Ghosts: Asher Grodman on the Comedy’s Child-Like Whimsy [Interview]

Leading the charge in cultivating Ghosts‘ chaos comedy is Asher Grodman’s Trevor, a pantless spirit hell-bent on conjuring a good time for his fellow housemates.

I recently spoke with Grodman about his character’s Jewish representation, what brought the cast closer this season, and upcoming cliffhangers.

But with a playground like Ghosts, it’s not long before we’re diving into the child-like tendencies of these characters and the fact that Trevor won’t be the first kid to leave home. “Because he’s just tried to kill someone and now there’s no shot in hell that he’s going to heaven any time soon?” he laughed.

“That’s a comfort because there’s so much to redeem in Trevor. We’ve got plenty of time left.”

Trevor might not be the most responsible ghost in the room, but his party persona has swayed others to join the cause. And that brings the finance bro great joy.

“Sam coming up with the plan to sext his dad is certainly a moment of pride for Trevor, to know he’s having an influence on the house,” Grodman confirmed.

“Having this ghost family go on the ride with Trevor is so much fun to play. I mean, basically, everyone in the house has seen his parents have sex. There’s a, ‘Oh my god, we are way too intimate with each other’ dynamic that has developed in this Trevor’s Body episode, and that’s a lot of fun.”

Grodman was also “thrilled” to dive more into Trevor’s Jewish culture and upbringing this season.

“It may be my favorite part of playing Trevor. Or, I would say it’s the detail of him that I always get excited about because it is representation. It’s also a unique representation in that if I was to describe Trevor to his friends, there might be like ten different adjectives that they would throw out there before they would stumble upon him being Jewish.”

“I think that is how anyone who is part of a group that is not the majority, the mainstream, or a group with a shared history would want to be identified. You want to be an individual before people see you as a member of something else,” he said.

“It’s more fun if characters are dealt with that way because it adds another color. I mean, think of all of the jokes we get to make and all of the different shades we get to make by throwing in Yiddish or Hebrew words — the different points of view that we get to play with. So it makes it richer, as opposed to making it a cliche or stereotype.”

For Grodman, there is personal significance in giving Trevor the freedom to embrace his Jewish background without having it define his character.

“For me, being Jewish and growing up in a place where there were very few Jews, I went through stuff with people being like, ‘Why are you so weird? Eat the bread on Passover and stop being weird’ or getting stuff carved in my locker. So in turn to help represent a culture and do so with a light touch that I think is respectful and funny — that’s a dream,” he said.

“I’m not sure if Trevor would be a role model, but it’s certainly fun that he is out there, part of the representation puzzle.”

With an ensemble as close as the Ghosts cast on and off screen, this season brought new opportunities for them to bond. For Grodman, that has taken the form of cheering for his favorite NFL team, the Jacksonville Jaguars.

“Rose [McIver] came down with me to the Jaguars v.s. Cowboys game, which was maybe the most epic game they’ve ever played. So she certainly came on board as a Jaguars fan. I know a lot of the cast has, and it has been a lot of fun,” he confessed.

“From June to January we are locked up in Montreal, and limited in our ability to do much of anything, just because of the shooting schedule. So when I started flying on the weekends to Jacksonville for these games and then the late season turnaround, which I guess is the biggest turnaround any team has ever had in the league’s history, the cast certainly got on board with me.”

And it seems the children’s analogies don’t stop at the characters, with the cast just as eager to embrace their inner child on set.

“We’re basically children. We have a ping pong table now that has joined us on set. We live in these tents next to the set where we kind of hang out, and it is like a little playroom. So we have a ping pong table. We got a little gym thing going on, we got a basketball hoop, and all of it is just placating the children, you know.”

As Grodman shared a lovely story from the set, it became clear their bonding has to include a few pranks too.

“As a gift for the crew, I found this incredible place called Alice & Theo’s in Montreal that makes these cream puffs. So I bought, like, I don’t know, 200 or 400 of them as a gift for the crew and I didn’t know they were going to do this, but production made a sign that said, ‘Thank you for all your hard work. — From Asher,'” Grodman explained, setting the scene.

“Of course, within a day the cream puffs were all gone. But inexplicably, this giant sign stayed up. So then there was this awkward sign saying, ‘Thank you for your hard work — from Asher’ sitting around set. Román saw an opportunity to post inspirational quotes everywhere. So like, ‘You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take — from Asher’ or ‘Shoot for the stars — from Asher.'”

“Suddenly, there are inspirational quotes in the women’s bathroom — they’re all over the place. It was a fun little prank.”

With Trevor’s remains now respectfully out of the lake and Tara Reid having left Woodstone alive despite some protests, what does the rest of Season 2 have in store for our pantless ghost?

“Well, there is going to be some Trevor and Hetty action,” Grodman teased. “That’s a fun relationship because it feels like going back to the ‘these ghosts are children’ concept where certain behaviors are modeled for us because of Sam and Jay. But then we start replicating those behaviors.”

“So they’ve been here for like a year, and suddenly we’re all dating each other, and we’re all in relationships. Except with Trevor and Hetty, it’s a very unromantic relationship. It’s just transactional. It’s about sex, it’s about power, it’s about strategy. So, we will see that little journey continue to play out.”

“And then I think the end of the season is going to bring with it some big surprises and some big cliffhangers.”

Because this is a Ghosts interview and the cast has such a wonderful, supportive bond, Grodman couldn’t go without praising his fellow castmates.

“I have got to shout out to — I think the strongest parts of Season 2, in my opinion, which have been the work that Sheila Carrasco is doing as Flower — I think that she is incredible — and Román Zaragoza has been fantastic as well” he praised.

“I think those two characters that were already so rich, have gotten exponentially richer. So I got to give a shout-out to those two castmates. I mean, I think everyone’s doing amazing work. But particularly, I’ve done double takes on a lot of the choices and the colors that they have found.”

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Ghosts airs Thursdays at 8:30/7:30c on CBS. Watch Ghosts online, now streaming on Paramount+. Try it for FREE!

And check out our episode postmortem discussion with Asher Grodman for Ghosts Season 2 Episode 14, “Trevor’s Body,” here.

*Featured image credit: Emily Assiran

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