GHOSTS: Mary Holland Reflects on Joining the CBS Comedy, Patience’s Ghost Power, and Teases a Halloween Witch Trial

The ghosts—and humans—at Woodstone have been adjusting to life with their newest resident, Patience (Mary Holland)…but things take a turn on Halloween.

After having notoriously dramatic Halloween celebrations since they moved in, Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) wants to forgo the holiday on the Thursday, October 31 episode, “Halloween 4: The Witch.”

“Jay, his Spidey sense is good,” GHOSTS co-showrunner Joe Port tells Give Me My Remote. “He’s the one who wants to cancel Halloween because he doesn’t think anything good will come of it with a Puritan around. And I think Sam sometimes poo poos Jay’s fears and theories. But Jay, as is often the case, is right to be worried and right to have concern.”

The addition of Patience made crafting this year’s Halloween episode “fun,” co-showrunner Joe Wiseman notes. “Look, we have a Puritan ghost from the 1600s…we thought it would be a natural jumping-off point. ‘Okay, what does Patience think of Halloween?’ She’s probably not going to like it. And a lot of weird stuff.” 

“We always want to do something a little extra ghost-y on our Halloween episodes, because it’s a show called GHOSTS and Halloween is all about that,” he continues. “So having her there really…help[ed] us craft the story.”

And what did they end up with? “We really wanted to do a witch trial episode involving Patience,” Port teases. “So it seemed like a natural fit.”

Here, Holland talks with GMMR about becoming a part of the CBS comedy, Patience’s very dramatic ghost power, and her very memorable Halloween episode.

GHOSTS was going into its fourth season by the time you joined. What was it like your first day on set, coming into this environment where they already had an established dynamic?
First of all, every single person in the cast, in the crew, the creators, the writers, the producers—everyone was so warm, so welcoming. Made me instantly feel at home and like I had been there the whole time. They have such an ease and comfort with each other. It really is a family, a ghost family, and so coming into it, I did not feel like, “Oh, gosh, where do I fit in here?” They just embraced me immediately. And it felt so comfortable right away.

How familiar were you with the world before you got the part? 
This is a show I was very familiar with. I think the premise is so genius, and I am obsessed with this cast. They are all so brilliant and so funny. Brandon Scott Jones [who plays Isaac] is a dear friend of mine, [as is] Betsy Sodaro [who plays Nancy]. I’m a fan of all the other actors, and now I know them! And so it’s been such a joy. But, yeah, I was very familiar with the show ahead of time, and loved it also.

Since you were friends with Brandon before this, what was it like filming so much of your early stuff with him? 
A dream came true. I think Brandon is a genius. [Laughs.] And so getting to play with him, anytime we do improv together—we do a lot of live comedy shows together—and anytime I get to play with him is just such a treat. And so getting to do it on this show, with this character that he is just so brilliant at playing…and my character is so, so tough to get along with, that getting to play that dynamic between Patience and Isaac was a blast.

We’ve already learned a lot about Patience. What did you know when you first signed on versus how much did you discover as you got scripts?
There was some stuff that was discovered, but it was pretty clear in those first couple scenes that they had written for Patience in the first episode, where you really get a sense of who she was in life, her backstory. There’s even an illusion in her speech that she gives to the minister of her Puritan community when she gets banished; there’s a little clue in there that alludes to how she does end up dying. And so much of it was really smartly woven into the script by the writers that there the moments of discovery of her backstory were pretty small, [but] I feel like everything was very clearly laid out when I jumped into it.

Was her ghost power a surprise to you or were you warned ahead of time?
Well, it was actually part of the audition! [Laughs.] And I remember leaving the audition being like, “Oh gosh, I don’t know if I did that right.” But as part of the audition, I say the line before I make the walls bleed, and it says in the script something like Patience’s eyes roll back in her head, and blood starts coming down the wall. And so I was like, “I guess I’m just gonna try to make it look like I’m summoning blood in the audition!” and I did something like this. [She mimics it.] Like, where my eyes are crossed and rolled back. And they liked it, thank goodness, but I remember leaving that and being like, “Wow, I really took a swing in there. I hope that works.” [Laughs.]

Being familiar with the show, you knew a lot of the powers are a bit more tame. Did you think that would be her real power? Or did you think it might be a fake-out audition scene?
I didn’t know how they were going to do that because, yeah, like you said, all the other ghost powers are pretty tame and innocuous! Almost adorable, in a way. And this [power] is straight-up horror movie, so I was curious how it was going to weave in with all the other ghost powers. But it’s really funny. I think it’s such a fun idea to bring a super serious, menacing, almost villain-type ghost into the [Woodstone] Manor because it’s so opposite of what the vibe is there. It’s just really funny.

And now you’re in your first GHOSTS Halloween episode. As a fan, what does this mean to you?
Oh my gosh! I mean, the meaningfulness of it. To me, it’s just so layered because Halloween is my favorite holiday; I love it so much. One of my favorite Halloween movies is THE WITCH. And so getting to not only be a part of a Halloween episode on one of my favorite comedies on TV that will air on Halloween, and that has to do with a witch trial—I mean, it’s like someone is answering my prayers. This is the best; I was ecstatic about it.

What can you tease about Patience’s witch trial?
I mean, I think you’ve already seen Patience isn’t adapting well to the modern era, and sort of interprets any kind of innovation of technology as witchcraft and as the work of the devil himself. And so I think what I can allude to in this week’s episode is that Patience really goes all out with this witch trial. She takes it very seriously, whereas the other ghosts are sort of like, “Oh, this is a fun thing to do,” not taking it too seriously. But Patience takes it to an extreme in a way that might affect everybody in the Manor.

I do think it’s important to bear in mind for Patience that she’s been trapped in the dirt for such a long time. She really…her social skills, what little she had to begin with, have really suffered. And so I think she’s just, in her mind, she’s doing what is right. And so I do just want viewers to keep that in mind as they watch this episode, because they might not like her too much. [Laughs.] She has a strong sense of right and wrong, and it kind of got a little twisted while she was in the dirt.

GHOSTS, Thursdays, 8:30/7:30c, CBS

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