Hocus Pocus 2’s Kathy Najimy reveals more on her character Mary Sanderson’s crooked smile

Nearly 30 years after the original Hocus Pocus debuted, the sequel Hocus Pocus 2 arrived in Disney Plus, although fans noticed a distinct difference in one character.

Kathy Najimy’s Mary Sanderson — one of 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 Weekly entertainment that the smile has now shifted to the left side because the right side became too hard.

Difficult: The 65-year-old actress revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the smile has now shifted to the left as the right side became too difficult

“It’s on the other side, mainly 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 the fans are going deep into why it’s on the other side,” she joked.

“It’s just something I came up with the first week. This is a big comedy, so you don’t have to be subtle or have a 40-page Shakespearean backstory,” Najimy added.

So hard: “It’s on the other side, especially 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 came up with the first week. This is a big comedy, so you don’t have to be subtle or have a 40-page Shakespearean backstory,” Najimy added.

The actress added that they also came up with a clever way to explain the smile shift in the film.

“We can justify it because at the beginning there’s a scene where Winnie slaps me and my mouth goes to the other side, and then she hits me again and it goes to the other side and sticks,” Najimy said.

Director Anne Fletcher previously revealed in an interview with Weekly entertainment that the opening scene of the sequel will explore the origins of the sisters in the 1600s.

Clever: The actress added that they also came up with a clever way to explain the smile shift in the film

The opening scene features child actors Taylor Henderson, Juju Journey Brener and Nina Kitchen as younger versions of Winifred, Sarah and Mary.

The series will also feature a young Billy Butcherson (Doug Jones), years before he became Winifred’s lover.

“In the opening scene of the movie, we get some history from our witches and Billy. We get a little kiss—excuse the pun—from the Billy aspect of it and the world they lived in and what happened to the witches,” Fletcher began.

Younger: The opening scene features 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. Like, 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 bit more” so that she could introduce the idea that “the 1600s and now are the same. There is no difference.’

“I just want to punctuate the irony of it. But in the joy of the movie you get to see the young version of them and have a great time and understand the what and why of what happened to them,” Fletcher added.