‘Ghosts’ Star Asher Grodman on Solving the Mystery of Trevor’s Missing Pants
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 1, Episode 16 of Ghosts, “Trevor’s Pants.”]
One of Ghosts‘ biggest mysteries has been solved as the latest episode, aptly titled, “Trevor’s Pants,” explains why the former businessman, played by Asher Grodman, must bare his legs (and more) for all eternity.
In the installment, viewers are transported back in time to the night of Trevor’s death which revolved around a group hangout at Woodstone with his Wall Street colleagues. As his buddies try hazing the new guy on their team, Trevor takes sympathy on him when the man is left standing almost fully naked and told to find his own way back to the city.
Handing the young man his wallet, pants, and boxers, Trevor reenters the main hangout session to tell his bros that he hooked up with a “hot limo driver.” Sadly, he later dies because he took the wrong mixture of drugs, landing him among Woodstone’s ghostly inhabitants. When his former colleague Ari (guest star Rob Huebel) arrives to appraise the expensive watch belonging to Hetty’s (Rebecca Wisocky) husband, the ghosts help Trevor get some minor payback on the man who didn’t do much to save him on the night of his death. Below, Grodman opens up about uncovering the mystery behind his character’s pantless state, and much more.
(Credit: CBS)
The mystery behind Trevor’s missing pants has finally been revealed. How long did you know about the story behind it and was there any collaboration on bringing it together?
I found out about the truth behind Trevor’s pants a week before we started shooting it when we got the script for the table read. And I remember thinking it was really clever. I loved the fact that I didn’t see it coming, and they used it as an opportunity to build on Trevor.
It’s more than just the pants. It’s actually the motivation for why he did what he did. I think there’s something implied in dying without your pants on that makes it feel like something happened to you or it was about you and Trevor’s death, at least at the end, was kind of about someone else. So that was really exciting. And [creators] Joe Port and Joe Wiseman are really wonderful. They’re brilliant, funny, and heartfelt in their work. And so the Joe’s were wonderful and collaborative in that and gave me a chance to work with them a little bit.
The guest stars in this episode are great, particularly Rob Huebel who plays a former coworker of Trevor’s. What was it like getting to work with him and also other guest stars since the ghosts can’t really interact with them?
It’s a weird thing, right? Because you get these amazing guest stars and we’re able to respond to them, but they can’t respond to us. Rob was wonderful, so funny, and clever. And luckily because there was so much time, so much of what Rob is doing that I get to be there for. So we got a chance to hang out and play a little bit. We’ve been so lucky with the people that we’ve gotten. And I don’t even mean in terms of like the cache of certain people, but just the creativity and the sense of play. We enjoy their stay probably more than they enjoy their stay. But it’s a good time. It’s one of the gifts of being able to do a show like this.
(Credit: CBS)
Trevor comes across a certain way and this episode went below the Wall Street bro surface. What was it like getting to delve more into his character?
Yeah, this was one of the questions that we chatted a little bit about, that dynamic of Trevor and that group. We settled on that he’s a guy who’s part of that group, but is becoming aware that there’s more to him than the guys in that group. He’s an insider who is maybe a little more complex. And it’s funny because it’s contradictory loyalties, he has his loyalty to this young guy that he wants to take care of like a little brother and to the group. And so where do you land? It’s something that the show does really well.
Trevor was all about the “bro code” when he was living, but Sasappis (Roman Zaragoza) the one to tell him the truth about what happened the night he died. Do you think there’s a moment where Trevor realizes his real family or “bros” are the ghosts?
Yeah. He’s got a new family. It is the family that he’s had for 20 years, but proximity to people is different than how you treat each other. And when he realizes that there’s this dude in Sas who has done this very loyal and respectful thing for Trevor so that he could see his life the way he saw it. It’s actually a very insightful thing. And so I think for Trevor people are what they show you, and in this moment he realizes the people that he’s with for all of eternity are actually a lot more than he thought they were.
Now that the mystery behind his missing pants has been solved, is there any discussion about trying to remedy a pair for Trevor at some point? Are there any loopholes?
Wouldn’t that be funny if with all the restrictions of the afterlife, the one thing you’re allowed to do is change clothes? It’s as if God was like, “All right, you can’t do anything, but I’ll give you a costume change.”
(Credit: CBS)
But no, I don’t think it’s going to happen. I will tell you, I have never done a comedy before. And so in the beginning of this, the fact that I didn’t have any pants on was a little bit of a relief because I was like, all right, well if something doesn’t land, they’ll just cut back to a wide shot and I’ll be pants-less. And that should take care of some of the funny, so it was a little bit of a comfort. And there’s something about taking your pants off in public that if you weren’t awake beforehand, you’re definitely awake now. So maybe that’s just trying to find the positive on all of it. The negative, I will tell you is the bugs in the summer in Montreal. That’s the negative. Even worse than the cold.
You mentioned that you haven’t done comedy before, but you’ve done drama. You appeared in an episode of Succession. Did that help you find the Wall Street persona of Trevor at all?
Nice detective work there with Succession. Yeah. I mean, I guess there are overlaps. I think everything informs everything. I know that’s such a boring answer, but it’s really true. I got to spend a week on that show, watching them all work so differently, which is very cool to see. It’s such a smart show and yet it also feels like a guilty pleasure at moments because it’s just watching people dangle hopelessly on the vine. And so when you live in a hierarchy and you are above someone, you can do that to someone. And so that’s a world that Trevor lived in. I went to Columbia in the city, and a lot of my friends went to Wall Street. So I saw them make their way into that field, and I pull from that too.
Ghosts was renewed for Season 2. Is there anything you hope to see for Trevor in the future? He did try the dating pool earlier this season.
I think a romance thing will be fun for sure. It would’ve been a lot of fun too, in this episode, [but] he’s not interviewed as some potential threesome participant, even though he’d be so down. So there is something that Trevor brings to a romantic storyline that would be fun. But the truth is, I think some of what the show does so well is developing the relationships between the ghosts. And so anything like that [would be nice]. Like one of my favorite things is the Hetty-Thor (Devan Long) connection.
Yes. The childhood connection.
It’s so clever. And it’s so simple and sweet. So it’s those kinds of relationships, I really love, and it’s easy for everyone to break off into relationships, but it’s also nice when there’s some variety of different people connecting.
Ghosts, Thursdays, 9/8c, CBS
