Ghosts may be in its fourth season but the beloved CBS sitcom is anything but stale.
After four years of laughs and gags at Woodstone Manor, the actors responsible for playing the titular phantasms say they are more invested and excited than ever for fans to dive into the lives (er, deaths) of the characters. Included in that group is Asher Grodman, the actor behind the role of Trevor, the pantless ghost from the 1990s who has a distinct Wolf of Wall Street vibe.
Talking with Decider about Season 4 and his starring storyline in Episode 4, “The Work Retreat,” Grodman shared that the season is sure to pack a punch and include tons of fun Easter eggs for the longtime Ghosts lovers.
“I think it’s a very exciting season,” he told Decider. “I feel like a broken record every time we get to a new season, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, this is the most exciting one.’”
According to the actor and comedian, aside from the outstanding guest stars — both Breaking Bad alum Dean Norris and Happiest Season star Mary Holland have appeared thus far this season — the season will also include holiday episodes with a double possession, a fan-favorite scenario where Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) and Sam (Rose McIver) are taken over by the ghosts inside the mansion.
“I think fans are going to lose their minds at the Christmas episodes. They’re really great,” he shared of the two-part special, which will also feature the introduction of Jay’s (Utkarsh Ambudkar) parents.
Another exciting thing fans have in upcoming episodes is the fact that Jay will finally be able to see the eight ghosts who haunt the Woodstone Manor property after four years. The news was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con in July and Ambudkar joked at the time it would be exciting to finally interact with the other actors who he doesn’t typically get to work with.
“We’re so excited. I get to make eye contact with my coworkers,” the Pitch Perfect alum told Entertainment Tonight.
Grodman gave Decider an update on that episode and the rest of the season, plus which guest star he is holding out hope for in future seasons. Keep reading to see Decider’s full conversation with Grodman and check out our other coverage of shows on Paramount+.
DECIDER: So let’s talk about Season 4. Obviously, we are well into it. How is the season going? Where are you guys at and what are you excited for fans to see this season?
ASHER GRODMAN: I think it’s a very exciting season. I feel like a broken record every time we get to a new season, I’m like, “Oh my God, this is the most exciting one.” Episode 3 is great, it’s a perfect Halloween episode, picking up on the Patience stuff, and then we’re going to have a little bit of a witch trial thing going on. And the thing that always excites me about our show is that it’s such a fantastic and creative concept for a show. When we get to do the things that only this show can do. If I’m describing the plot of the show to someone who doesn’t watch Ghosts and they’re like, “What? I don’t understand any of this,” then we’re in a really great place. If we’re talking about a Puritan seeking revenge on a Revolutionary War soldier, you know, it’s like, “Oh wow, what is that?” And then Episode 4, you’re going to find out that Trevor this entire time has been secretly holding up a job, which I think is going to be a lot of fun. I know it’s going to be a lot of fun for people.
Hold on, what do you mean by that? Holding up a job? How is he doing that?
He’s obviously got a very magical finger. The best ghost power. I don’t care what anyone says, but it has caused more trouble than anything. I think it’s the best ghost power. No one would agree with me.
Is it the ghost power that you would want if you were actually a ghost and had one though? Because you can say it’s the best, but eh…
I mean, Pete’s power is pretty great. Sass’ power is pretty great. I don’t know which one I would I would choose. It would be a lot of fun to have Trevor’s power and have it be a lot easier. That would be fun. But I don’t know, maybe just out of out of pride I have to avoid that question for now. In terms of the creativity of the season, just like a huge shout out to our writers, our writers room. I’ve gotten to read some scripts from this season and I’m like, “Oh my God, how did you come up with this? It’s so clever, it’s so much fun.” It hits on like those things that this show does really well that other shows wouldn’t be able to do.
I feel like you guys have seamlessly brought someone into the fold too, because we were worried about losing somebody last season. But now we’ve got a whole new ghost in Mary Holland as Patience. What has it been like incorporating her into the series?
It’s so much fun because we have a thousand years of history on this plot of land to mine. When we as a show get to be kind of ahead of the audience and it’s about world-building, it’s very exciting and building into that history. So Patience shows up because American history is very disparate and there’s a lot of stuff that’s happens, she shows up with a brand new point of view that no one else has had. And it bumps up against the points of view of all the other ghosts, plus the point of view of this like amoeba thing that we’ve all become because we’ve all been trapped together for so long. So it’s very fun to have that kind of conflict, that new perspective on things. And Mary Holland is so funny and so good and watching her play with the different levels of, you know, having a foot in the scary, having a foot in the funny and going back and forth and dialing it up, dialing down was yeah, it was a thrill.
Perfect plug. I feel like Mary Holland is so funny, just saying the word patience. And you guys, I mean everybody in the cast is funny, but every time she’s on screen, I’m like, “Oh my God.” She just holds a comedic presence.
And shout out to our writers for coming up with this almost-like rabid dog tick thing that she has a personality. Like, it’s just so clever. So it is — if you’re making a show about ghosts who are trapped together for all of eternity, this is the kind of fun stuff you always want to be doing.
And since there is a thousand years of history that you guys could mine, are there any characters or any kind of ghost that you would love to see enter the Woodstone Manor or anyone that you think would really put the rest of the ghosts at odds?
I mean, a Puritan’s a pretty good one. I think I would try to think of periods in history that we haven’t touched. I think, you know, we hit a lot of the kind of 1900 to 2000, which we’ve done that century pretty well. I don’t know, I’d be curious about what something from the early 1800s looks like. I’m sure I missed something — I don’t know. I don’t know. I need to think about that, that’s a great question. I kind of feel like someone asked me that years ago and we talked about it on set. And the answer that we all kind of had was, “Oh, there should be some kind of Puritan.” Not that we don’t deserve any credit for this.
Hold on. I think you might — you might be saying you spoke it into existence.
Maybe we spoke it into existence. I think our writers figured it out on their own. But that would be that — would be a very cool, maybe something around the Civil War would be fun, too.
Well, okay, so if you didn’t have to assign a role to them, what? Who are some actors [you would want to bring on]? I asked your costars at Comic-Con that you would want to bring on, and I’ll give you some of their answers. I heard Roman [Zarazoga] said that they would want to bring, Mark Hamill, because he’s a huge fan of the show.
I think Roman, I think is not alone in that. We would all love to have Mark Hamill, who I got to meet recently, which was a blast.
Did you proposition him? Did you say, “Come on the show?“
I did proposition him, I don’t know if it was about the show. No, I think he knows that we would all love to have him. I think I propositioned him on social media and asked him to be my father [in the show]. At the time, I didn’t have a father and now I have a wonderful father in Chip Zien. There was a role that was written at one point that I can’t say anything about, but that, when it was written, I felt very certain — I think a lot of us felt very certain — that that’s Mark Hamill. It was going to be. And it felt like it had — it was going to be a bit of an arc and a thing and I have no evidence to support the fact that it was going to be, but it is my inference that that was an early attempt to see if something could happen. I could be very wrong. But we’d love to have him. I have a big old actor crush on George Clooney, so I would love to have him– that’s never going to happen, but that would be amazing.
I’ll turn to the writing and Trevor’s character. You’ve been playing Trevor now for four years. I know that you have — you’ve got your experience and writing in a comedic background. Do you ever now, being the person who knows Trevor the best, do you ever come to the writers and say, “I really think he would do this?” Or I would love to pitch this for my character?
We got to go into the writers’ room this off-season and kind of pitch some ideas and so I got to pitch some stuff then. I kind of feel like if I say anything that I pitched then it will like immediately never happen. I have to keep that close to the vest. I will tell you in general, the things that we as a cast really love are the, “What have these ghosts been up to over the course of time?” You know, like periods of time where a bunch of them hated each other or something, you know, like digging into that history of what this amoeba of ghosts has been up to. So that’s a lot of fun for us going into the flashbacks. I love when someone dies and the cast of ghosts who are alive at that point are watching it happen, like that kind of thing. I love that stuff. So I’m always down for more of that kind of thing.
So looking ahead to the rest of the season or as much as you guys have filmed, we know that there’s holiday specials coming up. Obviously, you’ve got a Halloween one and I believe we’ve got another holiday one with Jay’s parents coming at some point?
Yeah, it’s a big Christmas episode and [there’s] a double possession in that Christmas episode, which I think is new. I think that’s out there. I hope I didn’t just spoil that.
I have not heard that.
I thought that was Comic-Con news.
Another thing that came out at Comic-Con is that Jay’s going to see the ghosts? Do you want to tell us how that happens?
Do I want to spoil how that happens? No, I don’t. I don’t want to get the phone call after this — but it does happen. What’s so much fun about Jay seeing the ghosts is that he has a relationship with these people who he’s never seen, but the relationship is like, it’s anticipatory, if that makes any sense. It’s like, “I have a sense of who this person might be.” And then once that he sees that person, you know, the relationship shifts and morphs and becomes something, something new. So playing that with Utkarsh [Ambudkar] was so much fun. And there is this weird thing that happens where you have just kind of been staring at someone for years and suddenly they’re looking back at you. You know, it’s a very jarring and exciting thing. So, yes, Jay will be able to see the ghosts [in the] double feature Christmas episode, double possession. And the possessions are always so much fun because we get to watch our livings become us and they do an amazing job with it. So I think fans are going to lose their minds at the Christmas episodes. They’re really great.
Well, I don’t know how much you guys had known up until the point of Comic-Con, but when I did talk to the cast, they had said that, or at least Utkarsh had said that he would have loved for it to be a misconception type of thing where he is imagining the ghost, but it’s slightly off. Like instead of Rebecca [Wisocky], it would be Christina Hendricks. And then you’re like getting slightly different versions of the ghost. I’m going to guess you guys didn’t go that way, but if you had to, who would you want them to be as alternate Trevor?
Oh, that’s fun. Who would I want my alternate Trevor to be? I mean, oh God that’s a great question. Like the way he [Jay] sees it, especially if it’s the way he sees it, it’s how he harbors. Ah, so the fun thing is either him being like, you know, [Trevor is] supermodel hot or if it’s like in his dream, if he can be like a schlubby guy. It’d be funny to see Jay view Trevor as Jon Lovitz for an episode or something. That’d be very fun. Yeah, let’s go with that.
Well, okay, we’re going to go a little bit more broad now. Do you believe in ghosts? And if you could talk to one ghost and just sit down and have a conversation, maybe it’s somebody you know, maybe it’s someone in history. Who would you want it to be?
I guess I could get out of this whole question by saying, I don’t believe in ghosts. No, but I grew up in what is considered one of New Jersey’s haunted houses, apparently. It’s like in a book of haunted houses. I’ve never had an experience, they don’t want to talk to me. But out of respect to that, I’ll say that I do believe in ghosts. Who would I want to talk to? So it’s funny, the concept of our show kind of gives you the impression that maybe you don’t want to talk to any of these people because, you know, you’re not going to get very far. It would be, you know, I grew up really idolizing Philip Seymour Hoffman, so it’d be great to, like, spend some time with him or like Marlon Brando is a very actor-y answer. But I guess I’ll go with that for now. It would, of course, be very cool to meet like one of — I never met most of my grandparents, so that be cool. So something in that world. Either it’s about acting or it’s about family.
Cinematic or familial. I love that. Okay, so I’ll wrap with what else are you excited for fans to see for Trevor’s journey this season and hopefully for Trevor’s journey in future seasons too.
The thing I’m always very interested in is Trevor being the most recently dead of that core group and coming to terms with what death means is always very interesting to me. Because I find Trevor is, by and large, the character of the group who is constantly and continually still trying to be alive. He wants to be connected to the real world. This job episode is a prime example of that. And so I’m always interested in how that shifts and changes and nothing is ever linear. You learn a lesson and you snap back to some extreme thing. That’s always fun for me. And then kind of the fun thing is as these characters process with their lives, where the audience gets to learn more about what their lives were, of who they were when they were alive. Especially, you know, you only get access to the dead version. So that’s a lot of fun. And then, I think there are going to be some longer-term relationships in the house that kind of shift and change as the season goes on, that’s always very exciting as well.
Well, the whole cast is incredible. And I feel like your answer was a little too introspective for me, especially for 7:15 a.m.
Fair, fair.
Ghosts Seasons 1-3 are currently streaming on Paramount+ and new episodes for Season 4 release Thursday nights at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.
