Kathy Najimy: Mother, Activist, and Actor. In That Order.

I’m very familiar with your voice work. I think I watched King of the Hill a little too young. I would love to know how you got into that side of the industry. Any secrets about Peggy Hill you can share?

Voice-over work is my favorite work of all time. First of all, King of the Hill was great because it was great writing, which is really, really rare. And it was a great cast. I mean, the cast is iconic. And here's my favorite part: no hair, no makeup, no wardrobe, no line memorizing, no 7 a.m. calls, no travel to a different area. It was perfect timing because I auditioned for King of the Hill when I was pregnant with Samia [Finnerty]. I had her weeks after I got cast, and it was a perfect job for me. Every Monday, a script would come to our house with impeccable writing, great, brilliant, like, world-famous, talented guest stars, and I got to bring Samia to work with me. When we taped, we all brought our kids so it was absolutely a godsend. I hesitate about acting jobs, but I would go back to King of the Hill in a hot minute. Mike Judge is a genius and so is Greg Daniels.

In addition to Halloween, you’ve starred in a few other holiday films. Single All the Way was my favorite Christmas movie of last year. I would love to know what your favorite holiday film is?

Animated Rudolph.

Oh, excellent choice.

It's a staple in our family. I watched it as a kid, and my husband watched it as a kid, and then we watched it with our kid every Christmas. I'm a holiday freak. I go all out. Every inch of the house is decorated. The tree has to be a real tree, but I do the thing where they say they recycle the tree or replant the tree. I'm hoping that they do, but I love the holiday so much.

The last last—and most important—question: What’s your favorite Halloween movie?

I did an interview today where they asked me what's my favorite scary movie and I've only ever seen one because it was so scary I never saw another one, hand to God. It was called Amityville Horror and it was so scary and I thought, Why do I want to feel so scared? When I was little, it was Wizard of Oz. I would have dreams that the Wicked Witch was coming through our back door through the living room through my bedroom and out the front door all the time. I haven't seen a scary movie since Amityville Horror and the Wizard of Oz. I'm such a wuss. I apologize.

Wait, but didn’t you star in Chucky?

I did star in Chucky. The producer I had worked with on the first Hocus Pocus, David Kushner, had called and [asked me to do a cameo]. I hung up the phone and those are the days before computers, so it was a fax—I'll explain fax to anybody that's under 30—so the fax started coming through and it was like *chchch* Bride *chchch* of *chchch* Chucky and I thought, Oh, my God, I've never even seen any Chuckys, let alone to be in one. But it was so much fun to make; a horror film, for me, is a lot more joyful than watching a horror film because I get really scared and have nightmares.

Oh, I did watch all of the Charlie Brown Halloweens. That was my staple growing up. Not only the Charles Schultz books, but then every single Peanuts holiday TV show that was on, I was glued to. Anything that had to do with Halloween that wasn’t scary.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.