy said.
Director Anne Fletcher previously revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the sequel’s opening sequence will explore the sisters’ 17th-century origins.
Clever: The actress added that they also came up with a clever way to explain the smile change in the film
The opening sequence will feature child actors Taylor Henderson, Juju Journey Brener and Nina Kitchen as younger versions of Winifred, Sarah and Mary.
The sequence will also feature a young Billy Butcherson (Doug Jones) years before he became Winifred’s lover.
“The opening sequence of the film, we get some history about our witches and Billy. We’re getting a little kiss – pardon the pun – of the Billy aspect and the world they lived in and what happened to the witches,’ Fletcher began.
Younger: The opening sequence will star child actors Taylor Henderson, Juju Journey Brener and Nina Kitchen as younger versions of Winifred, Sarah and Mary
“I always missed that in the first. What are the witches as they are? I had that question, and the script came, and I loved the early 1600s,” she said.
She added that she pushed the opening “a little further” so she could introduce the idea that “the 17th century and the now are the same. There is no difference.’
“I just want to point out the irony. But in the joy of the film, you see the young version of them and have a great time and understand what happened to them and why,” Fletcher added.