Posted in: CBS, Paramount+, TV | Tagged: Asher Grodman, cbs, exclusive, ghosts, interview

Ghosts: Asher Grodman Talks Ensemble Comedy, Perseverance & Pandemic

Asher Grodman spoke with us about the long journey to his first ensemble cast role in CBS's Ghosts, the inspiration for Trevor & more.

Asher Grodman has been fortunate enough to have a career spanning nearly 20 years across film and television. While the actor was steadily getting guest starring roles on TV like Succession, Chicago Med, and Law & Order and a few bit parts in films, he was about to give up when the golden opportunity came in the form of the CBS series Ghosts – the American adaptation from Joe Port and Joe Wiseman of the BBC series of the same name created by Matthew Baynton, Jim Howick and Laurence Rickard. The sitcom follows a couple, Sam (Rose McIver), a writer, and Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar), a chef, who purchase an old home at a bargain price due to its need for renovation. After an accident and near-death experience knocks Sam out, she awakens to discover she can see the home's spectral occupants, who continuously haunt the residence through generations. Grodman spoke with Bleeding Cool about how he landed the role of Trevor – a well-to-do deceased pantless yuppie who has limited power to influence electronics – if the BBC Ghosts had any influence on his portrayal and writing.

Ghosts: How Asher Grodman Landed Ensemble Role

Bleeding Cool: 'Ghosts' is a great opportunity for you as a regular on episodic television. Can you tell me how you felt when you got cast?

Grodman: Wow, I've been doing this for 20 years before 'Ghost' and I had lost all faith in a pilot season or the fact that anyone gets a job this way. I remember when I was testing for it, and the test was on tape. We're waiting to see what the response to the tape would have been. It was a long time. I knew that I was the choice. They were waiting to find someone else to test against me and in my mind, I was like, "No, wait, why!? Why do we have to find someone else? We don't have to find someone else!" But that's how the process worked. They did that, and then I did favors for every single person I could think of [laughs] to try to create some good energy or something.

I was directing the actual classes at Columbia (University) for friends and grad school, doing people's readings, trying to try to get some good energy around, and the day was getting later, and a phone call didn't come. I was sitting doing the readings, and no phone call came, and I was like, "Oh my gosh, you got to be kidding me!" I was in Tribeca and at the end, we were talking about a script or something, and we wrapped up. I started to walk out, and I got a call from my agent, Susie Schwarz; the first words out of her mouth were, "There's more than one of us on this call, so you know it's good news!" The whole team gathered on the phone, and I bounced back, jumping up in the air like a criminal. That was February 2020, so I thought it would be smooth sailing from then on. It certainly was not.

We were in L.A. to shoot the pilot in March 2020, and the world shut down. Then it was a long time of seeing if we ever would shoot. The pilot finally got through December 2020, and then we found out the last day of March 2021, and we were getting picked up as a series. That was another whole emotional rollercoaster, so there were a lot of obstacles in our way, but it's such a good script and such a good concept that I had this sense, and I think a lot of us did that. If this thing could only get to air, we felt like this thing was going to work and it was going to find an audience. It was too smart or was too clever not to; it was getting there. Luckily, CBS, Lionsgate, and BBC all believed in us long enough to give us a shot.

Were you always penciled in as Trevor, or did you read for other parts?

No, I was always penciled in for Trevor. It's funny, Trent O'Donnell, who's a friend, one of our producers, and directed the pilot as well as a ton of episodes, showed me his notes in the audition process. I was the first person to audition for Trevor, apparently, and next to my name on his notes. "Oh, he's great. You'll never get it," because I guess I was the first one and the first never get it so I'm very glad that it worked out. I guess they liked what I did, and I survived the challenges.

Since this incarnation of Ghosts is the American version of the BBC show, did you check out the original before going in? What was your inspiration for Trevor, did you slide in as many '90s cliches as possible? How did you get into your role?

Good questions, man. The BBC ['Ghosts'] I knew existed, but I didn't watch it going into season one. A lot of that had to do with the pandemic. I find that when it comes to creating something, you kind of need movement now in your life. It's like, objects in motion, stays in motion, and I think the rest stays at rest. When the pandemic had happened and nothing was happening, everything was stifled and I was like, if I sit here and watch the British version of this show, all I'm going to do is try to copy whatever they did. I tried to put it "out of sight, out of mind," and I think a lot of us in the cast also approached it this way. We all watched the British version after we finished shooting season one.

We had our own imprint time on how we wanted, or I had our process that was in. It's easy when someone has completed their process or has a final product. They needed to copy that product, as opposed to being able to start from scratch and start from the terror of starting from scratch and forge your way. So then meeting and once we had something, it created something was a lot easier, then you can play and get inspiration from them, but not without co-opting your impulse, but I love the British version. It's brilliant. The times when I felt jealous and like, "That's a good idea. I wish we could do that." We've got some pretty good ideas [in our version]. The writers' room came up with some pretty great ideas for that, too.

To answer your question [about the research of the character], I went back and watched a lot of '90s movies. I was lucky that not only was I a kid in the 90s? People who were Trevor's age for me when I was 10-12, I looked up to that generation. I devoured the media of that generation. Also, because of the pandemic, I was living at home with my parents because New York was pretty desolate in moments, at the time. I was also back in my childhood bedroom, which I'm sure also helped me kind of rediscover a lot of stuff in the 90s that I had because I had forgotten about.

Were there any characters you've taken inspiration from that helped mold Trevor?

That's a great question. I don't know…he certainly would fit in very well in 'The Wolf of Wall Street' (2013) world, but that's earlier. That's like in the 80s. He's a decade later than that. I don't know that there were things in pop culture that were in fiction that were big influences. If there were, it was an osmosis thing, but I went to college here in New York at Columbia. A lot of my friends were athletes, and so a lot of them [laughs] went into finance. That seemed to be like the trajectory they were all taking. I hung out with a lot of guys who came from a similar world of mindset to Trevor. Not exactly, but similar and the Greek life, not that we had any kind of Greek life, but there's some semblance that was there.

There were inspirations and personalities there that I spent four years with, and I had a distraction and a curiosity about. That probably, more than anything, influenced my take on him. There was also good writing like they were so specific with his career in that first Hetty's read monologue with her birthday party is so specific. Even like that first line, I'll never forget, like, "It was the summer of 98. My Lehman Brothers' boys and I scooped a copter to beat the traffic out to the Hamptons because that's how we roll…" Like, that's a great specific line. That and him having that puppyish, it's maybe a little more subjective than the on the page or that puppyish like, "Just want to have a good time at all times" energy. Those were the key elements for me.

Ghosts, which also stars Brandon Scott Jones, Danielle Pinnock, Richie Moriarty, Rebecca Wisocky, Davan Chandler Long, Román Zaragoza, and Sheila Carrasco, returns on April 4th and airs Thursdays on CBS and is available to stream on Paramount+.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!