Melissa Joan Hart Recalls Stomach-Churning Experience Filming Fan-Favorite ‘Sabrina’ Episode

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Melissa Joan Hart attends the 13th Annual Unbridled Eve Kentucky Derby Gala at The Galt House Hotel on May 01, 2026 in Louisville, Kentucky.

For fans of beloved 1990s TV sitcom “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” the episode in which Melissa Joan Hart‘s titular teen witch faces off against her evil twin remains a favorite.

For the actress herself, however, filming the episode was a sheer nightmare, something she discussed during a recent chat with “Entertainment Weekly” in celebration of the show’s 30th anniversary.

A Hurling Dervish

Recalling the episode — the Season 3 finale, titled “The Good, the Bad, and the Luau” — Hart revealed that she was extremely ill while filming, and was “puking off camera” between takes. 

“I do remember with this episode in particular on that volcano, I was vomiting my brains out,” Hart recalled. “And I asked our key grip to stand behind me in case I passed out and fell off because we were out in the sun.” 

As hardcore “Sabrina” fans will recall, that episode followed Sabrina as she travelled to Hawaii to take in a Spellman family reunion.

That’s when she discovers that all Spellmans are born twins — and winds up coming face to face with hers, a devious doppelganger named Katrina (who was also played by Hart). 

In the midst of Hart playing dual roles, the actress recalled being so sick that she was “puking off camera. I’m standing there trying to play two of me.”

Rewatching the episode today, she feels nothing but compassion for her younger self.

“So when I see that I’m like, ‘Oh, God, are you okay?’ I think of little me like, ‘Are you all right?’” she shared.

A ‘Sabrina’ Fan Test

While her memories of filming that episode may be less than fond, “The Good, the Bad, and the Luau” continues to be something of a touchstone for Hart.

As she shared during that interview, Hart uses the premise of that episode as a test for “Sabrina” fans to gauge just how well they know the show and its lore.

“I always ask kids at any Comic Con, I say, ‘Do you know the Spellman family secret?’” she divulged. “I test people by how well they know the show if they know the Spellman family secret.”

Looking back at the show’s successful seven-season run, Hart remembered constantly encouraging “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” writers to come up with outlandish scenarios like that one so she could step outside the carefully constructed box in which her character had been placed.

“I always say that Sabrina was kind of a tough character to play for me because she wasn’t daring and adventurous. She was trying to disappear and fade into the woodwork,” Hart explained. “But she, luckily, got to do these wild, crazy, weird things which kept it really, really interesting for me.”

As a result, those episodes when she got to portray the character in out-of-the-ordinary scenarios continue to hold a special place in her heart. “So I think the fact that Sabrina got to be an evil twin, or got to be Alice in Wonderland, or got to be a trapeze artist, kept it really interesting,” she added.