ActorDoug Joneshas been through a lot in a career that has frequently required him to contort his body, wear outlandish costumes, and get encased in monster prosthetics. However, it’s possible that his strangest on-screen act came in one of his earliest roles, when he had to hold live moths in his mouth during the filming of the 1993 horror comedy classicHocus Pocus. Jones discussed the unusual stunt at the FanX ATL Comics Convention this weekend at a panel moderated by Collider’sMaggie Lovitt.
In the scene, Jones' character, a 400-year-old zombie named Billy Butcherson, cuts open the stitches holding his mouth together:
“That was before CG, when computer graphics were not nearly good enough. So we did it for real. So I had three moths in my mouth…they had to build a sheath for it, they call it a dental dam, so upper and lower pieces made of latex, and on the roof of my mouth they had dust, like purified dust. So I open my mouth [coughs] and then moths and dust fly out. They had a moth trainer. This nice man shows up on set with moths in a cage, and tweezers to gather their wings and place them in my mouth very gently. And because the timing had to be so precise, moths need to be dry, and they need to see fire or they’re not going to fly. So that’s why the dental dam is important, to keep the moisture off of them.”
Not only did Jones have to release live moths from his mouth while in full prosthetics, he had to do it twice. He explains:
“The first take, everything’s ready; sound is ready, camera’s ready, everything’s lit. And then a light bursts, sending shards falling down on everything. And I’m like ‘uh oh.’ So now we have to wait for them to fix the light bulb. And I can feel the water table in my mouth rising, and I can feel them, so it’s like “process! process!” They get the light fixed, and action! The moths came surfing out of my mouth on a stream of saliva. Take two went much better, and that’s the one you see in the movie.”
Luckily, no moths were harmed in the making of the film.
What Is ‘Hocus Pocus’ About?
Set in Salem, Massachusetts,Hocus Pocusfollows Max Dennison (Omri Katz), his sister Dani (Thora Birch), and his would-be love interest Allison (Vinessa Shaw), who accidentally resurrect a trio of witches (Bette Midler,Kathy Najimy, andSarah Jessica Parker). They intend to prolong their unnatural lives by draining the lives of the town’s children and enlist the zombie-like form of their long-dead associate, Billy Butcherson (Jones), to do so. Meanwhile, Max, Dani, and Allison attempt to stop them, aided by immortal talking cat Thackery Binx (voiced byJason Marsden). Although it was not a critical or financial success when it was first released, seasonal viewings on VHS and the Disney Channel made it a Halloween staple in the intervening years.
Jones returned to play Billy in 2023’s belated sequel,Hocus Pocus 2; this time, he didn’t have to cough up any live moths. Another sequel isstill on the drawing board.
Hocus Pocusisstreaming on Disney+. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
