Kathy Najimy Was Anxious About ‘Hocus Pocus’ For A Surprising Reason

Kathy Najimy attends Disney's "Hocus Pocus 2" premiere at AMC Lincoln Square Theater on Sept. 27, 2022, in New York City. (Photo: Dia Dipasupil via Getty Images)

Kathy Najimy is putting a spell on fans for her progressive views. 

In a resurfaced clip from 1993, the actor spoke to Katie Couric on “Today” about her apprehension about taking on the role of Mary Sanderson in the original “Hocus Pocus.”

Najimy, who recently reprised her role in “Hocus Pocus 2,” admitted to Couric in the interview — which was posted on TikTok a year ago, but has received a surge of views in the past week —  that her concern was that she didn’t want to offend any witches.

“At the risk of having America roll their eyes, I just feel supportive of all groups,” Najimy said at the time. “Whether they’re women’s groups or gay groups or racial groups, and I know that there are groups of witches out there.”

Najimy said that she herself was not a witch and that she didn’t “know any personally,” but explained that she felt uneasy with the messaging in the script.

“When I read the script, I thought this is really perpetuating a stereotype about an evil, ugly witch,” she said, later adding: “I didn’t want to be part of perpetuating that myth.”

Najimy said she expressed her concerns to the project’s director and producers. She also reached out to “the goddess of the world who knows everything” — Gloria Steinem — to see what the feminist icon thought.

″[Steinem] said that the interesting thing was that originally, some of the women who were said to be witches were health care workers and midwives,” Najimy explained. “So that’s where the notion of baby-eating came because they would perform abortions sometimes.”

She added:

“So the women would go in pregnant ... and come out not. So, that’s the gossip about baby-eating, which is of course not true. These were just health care workers.” 

A social media user reshared the clip on TikTok last week, calling Najimy “a woman ahead of her time.” 

Other TikTok users agreed in comments on the post.

“In 1993. She said this in 1993! What a legend. I’ve always loved her, but this just cements it,” one user said.

“WOW!” another person wrote on the interview’s original post. “For anyone not alive in the 90s people really weren’t like this in media and I am so impressed.”

Najimy has been involved in activism for much of her life. She’s been an avid supporter of women’s and LGBTQ rights, according to her website. She also convinced Steinem to officiate her wedding to her husband, Dan Finnerty, she told Glamour earlier this week.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.