Courteney Cox to Rajkummar Rao: When actors spoke about real-life ghostly encounters

We’re used to seeing celebrities face ghosts and demons in films – but what happens when the scary stuff follows them off-screen? Believe it or not, some famous faces have had chilling brushes with the supernatural in real life too. From haunted houses to spooky film sets and even chatting with spirits in cemeteries, these actors have shared their spine-tingling experiences.

Courteney Cox once lived in a haunted house in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles – and it scared her so much, she sold it! The 'Friends' star shared her spooky story on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in March 2022. The house had once belonged to Gypsy Rose Lee and Carole King, who told her, “There had been a divorce that was really ugly, and there was a ghost in the house.” At first, Courteney didn’t believe it. But then something creepy happened. “I was at the house one day not being a believer. The doorbell rang. It was a UPS guy, or something, and I opened the door and he said, ‘Do you know this house is haunted?’” Cox continued. “And I go, ‘Yeah, why? Why do you think that?’ And he goes, ‘Because there is someone standing behind you.’ And I was like, ‘Let’s sell.’”

Even Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey has been spooked by something unseen. When he moved into his home, he camped out upstairs with just his sleeping bag and dog. Speaking to TeenHollywood.com back in 2003, he revealed he was "freaked out" when he first saw an elderly female ghost one night in his home. "When I first moved in there, I had a tent and I put it up on the floor of the upstairs bedroom with my sleeping bag and my dog," he recalled to TeenHollywood.com in 2003.

That night, he heard some strange noises including "a sound like a dime dropping from 10 feet off the ground onto a glass table." The actor ran but couldn't find the culprit. He later decided to call the ghost “Madame Blue” and accepted her presence in the house. Now that’s one way to handle a haunted home!

Bipasha Basu is no stranger to horror movies like 'Raaz' and 'Aatma', but after filming 'Creature 3D', things got too real. In the film, she faced off against a terrifying Brahmarakshas – and it seems the creature followed her off-screen too! As per TOI back in 2014, a source close to the actress revealed, “Bipasha is getting ready to travel south to do a special puja (ritual prayers) to ward off the Brahmarakshas that is haunting her ever since acting in 'Creature 3D'...” She had nightmares and even consulted a pandit for help.

Vanessa Hudgens has had many ghostly experiences over the years – and she’s not scared of them anymore. The 'Tick, Tick… Boom!' actress revealed on The Kelly Clarkson Show in April 2022, “I’ve accepted the fact that I see things and I hear things. I kind of shut it down for a while [because] the unknown is scary. But I recently was like, ‘No, this is a gift and something that I have the ability to do, so I’m going to lean into it.’” Vanessa even went on her first proper ghost hunt, where she spoke to a playful spirit in a cemetery. Using a spirit box, she asked the ghost named Sam to say her name – and it did! Chilling, right?

Rajkummar Rao had a proper scare while filming the hit horror-comedy 'Stree'. Speaking on Ranveer Allahbadia’s podcast, he shared how the cast and crew were given strict warnings on set, “It happened during Stree. We were shooting in Bhopal, and the hotel gave us a circular with some warnings. It said we shouldn’t do certain things – like not using perfume, girls shouldn’t leave their hair open, and not to use loban (incense used for smoke). We were also told to always stay in groups and never go anywhere alone.”

Despite the warnings, someone lit loban during a night shoot – and that’s when things went wrong.

“It was a night shoot, around 2.30am. Our DOP felt it wasn’t spooky enough without smoke, so he said we needed loban and went ahead and lit some.”

“I still remember – there was a 15-foot-high wall at the fort, and one of our lightmen was sitting there alone. Suddenly, he fell down. The first thing he screamed was, ‘Someone pushed me from behind!’ Of course, everyone got a bit scared.”

“The first thing we did was put out the loban. Then everyone prayed and said sorry, just in case we had disturbed someone who might’ve been there. We didn’t mean any harm. We reshot the scene later. Thankfully, the light boy was fine – we took him to the hospital.”