Image via Complex Original
Typically, it’d be best to take anything that a celebrity says with a grain of salt. They’re performers for a living. If you ask them about their personal lives, “No,” they’re not dating that person; “no,” they didn’t get their lips done; “no,” they didn’t leak their own album. We know the answer is “HELL YEAH” 90 percent of the time. But there are times when celebrities tell stories that just sound too insane not to be true, like, well, tales of demonic possessions and ghost-induced sexual experiences. Here are 10 celebrities who believe in ghosts, along with the stories behind their most bizarre experiences.
Halle Berry
According to the actress, she’d kept one of Dorothy Dandridge’s dresses while filming her biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, but unwittingly brought her ghost with her. “I’d come home and the housekeeper would say she’d heard my vanity chair moving upstairs in my bathroom. And our fridge door would fly open by itself. I’m not kidding,” Berry toldEbony. “When the film was over, I desperately wanted to keep her dress, but it had to go. And then everything was fine.” It seems like Berry was cool with having her new ghost roommate, so long as she didn’t eat anything in the fridge that had the initials “HB.”
Ariana Grande
If you’re thinking about visiting one of the seven gates of hell for a fun time, maybe just don’t. Ariana Grande recounted her experience at Stull Cemetery in the star’s December/January 2014 Complex cover story. Grande says that the smell of sulfur overwhelmed her car during her visit, which is apparently a surefire sign that a demon is present. Two weeks later, she started hearing creepy whispers and seeing disturbing images in her sleep. She forced herself to stay awake, but when she called someone for comfort, she noticed a strange black matter in her room.
“I started crying. I was on the phone like, ‘What do I do, what do I do?’ and they said, ‘Tell it to eff off.’ I thought, ‘I'm not going to do that,’” she said. “It feeds on fear. I watched it move to the front of my bed and then I fell asleep on the phone. I woke up and it was gone.”
When reached for a comment, the ghostly figure seemed disappointed. “She seems so nice on TV, I just wanted an autograph.”
Ryan Gosling
Disney kids do have a reputation for being slightly different, which is why Ryan Gosling’s ghost story doesn’t exactly seem out of character. "I went through puberty in [Disney World]," the former Mousketeer told Esquire. "I'm grateful. That place was a landscape to me. I had adventures every day. Backstage at Disney World, there are stories. Mickey Mouse with his head off, drinking coffee on break. Pirates on the phone. Ghosts in line for food. It just made me see things." Now, dude fronts a band called Dead Man’s Bones. Go figure.
Keanu Reeves
Jimmy Kimmel scored a pretty sweet soundbite when he got Keanu Reeves to talk about his encounter with a ghost as a little boy. "It was in New York. It was cool," Reeves said about the mysterious jacket that he saw float through a doorway. "There's no head, there's no body, there's no legs. It's just there. And then it disappears. Is that a ghost? Or is that just some weird floating jacket?" We’re going to guess that it was an intricate Scooby Doo plan, where a man hangs a coat on a fishing wire and pulls it across the room so the renters break their lease and he can sell the house.
Matthew McConaughey
Matthew McConaughey is so chill that he DGAF that there’s a ghost in his house. Dude even named it “Madame Blue” and talks about it like it’s just another roommate. “She's a cool ghost,” McConaughey said in an interview. “Maybe me being nude all the time is why we get along.” We can always count on McConaughey for deep thoughts on the paranormal.
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage has always been a little twisted. The actor once owned the LaLaurie House, a famous haunted mansion in New Orleans that was featured in American Horror Story, and he gave this explanation to Forbes: “I’m a child of California and I would go to Disneyland quite a bit—I consider myself something of a ‘Son of Walt’ and those memories had an impact on me. One of the greatest memories would be the haunted mansion at Anaheim, in New Orleans Square, no less. So for me to have the actual thing was the childhood fantasy come true.’’ He added, “You know, other people have beachfront property; I have ghost front property.” Other fans of Disney usually settle for owning Mickey Mouse products, but Nicolas Cage just had to get all Nicolas Cage about it.
Miley Cyrus
Cyrus’ whole family was affected by the ghosts in her London flat, which was her home base during her European tour. “I thought I had seen a little boy sitting on the sink watching me take a shower so I felt really freaked out. I was sitting there the next night and maybe I’m crazy, but I could have sworn I could see this little boy sitting there on the sink, kicking his feet,” she told Elle UK. “Liam [Hemsworth, Miley's former fiancé] had an experience, my mom had an experience, we all had these crazy experiences and it was terrifying.” In a town as old as London, there’s bound to be history in many properties, and, of course, some of these "ghosts" would be young children. And, like every kid, they’re bound to be a Hannah Montana fan.
Kesha
Kesha wasn’t possessed by any old ghost; she had to exorcise a ghost from her reproductive organs. She explained the story to Jimmy Kimmel and even tweeted a fake photo of the incident. “It sounds ridiculous, but in all honesty I believe in all this crazy sh*t,” she told the Kimmel. “I believed I had dead people in me.” We have so, so many questions! Would Kesha wake up in the middle of the night to find her ghost dragging chains out from between her legs? Would her haunted hoo-hoo open and slam doors when she least expected it? Too spooky.
Paul McCartney
The former Beatles singer told Rolling Stone that the ghost of John Lennon still helps him write music. “[John will] say, ‘You can't go there, man.’ And I'll say, ‘You're quite right. How about this?’ ‘Yeah, that's better,’” said McCartney. “We'll have a conversation. I don't want to lose that.” Maybe they’re talking to each other in the afterlife. After all, if you believe in conspiracy theories, McCartney supposedly died decades ago.
Jenny Slate
According to Slate, there was a sea captain who haunted her parents’ home. Her father spotted an actual ghost coming up the stairs. Underneath their family’s runner, Slate found a treasure trove of old love letters he had sent to the woman who used to live in the house, and days after their discovery, they noticed the smell of pipe smoke wafting in their home.