Jeffrey Dean Morgan on the Freakiness Surrounding the Filming of ‘The Possession’

Nothing makes a supernatural film scarier than when creepy things happen on set too.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan, star of the new horror movie, The Possession, was more than happy to share stories of the strange events that occurred during filming.  “This happened three or four times that I’m aware of: I’ve been on movies for a long time now and I’ve never seen a 5K light explode in the middle of key scenes and this happened three or four times,” he said in an interview with NBC New York. 

“In a closed studio—without doors open or fans nearby—suddenly a gust of wind would come from nowhere…All of our props, the Dybbuk box [the box which houses the evil spirit in the film] included, were put into storage in Vancouver so we could go back if we had to and do reshoots we’d have everything there.  A week after we wrapped filming the storage unit burned to the ground and it was investigated.  It wasn’t arson, it wasn’t an electrical fire—it started from within.  That’s all I’m gonna say.”

These occurrences contributed to the actor becoming a little more of a believer in the supernatural.  “I did as much research as available to [anyone] initially, based on this [Los Angeles Times] article that led to the original [Dybbuk box] listing on eBay and kinda how it all started and what happened to the person that owned this box.  That was sort of the beginning of it, and then you find out that the big box has been around for hundreds of years.  And then Ole [Bornedal, the director] was kind enough to send me some video of exorcisms, which scared the crap out of me, I’m not gonna lie, because I was a complete skeptic going in.  Now that being said, I am still a bit of a skeptic, but we had some weird things happen on this set.  And we were also very open to that, because we’re making this movie and you’re kind of in that character spot, but I walked away from that movie maybe less of a skeptic than I was going into it.”

The film centers around Morgan, the dad of a young daughter (played by Natasha Calis) who becomes possessed after buying the Dybbuk box.  “Natasha’s audition is why I did the movie,” he said.  “The script was awesome and I knew it could work, but the only way it could work is if we had this amazing actor playing Em.  And I remember talking to Ole Borendal being like ‘I don’t know, man—I mean, how are you going to find this person?  I don’t know that she’s out there.’  And Ole sent me this DVD and I watched it and I picked the phone and I was like ‘Yeah, that’s it—she’s it.  You hire her and I’m in the movie.’”

The Possession is in theaters now.