Ghosts: Asher Grodman on Trevor’s Traveling Pants and Crafting H-Money Crumbs [Interview]

Asher Grodman always knew Trevor Lefkowitz and his missing pants would take the actor to some wonderfully bizarre places.

When I spoke to Grodman ahead of Ghosts Season 4 Episode 19, “Pinkus Returns,” about Trevor’s infamous pants and the daughter Pinkus went on to raise for him, the adoration for Trevor’s unpredictable lifestyle was clear.

“I remember reading the pilot and thinking this is the best pilot I’ve ever read. So much of it was based on the specificity with which Trevor was written. From that first line: ‘It was the summer of ’98 and we scooped the copter to beat the traffic out to the Hamptons, because that’s how we roll’ — that’s such a specific line. There was so much in the story that I knew would mean something one day.'”

As it turns out, Trevor’s torrid affairs with bottle service chicks would mean something one day. Not in Season 1 as first teased, but much later, when the perfect circumstance led a new family dynamic to his doorstep.

“In the beginning, not having pants on was such a relief, because I’d never done comedy. It felt like a nice little safety net. If I failed to hit a joke, just pull out to a wide shot of my pasty thighs, and that should get a chuckle,” Grodman said. “So I’m blown away by how much story they’ve found in this missing pair of pants. Now we’re establishing a lineage from these pants.”

The actor will be the first to tell you that Trevor isn’t exactly fit for parenting, but he is still a family man.

“The fatherhood thing is interesting for Trevor, because he is at once absolutely not suited to be a parent,” Grodman admitted. “Then, there is this part of him that does — at the core — want everyone together, whether it’s a family or a found family, like with the ghosts or his buddies in life.

“There is a caretaking quality to him — so there’s a part of him that’s aligned with this, and a part of him that is antithetical to this.”

“One of the things that was the most interesting for me in the making of the episode was Trevor acknowledging that Pinkus is a much better father than he would have been,” Grodman continued.

“And there’s a moment where Gideon [Adlo], who plays my daughter, gets to do what Trevor wouldn’t be able to do, which is coming to terms with the complexity of the situation. She’s lost her mother, and because of Trevor and his impulsiveness, she loses her father, and then gains him back.”

As for Trevor’s texting stunt, Grodman agrees these ghosts need to give Sam a break: “I hope we lean into more of what Trevor does in his episode, because it is just wrong. From Sam’s perspective, he really hung her out to dry.”

“I like Sam pushing back against Trevor,” the actor confirmed. “We get a soft flavor of it, but it’s always very interesting to me — and I know it is to other cast members — when we get to see Sam put her foot down against us. Because she does do so much for these ghosts.”

“Also, who doesn’t want to be yelled at by Rose McIver?” Yes, that is the dream job.

Huzzah for H-Money!

Grodman describes Hetty and Trevor’s Power Friend dynamic this season as “a playground of choices and creativity.”

“What we’re doing right now is part of the reason why we were so eager to play with this relationship,” he said. “Almost from the pilot, we were talking about how this would be a fun butting heads, and also passionate and hateful — but the romance is so much. There’s just so much there, and, of course, the romance can be the sum of all the parts.”

For fans who wonder how intentional every little moment between the pairing is, Grodman revealed that every crumb Hetty and Trevor leave us is deliberate.

“This cast is exceptional in that we can go on set, rehearse a thing, and step off together. Whereas in a lot of situations, people may just go off into their corners. For us, we huddle together and figure out the scene,” Grodman explained.

Then he revealed something that will thrill H-Money fans: “After we’re done doing that, Rebecca [Wisocky] and I will find each other and say, ‘Okay, now what are we doing here?’ Even in scenes that we’re in the periphery, we are finding moments and crafting things, just as little morsels to trace this story along.”

Behind Trevor and Hetty’s compelling romance is a strong foundation of friendship between Grodman and Wisocky.

“We’re kindred spirits. In Season 1, we became very good friends with Brandon [Scott Jones], and he would tell each of us: ‘You have no idea how similar the two of you are.’ It took us a second to figure it out, but once we did, any chance to play with her was a joy.”

“It’s fun to see the response to what we’ve been building,” Grodman added.

“And a huge shout out to Joe Port and Joe Wiseman, our showrunners, for helping us build that relationship and playing with those really delicate colors with which we are painting. It’s a group effort.”

Now that Trevor and Hetty have entered a new phase of romantic tension, locking down ship names is crucial. Between Tretty or H-Money, Grodman does have a favourite child: “I like H-Money, but we accept all currencies.”

Exploring Death from Every Angle

Emotional relationships have dominated Trevor’s journey, none more so than the pet snail he bonded with. For every traumatizing emotion we felt during Trevor’s monologue about the dog he never went home to, Grodman went through it too.

“I remember we were in Montebello, where we shoot the exteriors, and it was like 5:00 am in the morning, and I got that script. I was just bawling, reading it the first time,” he recalled.

“I grew up on an old horse farm without horses, but we had fourteen dogs and six cats running around. So I’ve had a lot of emotional memories with dogs. Just the idea of what you leave behind, if that’s a puppy, and the image of this pup waiting for Trevor to walk through the door killed me.”

“We’re a show about death, and it’s amazing to me that we’ve actually explored death from so many angles.”

Grodman explained that a premise so “closely aligned with death” means the cast often has to be strategic about acting through these heartbreaking moments. “This was one of the few as an actor where I was like, ‘No, let’s just go there, because it’s your puppy.'”

Grodman’s dog has made cameos in the show as Trevor’s dog, which adds to the emotional impact of the scene: “Shout out to my Zazie Girl. My one regret is that we didn’t get a flashback, and then she could have had a real cameo.”

The Cliffhanger

As the Season 4 finale looms, so does another brutal cliffhanger. However, Grodman assures this departure won’t be too painful.

“We’ve had some agonizing cliffhangers, so I don’t think it’s going to be the most agonizing cliffhanger, but I think you’re going to be eagerly anticipating the answers and the resolution for this one,” he teased.

As for Trevor’s trajectory, Grodman is proud of everything No-Pants has accomplished: “We’ve established a lot for Trevor this season. He’s covered between the job and the daughter and all this stuff with Hetty and that relationship.”

“There is this wonderful relationship with Flower that has also been developing. That is a lot of fun for me, because I’m sure, when Trevor died, the first person that he was like, ‘Oh, I get you’ was probably Flower.”

The actor couldn’t tease much about the final episodes, but he left fans with this: “Something that our show does really well is we plant all these seeds, and then at the end, there’s always this crescendo that involves everyone. You can expect all hands on deck for these final episodes.”

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Feature Image Credit: John Russo

Ghosts airs on Thursdays at 8:30c/7:30c on CBS.

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