Tobias Jelinek Recalls How Hocus Pocus Costar Larry Bagby Became His Guardian When He Turned 18 (Exclusive)

Hocus Pocus made major memories for fans — and made Tobias Jelinek a lifelong friend.

Jelinek, who stars in the new Netflix series Monster, opened up to PEOPLE about filming his first movie, Hocus Pocus. In it, he played Jay, a teenage bully who’s best friends with Ice, played by Larry Bagby. 

When Jelinek, now 48, was cast in the movie, he was 15, living in Santa Barbara, Calif., and “flirting with being a surfer.” “At first, I went in to audition for Max,” he said, the role played by Omri Katz, “and I think they took one look at me and they’re like, ‘So we’ve got this other role we’d like you to audition for.’ I was in there with a Red Lobster tee shirt and my skater shorts and long hair.”

He looked over the lines for 20 minutes then went back in and read again. Then he waited to hear back. “I remember the breakdown mentioned that Jay listened to Guns N’ Roses,” he remembered. “. . . I had my cassette tape and I would listen to ‘November Rain; and think how cool it would be to be in a film.”

Then he finally he got a callback. “It was just me and Larry Bagby,” he said, noting he still as a polaroid of him and Bagby, 51, from that day. “With Larry Bagby, we hit it off immediately. I loved his sense of humor and we had great chemistry.”

Just after he began his sophomore year of high school, Jelinek learned he’d landed the part. 

Jelinek and Bagby got into plenty of hijinks during filming. Bagby turned 18 during filming, and he and Jelinek convinced his mom to make Bagby his guardian on set. “It was the two of us at Universal Sheraton with per diem, and you can imagine the rest,” Jelinek says. “A 15 and 18-year-old in 1992 while we were filming.”

After the movie wrapped, Jelinek eventually returned to a more typical teenage experience. “Nobody really saw Hocus Pocus in my circle. I remember nobody knew that I’d been in this film and there was no premiere,” he said. He ended up taking one friend to the theater to see it when it was released in July 1993.

He eventually made his way back to acting, moving to Los Angeles around 2005. But he “never talked about” Hocus Pocus. “I didn’t even know how many fans there were,” he said.

Then in 2015, while he was filming Stranger Things in Atlanta, he got a call from Bagby. “He said, ‘Did you know we’re trending right now on Twitter?’ ” the actor remembered. “Like, what do you mean? He’s like, ‘Yeah, we’re being called ’90s fashion icons.’ ” Jelinek went “down the rabbit hole” and discovered the myriad fans of the movie.

When the film turned 25 in 2018, Jelinek says, “that’s what busted it wide open.”

When Bagby called with the news of their online fans, Jelinek admitted, “We hadn’t talked in some years, but every time we check in, it takes us right back to being 15 and 18.”

Earlier this month, Bagby married Veronique Bagby in a Hocus Pocus-inspired ceremony in Salem, Mass.  Costars Jason Marsden (cat version of Thackery Binx), Vinessa Shaw (Allison) and Katz were on-hand. Jelinek said he was meant to be there and serve as best man, but was on set filming a new project.  

“I love Larry. He’s very dear to me, and I’m so grateful for the friendship,” Jelinek says. They spent even more time together at fan conventions, and the actor says, “I can’t imagine ever doing it without him.”