You’d think that David Harbour would be a firm believer in the paranormal. After all, he’s spent significant time submerged in all things supernatural as Jim Hopper in Stranger Things, and he plays a lost soul named Ernest in the new comedy We Have a Ghost. Yet it turns out that Harbour was a die-hard skeptic who didn’t think specters and spirits were real… that is, until he met one in real life. 

“I did not believe in ghosts for 46 years,” he tells Tudum. “And then I shot [We Have a Ghost] in New Orleans, and I had a ghost living in the house. I intellectually could not abide my belief in this thing. But I swear, I woke up every night at three in the morning with this angry presence. It was really a chilling two and a half months.” 

Doors would slam shut, windows he swore he’d closed would open, and at least one room made Harbour feel like whatever or whoever was in there did not want him in it. “It just felt like this presence,” he says. “I think it was an angry lady. Certain rooms she didn’t want me in. It was scary.” 

David Harbour, Anthony Mackie and Jahi Di’Allo Winston star in We Have a Ghost

Fortunately, for fans of family-friendly fare, the apparition Harbour portrays in We Have a Ghost isn’t modeled after the frightening phantom he encountered: Ernest is more of a wayward soul who actually needs a little help from the humans he meets. 

Based on the short story “Ernest” by Geoff Manaugh, We Have a Ghost follows what happens when teenage Kevin (Jahi Di’Allo Winston) discovers a ghost (Harbour) in the attic of the rundown house his parents just got at a suspiciously good bargain. Kevin strikes up a friendship with the specter and names him Ernest, soon learning that Ernest can’t remember much about himself and needs a hand resolving unfinished earthly business. But when Kevin’s dad, Frank (Anthony Mackie) learns about Ernest, he hatches a scheme to cash in, posting a video of Ernest that goes viral, causing all h-e-double-hockey-sticks to break loose.  

With a cast that also includes Jennifer Coolidge, Tig Notaro and Niles Fitch, it’s a feel-good, spooky story that’s infinitely less creepy than the ordeal Harbour experienced. One thing’s for sure: He won’t ever pooh-pooh the possibility of poltergeists again. “I can’t believe I stayed in that house the whole time,” he says. “I still feel like an idiot for doing that.” 

We Have a Ghost will be available on Netflix Feb. 24.