SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the two-part Ghosts holiday special.
It wouldn’t be Christmas at Woodstone Mansion without some spooky shenanigans courtesy of its resident ghosts.
Thursday night’s double-episode of CBS‘ Ghosts saw Sam (Rose McIver) and Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) welcome Jay’s family for the holiday. It would be stressful enough under normal circumstances, since Sam is still trying to work her way into her mother-in-law’s good graces.
But, these are clearly not normal circumstances and, instead Sam and Jay also find themselves possessed by Nancy and Pete, respectively. So, instead of decorating the tree and cooking a nice meal, they have to welcome Jay’s parents while trying to expel the two ghosts, who are quite reluctant to leave now that they have some agency (and can eat guacamole!).
McIver spoke with Deadline about the double possession, learning from Betsy Sodaro to impersonate Nancy, and what’s the come for the rest of the season.
DEADLINE: How was it to do this double possession storyline with Utkarsh?
ROSE MCIVER: I mean, to be honest, it’s so liberating getting to play somebody like Nancy, who Betsy Sodaro has just done an unbelievable job in crafting over the past couple of years. She’s a total fan-favorite as a character, so it was kind of simultaneously a blessing and enormous shoes to fill. Betsy was incredibly helpful. She sent me videos in advance of her reading all her lines in the episode, and she said afterwards it was very strange. It felt like she was auditioning for herself, which makes sense. But she was great. She was so generous. Playing a character like Sam…who is incredibly mindful of others and concerned with how she comes across, there’s something so fun and freeing about just jumping into a character like Nancy, who just does not care what other people think of her,and is incredibly raw and present.
I had a great time. It was an absolute gift, and it was so fun for it to happen at the same time as Utkarsh getting to be possessed by Pete, who’s another iconic and distinct character. Then to have it all set against the backdrop of Jay’s family coming to stay, who are another host of brilliant performers.
DEADLINE: I was going to ask you about playing Nancy, and I love hearing she sent you videos of her reading the lines for you to study.
MCIVER: Betsy is not only one of the most talented, funny people I’ve ever worked with, but she’s such a generous and kind person, so although she had absolutely no obligation, she just took so much time to help me in finding some of the physicality in the voice. She’s got such an iconic voice. I found a gateway word to try to sound like her was ‘Stuart.’ The way she says ‘Stuart’ in the basement all the time. So every time I started to kind of lose a grip on my Nancy, I would come back to saying ‘Stuart’ repeatedly. I’m sure there’s gonna be pretty good blooper reel of that.
She also was on set and was calling ideas out to me occasionally, and she was incredibly collaborative in the experience. Richie Keen, our director, I can’t say enough good things about him. I mean, it was a huge technical feat this episode, between all of the VFX and the three versions of Jay. He and Utkarsh navigated that really, really well on these very busy days. We have a packed schedule, and we shoot things with and without the ghosts. So it was a well-oiled machine. We’re season four, and it was the right time for something like this to come along.
DEADLINE: I thought it was a such a creative way for Jay to see the ghosts without retconning the rules that have already been established about the universe they’re living in. How did you feel about it?
MCIVER: I think something that’s particularly exciting is it actually gives Jay an experience that Sam has never had, which is to be in physical contact with the ghosts. He’s able to hug them. He’s able to have this interaction with them that she has never had, and given that he has been on the back foot in communication for so long, I just think that’s a great gift that the writers gave Jay and Utkarsh. It just feels like a very pivotal episode in the whole series for us in that figures he has thought about for so long and conceptualized he actually has in front of him, and he has a physical reaction to them. So that was really awesome to see and fun for him to be able to actually look at direct eye lines and feel so much more integrated in the scenes. So I thought he did a great job with kind of bestowing that with the importance it deserves.
DEADLINE: That’s such a great point about Jay having physical contact with the ghosts. How will that impact everyone’s dynamic moving forward, having had this experience?
MCIVER: It’s empowering. I feel like it’s a nice balancing event for the whole show. For him to have something that she hasn’t experienced seems very important. So I think it can only lubricate his communication with the ghosts further and further and his understanding of who they are. We do see that in the episodes that follow, that I feel like there’s even more of a closeness between him and them. Although Jay was invested from day one, there’s kind of a weight to his investment now, which is really marked. It’s a big signifier in the show.
DEADLINE: What are some of the story threads you’ve really been enjoying this season outside of this episode?
MCIVER: I think the stuff that they’ve written for Sam this season has been so, so much fun. A lot of the time, he is a character who serves as a go between, between so many other characters. They’ve done a great job of servicing her, regardless, over the three years prior. But now I think we’ve stepped into a little bit more of her identity as her own person, seeing the stuff that she loves and is passionate about and watching her perform in like a local theater production. It just kind of feels like we’re fleshing out who she is and…understanding a little bit of maybe why she has such a need to belong. I’ve had a lot to sink my teeth into this year, and it’s been incredibly appreciated.
DEADLINE: You’re also directing later in the season. How has that experience been, and what made you want to get behind the camera?
MCIVER: I had the time in my life. I finished directing. I’ve turned in my director’s cut, and can’t wait for it to air. I’ve been wanting to direct for a very long time. I’ve done a couple of short films. I’ve done all sorts of workshops, and a Warner Bros. directing program, and I had intentions of directing back when I was on iZombie. So it’s been a really exciting journey to get here, and I feel like it’s come at the right time, and I’ve learned a lot along the way. I understandably felt pressure to do a good job for my colleagues, the cast and crew who I have loved and worked with now for a few years, but I also had all of their support. I can’t imagine having kicked it off with a different team. I just can’t wait to do more.
DEADLINE: What can we expect from the rest of the season?
MCIVER: Well, I think in the second half of the season, we go further into a couple of other characters back stories. It’s always some of my favorite [episodes] when we get into these incredible flashbacks, not just from a character standpoint, but production design and the costume and makeup and everybody really steps up. So we get to go on a few journeys, in terms of that, we get outside the house a little. There’s a couple of adventures that take us away from Woodstone Mansion, or that take the action away from Woodstone Mansion. We have some Pete-centric material coming up in the episode that I direct. So we get to learn a little bit about who he is and where he’s from.
DEADLINE: What can you say about finally bringing Alexander Hamilton on board?
MCIVER: It’s incredible. That episode is maybe one of the episodes I’ve been most excited for the whole show. Truly, when we read it on the page, it was so brilliant. With Brandon Scott Jones having so much of the the workload, we all know we’re in for a treat.