Elvira Recalls Seeing Neighbor Brad Pitt Train for 'Fight Club' Next Door: 'I Almost Fainted' (Exclusive)

"Living next to him was great experience," she says

Elvira is breaking the first rule of Fight Club — and she has a lot to say.

The actress, aka Cassandra Peterson, tells PEOPLE about her years of living next door to Brad Pitt before she sold her Los Angeles mansion to him in 1994, the same home he recently sold.

"I have to say, Brad was just wonderful," she recalls of her famous neighbor, adding that he was "always kind and sweet" in their interactions. And she can admit he's "stunningly gorgeous" too.

"One time I was walking down the street looking like a hag because I'd just gotten out of the shower. I was in a rush to get somewhere, so I ran my dogs down the street for a quick walk, and I go past Brad's garage and he's in there wearing only sweatpants and punching," says Peterson. "He's doing a punching bag. He's got on boxing gloves and he is punching a bag."

Turns out, the eventual Oscar winner was training for his 1999 movie Fight Club.

"He was getting ready to do the movie Fight Club! He's in there and I really — I swear I almost fainted," Peterson says. "I remember he goes, 'Hey, how are you?' and I'm like, 'Huh.' I couldn't talk. I was turning red. I felt like I was fainting. He's just so stunningly, stunningly handsome — and nice, to top it off."

Related:Elvira Says L.A. Mansion She Sold Brad Pitt Is Extremely 'Haunted' but 'He Loved It'

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Peterson adds that having an A-list neighbor sometimes left her friends in awe.

"One of my favorite stories," she shares, "I was in a little restaurant down at the bottom of the street there, and I had a little meeting for a fundraiser for my child's school. I was there with about four or five other moms, and we're sitting there having coffee and all of a sudden I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around and it's Brad. He goes, 'Cassandra!' and he gives me a big hug."

She continues, "I've gotta tell you, these other mothers I was with, their mouths were hanging open and they could not shut their mouth. I was just like, 'Oh my God, this is the best thing that ever happened to me in my whole life.' "

Peterson's "giant, biggest regret" from her time living in proximity to Pitt? Having to decline a dinner invitation from him and Angelina Jolie, his now-ex-wife: "He and Angelina invited us over for dinner and I was out of town. Then we never got another opportunity."

But, she says, "Living next to him was great experience."

The home is where Pitt and Jolie, 47, raised their six children — Maddox, 21, Pax, 19, Zahara, 18, Shiloh, 16, and 14-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne. The couple split in 2016.

"I was always on the lookout for him. I had a balcony. People thought I was, you know, I wish I had binoculars looking over there, seeing what was going on," Peterson jokes. "But the first thing he did, of course, was put up gigantic hedges all around the property so no one could see him. And who could blame him?"

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