Thora Birch has opened up about the personal matter that pulled her off Netflix’s “Wednesday.”
The “Hocus Pocus” alum, 44, was cast as Tamara Novak, the dorm mother to Jenna Ortega’s title character, in the hit horror series. Production had already begun when she exited the role. A statement first reported announced: “Thora has returned to the States to attend to a personal matter and will not be returning to the production.”
Birch later addressed the departure directly with Entertainment Tonight. “I had filmed a certain amount and there were some questions about how much more to go with that character and there were just some changes and adjustments made,” she told the outlet.
The role would have marked a major return to television for Birch, who first became a household name as a child star. She was just 10 years old when she played Dani Dennison in Disney’s 1993 Halloween classic “Hocus Pocus,” the younger sister of Omri Katz’s Max. In the film, Dani and Max accidentally resurrect the Sanderson sisters on Halloween night and must stop the witches from wreaking havoc on Salem.
Birch did not reprise the role in 2022’s “Hocus Pocus 2,” though she had been interested. “There were three options we had for how to bring Dani back, all of which I was excited by,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “By the time they got around to filming, I was already on something else,” she continued, explaining that scheduling conflicts with another project kept her away.
Since her breakthrough in the Disney film, Birch built a varied career across film and television. She appeared in 1994’s “Monkey Trouble,” the 1995 coming-of-age drama “Now and Then,” and the adventure film “Alaska.” Her later credits include the cult favorite “Ghost World,” the survival drama “The Walking Dead,” and most recently the romance drama “The Chronology of Water.”
Birch has also moved behind the camera. She made her directorial debut in 2022 with “The Gabby Petito Story,” a true crime film based on the case of Petito, the young woman who went missing during a road trip with her fiancé. The movie starred Skyler Samuels and Evan Hall, with Birch herself appearing on screen as Petito’s mother.
Birch has been married to talent manager and producer Michael Benton Adler since 2018.
“Hocus Pocus 2” arrived on Disney+ in September 2022 without Birch’s participation, though the original film’s legacy continues to draw attention each October as the Halloween season begins.