The Big Picture

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff talks with the cast of
Ghosts
at SDCC 2024.
Utkarsh Ambudkar, Richie Moriarty, Román Zaragoza and Rebecca Wisocky tease Season 4 changes, including Jay seeing ghosts, Hetty co-running the B&B, Pete’s new powers, and Sass’ potential romance.
The
Ghosts
cast also sings their co-stars’ praises, reminiscing about how far everyone has come while working on the show.

Fans of the widely acclaimed comedy Ghosts will be pleased to know that the show will be rearing its delightfully ghoulish head again on October 17 with its fourth season. As the wide array of unique and endearing spirits aims to make our stay at the haunted Woodstone B&B as pleasurable as possible, Collider’s Perri Nemiroff does the same for Ghost’sUtkarsh Ambudkar, Richie Moriarty, Román Zaragoza and Rebecca Wisocky at this year’s panel at San Diego Comic-Con.

After hanging out with Perri on the Ballroom 20 stage for the Ghosts panel, the crew stopped by our interview studio where they teased highly anticipated character arcs in Season 4, including Jay seeing ghosts, Sasappis taking on romance, Pete playing with his new powers, and Hetty brushing up on her skills as a business manager. Hear about it all straight from Ambudkar, Moriarty, Zaragoza and Wisocky in the video at the top of this article, or you can read the interview in transcript form below.

Ghosts (US) A young couple, Sam and Jay, inherit a haunted mansion and, unaware of their invisible housemates, plan to turn it into a B&B. Their lives become much more complicated after a fall causes Sam to see the ghosts. Based on the UK series.Release Date October 7, 2021 Creator Joe Port, Joe Wiseman Seasons 3

Will Jay Seeing Ghosts Affect His Relationship with Sam?
Image via CBS

PERRI NEMIROFF: Utkarsh, I’m dying to ask you about this. Whenever you moderate a panel, you get very detailed information in terms of what you’re going to reveal, but the Joes said something about Jay today that I was not briefed on.

REBECCA WISOCKY: It floored every single one of us.

UTKARSH AMBUDKAR: Yeah, it was cool.

What was your reaction when you found out he was going to see ghosts?

AMBUDKAR: I was excited! Look, we’re all just fighting for screen time here, baby, and if I can get a couple more seconds for those brand deals, I’m all for it. If Reebok can watch me for a couple more seconds, I’m excited. It’s fun to be able to know that I’ll actually be able to interact and work with some of the other folks in the cast. We work together, but not in scenes together, if that makes sense. I’m really excited.

As viewers, we all want to see something like that happen for Jay, but it can’t happen just to happen. It has to serve him and his journey well. So, is there anything about him seeing ghosts that you think will build him as a character?

AMBUDKAR: If I’ve learned anything about this show, it is that it’s going to happen just because it happens. You know what I mean?

RICHIE MORIARTY: I don’t. [Laughs]

AMBUDKAR: I don’t know. I think maybe, no.

WISOCKY: You think he’s not going to learn or change or grow at all?

MORIARTY: Maybe it will give you a stronger connection to Sam.

AMBUDKAR: It would maybe make Sam appreciate [him].

MORIARTY: Or just make her more sympathetic to you, having to see it through your eyes.

AMBUDKAR: Treat me with a little bit more respect.

That’s one of the things I’m genuinely most excited about, how it changes the dynamic between the two of them now that she’s not separate in that respect.

AMBUDKAR: It would be really cool. Also, I don’t know what Thorfinn looks like. It would be really cool for Jay to be like, “Oh, this is what they mean. Wow, you really do smell like wolf piss.” That would be really cool.

Is Pete’s New Power Causing Tension in Season 4?
Image via CBS

Rebecca, Román and Richie, there was something in the briefing that I got that we didn’t get to discuss earlier. It said, “All of our ghosts are going to be looking for ways to change their afterlife for the better and take advantage of this time they do have to change and grow.” Can you each tease something about them in Season 4 that will help them change and grow?

REBECCA WISOCKY: I think that’s the premise of the entire series. That’s the framework of the entire show, whether or not we do that successfully. Can I just say, some of my most favorite moments are when we’re just complete idiots on the show. Richie has the best scream in all of show business. I had a line where I got to talk about snake oil being the actual oil from snakes that you could press. [Laughs] I just love the absurd, silly, ridiculous sides of our show, and then we will learn and change and grow along the way.

MORIARTY: I think Pete, with his new power, is going to be forced to grow in more ways than one, right? Like he’s going to be meeting new people, he’s going to be having brand-new experiences that he hasn’t had in his afterlife. So, I think anytime you’re introduced to new experiences like that, we’re going to see this character change and grow.

AMBUDKAR: I think we’re going to see something with Pete, too, which is, it’s the first time he’s had the coolest anything in the room.

WISOCKY: That’s a very good point.

AMBUDKAR: We can already see in the first couple of episodes that we’re shooting, it’s getting to his head.

MORIARTY: He’s becoming cocky, which the other ghosts are not a big fan of.

AMBUDKAR: It’s becoming your identity.

Image via Comic-Con

That has to be so much fun to play.

AMBUDKAR: It’s like the guy in your friend group who gets a motorcycle.

MORIARTY: And he won’t shut up about the motorcycle. [Laughs]

AMBUDKAR: It’s like, “I got the leather jacket. I had to get the pants.”

MORIARTY: “Oh, sorry, I didn’t even realize my helmet was still on.”

AMBUDKAR: It’s that for sure.

Sasappis Is “Putting Himself Out There to Get Hurt” in Season 4
“Even in his death, he wasn’t even living.”
Image via CBS, Paramount

ZARAGOZA: Sasappis’s going to be really excited to dive more into romantic relationships and see that vulnerable side of him. I think he’s suppressed it for so long, and has come out in the last few years in these seasons, and we’re just going to see him grow through that.

MORIARTY: Do you think Sass and Pete might find love with each other?

WISOCKY: I hope so.

ZARAGOZA: I think Sas and Pete are going to make out.

MORIARTY: Fans are screaming for it.

ZARAGOZA: They are! [Laughs]

There’s something specific for Sass in terms of the way they phrased his character description for the season that caught my eye. They said that he hits a midlife crisis, or rather, a mid-afterlife crisis. What does having a mid-afterlife crisis mean to him? What is he struggling with most?

ZARAGOZA: I think he’s coming to grips with the fact that he hasn’t been living. Even in his death, he wasn’t even living. He was just commenting, he was judging, when in reality, he’s just been suppressing who he is.

AMBUDKAR: He’s been too scared to after-live.

ZARAGOZA: Too scared, too insecure, too afraid of getting hurt. So now he’s putting himself out there to get hurt, but that takes bravery and courage, so I’m proud of him.

WISOCKY: I hope you don’t lose your snark, though, because you do it so well.

ZARAGOZA: Oh, no. He ain’t losin’ that.

AMBUDKAR: It’s been hundreds of years.

WISOCKY: And he’s the youngest and most beautiful amongst us, goddamn him. But he is also the very oldest ghost, which I think is just so wonderful.

MORIARTY: I’ll tease something—in Episode 2 of the season, Sass has the funniest line involving Pete. It is so funny, and I can’t wait.

ZARAGOZA: We haven’t shot it yet, and Richie’s putting so much weight on it.

MORIARTY: You can’t screw it up, it is made for you. It is so funny.

ZARAGOZA: I know. You’re right.

Related ‘Ghosts’ Needs To Give Us More of This Character This character is criminally underutilized on ‘Ghosts’ and deserves more stories particularly tailored to their strengths.

I love the fact that this tease means that now when I see it, I’m going to be like, “He nailed it.”

MORIARTY: You’ll definitely know. It’s a great line. The writers are killing it.

ZARAGOZA: They gave me a gift.

‘Ghosts’ Season 4 Sees Hetty Running Woodstone B&B With Sam
Image via CBS, Paramount

Rebecca, a specific Hetty question for you now. We know that she’s going to help Sam run the B&B.

WISOCKY: Yeah, that was news to me today, so that’s exciting. I love working with Rose [McIver]. I love that dynamic. Sam has a very difficult relationship with the mother figures in her life—Jay’s mother and the mother that Hetty represents.

What do you think is something that Hetty will actually be useful for in terms of running the business well, but also, what is something she doesn’t know about running a successful business that she could stand to gain from Sam?

WISOCKY: We got a little taste of this last year; she doesn’t know how to handle human interactions with people that she perceives to have less power or status than herself. So that’s certainly problematic in terms of being a successful manager, in my opinion. I think she has a really wonderful business mind. She’s just rather unscrupulous with how she goes about business.

MORIARTY: Big on hiring children, too, which I’m sure Sam is not going to be a fan of.

ABUDKAR: She’s a strong woman, despite the fact that she came up in a time when she was allowed very little in that way. She’s got really strong opinions, and sometimes Sam can be a little bit too, as the character’s written, “people pleasey.” She tries too hard to keep everyone happy, which ultimately makes her miserable. And I think Hetty has been really helpful in getting her to find her own strength in that way.

WISOCKY: I think you’re right.

Image via Comic-Con

ABUDKAR: The problem is Hetty doesn’t know math because she wasn’t allowed to learn.

WISOCKY: Exactly, there are all these ridiculous things. She’s a strong businesswoman, she does all these other things, but she still has a problem with the Irish. She never learned math. Basically, she’s just bossy. She’s good at being bossy.

The ‘Ghosts’ Cast Have a Story Pitch for Richie in Season 4
Image via CBS, Paramount

Richie, Pete can leave the property. What place do you think he wants to go to most, and what place do you think he needs to go to most?

MORIARTY: We’re either going to see him visit his family or hear about him visiting. I don’t know what’s going to happen. But of course, I think that’s the first thing you would want to do: spend more time with his daughter, spend more time with his grandson, get to know him more. I think he needs to see the little girl who shot him and killed him. I feel like there’s got to be some episode, either through Sam, telling this girl that it’s okay. Because this kid made a terrible mistake and murdered a man.

WISOCKY: In the “Dumb Deaths” episode, we met one of the other campers.

MORIARTY: Who was present, but not the one that shot me. So, I think that would probably be a painful but interesting relationship to explore.

ZARAGOZA: Hear me out, I have a pitch. You go to meet the person, turns out she just died, and then you get to see her as a ghost.

ABDUKAR: And help her.

MORIARTY: Oh, and have a full conversation with her about it.

ZARAGOZA: Yeah, and she’s been holding onto it since she was a child.

ABUDKAR: And then she lets the guilt go and gets sucked off!

That was a really good pitch!

The Love Between the ‘Ghosts’ Cast Members Is Strong

One of the things I’ve always loved about all of you is that you really seem to love each other and be really proud of each other. Whether it is something you’ve shot this season or any season of the show, can you each name a time when you saw a co-star do something that made you go, “Wow, that was something else and I’m proud of you?”

AMBUDKAR: I think Rose McIver would be the first one to admit that comedy is something that she’s learning to be better at. I think she can sometimes get in her own way when it comes to Richie, who’s a great improviser, Danielle [Pinnock], Sheila [Carrasco]. But she’s actually extremely funny. Seeing her in the Christmas episode take on Devan [Chandler Long]’s character and be possessed by Thorfinn and really take that same tenacity that she takes to the script as a great actor, but to fully embody that character was hilarious. And the timing and the musicality of it? She’s great.

MORIARTY?: Rose and Sheila both. This will be hard to get through, but the two of them becoming moms and going through both being pregnant while we’re shooting, but also raising two babies while we’re shooting. My wife and I had a six-week-old when we started shooting this show, and I know how insanely hard it is, and I’m not a woman. I’m not dealing with the recovery process from having a baby, all that comes along with breastfeeding and motherhood. I’m insanely proud of the two of them for the work they’ve done so far. I just know how difficult it is and am endlessly impressed by them.

AMBUDKAR: Yeah, Devan’s got a small baby, too, but that’s not nearly as impressive.

MORIARTY: It’s so hard to be a parent, period.

ZARAGOZA: But not for Devan.

MORIARTY: But we both know that it’s way harder to be a woman having a baby.

ZARAGOZA: Yeah, it’s a miraculous thing.

Image via Comic-Con

WISOCKY: We were saying this to them just the other day. They are absolutely killing it and never complaining.

ZARAGOZA: I want to give Rebecca her flowers. I know we talked about “Holes Are Bad,” but that episode was so intense on the page and then when we were shooting it, it was so intense. When you’re shooting a comedy, you come to work, you think you’re going to laugh, and everything’s going to be easy, but that day when we shot those really tough scenes, she just handled it so well with such grace. It was a lot, but you crushed it because you had to go to those deep, deep, deep, deep places. Then the way that it read on screen was just absolutely gut-wrenching and beautiful. You just did so well, and you were still laughing at the end of the episode. I love that episode.

WISOCKY: That was a joint effort that the episode managed to have laughs in it, and it really did. And a big shoutout to Sheila because I think that’s one of my favorite moments in that episode. That’s her episode, as well, when she returns after being gone for so long. She walks in, and the choice I made was that’s the most moved Hetty is in the entire episode, is when she comes back in, and she says, “Guess what, guys. I robbed a bank once.” It just made me want to cry. She’s so her, and we’ve missed her so deeply. To have her back and just be so right on the money. She had a great flashback where we realized that she was a law student. I want to see more of her character. I want to see more of that development and who she was before she died in this incredibly inebriated state. Very interesting character.

AMBUDKAR: I feel like Danielle Pinnock, who plays Alberta, has really blossomed while being on the show into this real force on camera and off. Asher [Grodman] just won so many awards for a short film. He won at Cannes. His legs look great. Devan and Sheila, their love story is so special. Then, of course, the guy who comes in and is like, “Hey, how’s it going?” And then effortlessly is just so hilarious is Brandon [Scott Jones].

MORIARTY: He’s a genius.

WISOCKY: Brandon is kind of our North Star. In the first couple of episodes of the season, he is possibly the funniest he has ever been. The Joes take him on such a wonderful journey this season that I think the fans are going to really, really enjoy it.

AMBUDKAR: He’s going back to the Isaac that I think a lot of people love from Season 1, of just the guy who thinks he’s in charge of every room and is always vying for political power in any room that he’s in. It’s really funny to see him try to pick who’s going to win and follow that.

WISOCKY: But in terms of what’s funny and who we love and delight in making laugh the most, and who can determine the temperature in a room, it’s Brandon Scott Jones. He’s our North Star.

Season 4 of Ghosts is slated to premiere on CBS on October 17th. Meanwhile, the first three seasons are available to stream now on Paramount+ in the U.S.

Watch on Paramount+