GHOSTS Post-Mortem: Asher Grodman Breaks Down the Unexpectedly Emotional ‘Trevor’s Pants’

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Thursday, March 31 episode, “Trevor’s Pants.”]

GHOSTS finally revealed what the heck happened to Trevor’s (Asher Grodman) pants…and in true GHOSTS fashion, it was unexpectedly heartwarming. (Yes, really.)

Prior to Trevor’s death, he and his Wall Street buddies visited the mansion, where a young underling was hazed: his pants were removed and he was kicked out. Trevor, not wanting the young man to go through the humiliation he had to go through during his own initiation into the group, secretly gave the kid his own pants, saying he’d come up with an excuse for where they went. Unfortunately for Trevor, he died before he was able to get another pair on. (And an extra sweet twist? Unbeknownst to Trevor, Sass kept the secret this entire time.)

So what comes next? Grodman breaks down “Trevor’s Pants,” and how it might change the house dynamic…

Trevor has never seemed like a bad guy, but this reveal certainly gave him more layers. What was your reaction to the episode and how has this impacted your portrayal of Trevor?
I was really thrilled with it. I remember speaking to the writers about this: I was Jewish kid in a very not Jewish area of New Jersey. And being Jewish was weird [there] and the other kids let me know that being Jewish was weird [with] bullying, all that stuff.

So, the fact that I get to play this dude, he’s torn between two loyalties in sense, right? He’s torn between loyalty to the group and to Ari. But also the loyalty of this guy who’s like a younger brother [and the thought], “I’m taking care of him,” and so he’s giving him this exit ramp. It’s a really exciting and wonderful thing just to be part of, because there are times that I wish someone would have done that for me. [Laughs.] And so now I get to do it, [be] fictional better someone else. So that’s a lot of fun. I just think that our writers are great. They just keep coming up with these amazing ideas; I did not see it coming. As we’ve dealt with most of the things that the writers have developed, it’s stuff that we didn’t see coming. And then once it’s here, we’re very glad that this is the path we’ve taken.

The majority of the show’s characters acknowledged they were surprised, too. Does this lead to any subtle shifts in how they treat Trevor?
I think it’s gonna be played more down the line, although there is a little bit. One of the great things about this episode is it becomes this issue with the old family replaced with his new family. Sass and Trevor had moments in season 1, but I wouldn’t call Sass Trevor’s best friend. And yet, he kind of did one of the most loyal and kind of supportive things anyone’s ever done for Trevor in his afterlife. He kept the secret, let Trevor live the way he was living in his afterlife, and was keeping it to himself. So you kind of figure out who people are based on what they do. And I think in this episode, Trevor realizes that he’s a lot closer to the people he’s trapped with for eternity than he really thought he was.

Ari was also a pretty lousy friend to Trevor in death, and the ghosts debated how to make him pay…but ultimately let him off fairly easy, at Trevor’s urging. Will Trevor regret that?
You know what’s funny? And this is something that I really liked about Trevor: When I when I first auditioned for him, there’s the whole douchey thing and stuff like that, but I always read him as kind of puppy. I think he’s got this sweet side; he just was looking to have a good time. Everything is an opportunity to have fun. And in that moment…there’s an opportunity for them to punish Ari even more. And Trevor says, no, he doesn’t want that. He kind of leaves it on the table and the point is not in exacting revenge in, a way, because he really could—you’re a ghost, you could really exact revenge. You could go you could go full movie ghost on this dude—and he doesn’t. So I don’t know, maybe Trevor wakes up a few days later is like, “Dammit, I want a do-over, I want revenge.” But my gut is that he’s actually walking out of this episode with a lot more than he had walking into it.

On a performer level, you also had a number of scenes with non-GHOSTS actors. What was it like working within the show world with an entirely different cast?
First of all, let me just say Blair Penner, who plays Ari [in the flashback], and Robert Bazzocchi, who plays Pinkus, and Brian Cook who plays Woodstone, and Julius Cho [who plays Chet], those guys are awesome, and I got to spend a couple of days with them. It was a little weird, at first, because—and maybe this is pandemic, also, but—the GHOSTS cast has become such a tight knit group, the ten of us. Even though we have some great guest stars who come in, it’s wonderful, but not very often the guest stars are [with] all 10 of us. And so we’ve become our own little clique

For me, as an actor, to be completely removed from them in these flashbacks, and with a whole new clique, it was exciting. It was a little scary. It was like, “Who are these people?” But it was so much fun. And the Joes [creators Joe Port & Joe Wiseman], kudos to them, because…the question was, “We know who Trevor is in the ghost family—who was he in his Lehman Brothers family in life? And how does that dynamic play out?” And the Joes were so great and let me be part of some of those discussions, a little bit. And that was wonderful. So it was a real question and we got some incredible guest stars in the show; those guys are awesome. I had a blast.

Given the prospect of closure could lead to the ghosts being sucked off—AKA sent to heaven—was there ever any concern that this portion of Trevor’s story could lead to him being too at peace?
[Laughs] You know, as an actor, it’s funny, my job is to put myself out there every single day. And you put yourself out there, and sometimes it doesn’t go well. So I remember shooting the pilot, and we shot five days, Monday through Friday. I think on the Wednesday, I was like, “I’m getting fired. They’re gonna fire me. They’re absolutely going to fire me.” And then I got to the Thursday, and someone else—I won’t say who—in the GHOSTS cast came up to me and was like, “What do you think? I think I’m getting fired.” We were all having these moments of extreme self-doubt. And it’s funny with our show that it’s not, “Oh, I’m going to get fired, I’m going to get written off,” it’s “I don’t want to get sucked off.” That is the scary thing for everyone.

Was there a relief? I don’t think at this moment I was completely feeling like that was in the realm of possibility. But there is a sense of closure in revealing the story behind the pants. But I don’t think I was concerned about the sucked off thing, because I’ve seen the way that our storylines [are playing out]. So there is a lot of room for growth. And what sucked off will mean, when someone does get sucked off, if someone gets sucked off, will be really telling about the universe that we’re living in. But until that time comes, I love everyone who’s sitting at our table, and I don’t want anyone to leave.

Looking ahead to the final episodes of the season, what can you tease about what’s to come?
We’re gonna have another really great guest star is coming in, whose time with us is time sensitive. And we get to learn more about Sam, which is really exciting. And I think the thing that I’ll leave you with is that at the end, there will be an epic showdown, and the stakes will be high.

GHOSTS, Thursdays, 9/8c, CBS

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