Paul Seaburn December 6, 2021

Which is scarier – an amphibian humanoid, the ghost of a Western movie star, or a UFO? One person who has had experience with all three is actress Octavia Spencer and she recently shared some of her feelings on the subjects on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”

“Some of the best minds in the country peein’ all over the floor in this here facility.”

Octavia Spencer has played many roles in her Oscar and Golden Globe-winning career, but one of the strangest was Zelda Fuller, the co-worker and friend of the humanoid amphibian-loving Elisa in “The Shape of Water.” As the quote above conveys, many people were afraid of “The Amphibian Man” but Zelda was more fearful of her human male employers who ran the aquarium, their lives and that of the Amphibian Man. With her outstanding performance, it’s a sure bet Octavia would feel the same. But … what about ghosts?

“I grew up watching Westerns, and I bought this house, and it was owned by a guy who did Westerns, so I must have been a fan of his. My ghost can haunt me, but he doesn’t haunt me,” Spencer noted. “We have boundaries. I love him because he kind of sorts out the bad people that shouldn’t be there. He runs them out.”

Are you feeling lucky, punk?

That sounds like the perfect somewhat-friendly ghost for a haunted house and Spencer seems happy with him. She bought the home on Toluca Lake in the San Fernando Valley in 2013, but the Spanish-style abode dates back to 1927. She doesn’t appear to know or care which previous owner the ghost might be, but says her poltergeist still remembers how to mess with doors and lights, especially when she comes back after being gone for a while. She says she doesn’t mind visitors – and neither does her ghost – but she doesn’t want them bringing THEIR ghost into her house and letting them do whatever ghosts do in such situations.

Did she get an inspection before moving in?

“I had an encounter while we were filming “Encounter.” Our whole crew did. All of a sudden there were all these lights in the sky, and we were about to shoot the big scene at the end of the film and the lights — it was just a million of them — and they started getting smaller and smaller.”

Spencer then shared with Ellen her UFO encounter while filming “Encounter,” the sci-fi alien encounter film she was there to promote. For proof, she brought a seven-second video fo the strange lights and insisted they were not from a plane. After appearing in an alien encounter movie and having a real UFO experience, how does she feel about them?

“I hope the men in black don’t come for me.”

There you have it from the voice of experience, Octavia Spencer – amphibian humanoids great, ghosts good, UFOs, aliens and the Men in Black … be afraid.

MU*