A ghost communicator’s job is never done! And this time it extends to work behind the camera.
Rose McIver’s Sam anchors Woodstone Manor. As the only person who can communicate with every resident–living and dead alike–Sam has the biggest job of the entire household as she balances running a business, supporting her husband, Jay, in his new business venture as well as writing a hit book that shares historial and vampiric elements. We can only watch with admiration as we confirm that McIver can do it all and make it look so easy.
At the start of our conversation, I had to ask McIver the all important question that is inspired by the script of the first Ghosts episode she directed. White Chicks is a film that her Samantha has seen three times in one week while she has yet to see Jay’s recommendation, Midnight Run. Does White Chicks still win in a battle for her attention?
“There are other films that we used as references as well,” McIver says. “Of course, Goodfellas and The Godfather. But between those two movies…can we do a 50-50 split? Let’s do a double feature?”
McIver scored her first directorial credit with this season’s ‘Ghostfellas,’ where Sam and Jay find themselves squaring off against some unexpected gangsters who take a liking to Mahesh, the new restaurant on Woodstone’s property. She reveals that the real practical side of directing is something that doesn’t get talked about enough, and it feels like she has been anticipating this flex for a few years. ‘Ghostfellas’ is one of the best episodes of the season.
“I had wanted to direct for around fifteen years,” she says. “I was slated to direct for iZombie back in the day, and I started my journey there with auditing the Warner Brothers directing workshop. That was a 13-week crash course where we learned about blocking and also working through different scenarios that might pop up during the day–the real practical side of directing. What happens if an actor needs to get on a flight by midnight? How would you change the blocking? With a lot of directing for television, it’s not really about being an auteur, it’s about being a gun for hire–who is able to work within the very chaotic, complex machinery. There’s an art to that. I love learning about the ecosystem of a set, especially with a show like Ghosts. I had the time of my life, and our showrunners have been really supportive of all of us. It gives you a greater appreciation and understanding of the mechanics of things before someone calls ‘Action!’ on set.”
McIver’s episode also puts her on camera for a big chunk of the story. She could’ve selected the episode where the ghosts think that Mary Holland’s Patience turned Sam to stone where it would take her character out of the equation for most of the action. Directing herself was something that McIver had to approach intellectually, and she brings such an effortlessness to it that it feels like she’s been directing herself for years.
“Our showrunners showed me some options of episodes, and I did my pre-prodiction during hiatus week,” she says. “They asked me if I wanted to do something that was a little bit more of a flashback or out of the box with a little less screentime. I know how that house is shot and I know how our cast works, and so that automatically removed a lot of variables for me. Initially on the first day, I wasn’t on camera, and that was helpful. That was a very generous move from the ADs and all of the scheduling department, so I got used to it. I have such a shorthand with our first AD and out DP, so I would look at things on the monitor with the set ups to make sure somebody’s not obscured. I would go back and fine tune. The hardest part, honestly, is split screening your brain where you’re trying to be present and engage with the other actors while you are going through a mental checklist as if I was behind the camera. If I wasn’t in the scene, I’d literally have a physical piece of paper and would be checking off things that we got, so that took a bit of getting used to. I kept thinking about how a lot of our crew speaks French, and how they have to juggle two languages every day while they’re at work as they are doing their job on top of that.”
‘Ghostfellas’ is packed with different challenges. It features a flashback, multiple locations, and balanced storylines.
“I felt so lucky,” McIver says. “It was just a big smorgasbord of different opportunities, and maybe [the next one] will give me a big stunt. That’s the thing that that episode didn’t have. This script had a lot of variety with its homage to certain things and its style. Richie Moriarty is such a deft actor, and he can do the emotional work while finding the funny. It’s such a gift of a first episode.”
The introduction of Patience in the season premiere knocks the ensemble off-kilter in a delightful way. She has a history with the house unlike a new ghost does, but she brings a storied aggression that is unlike any of the other presences we are used to. It gives McIver a new element to play with as Patience wreaks havoc throughout the house.
“First of all, I hope we have a lot more Patience in the future, because I love Mary so much,” she says. “I have admired her since I saw her improvising about ten years ago, and we are really lucky to have her. I think her character is bold because everybody on TV is supposed to be likable, and this is a character who the rest of the characters haven’t figured out why we should be compassionate towards her. We haven’t seen her vulnerable core, and that’s something to have for the ghosts to hold onto and reveal when they choose to. I don’t think anyone is an antagonist because they want to be, and a lot of our behavior is a product of various circumestances. Having a villain, for want of a better word, within the house is a bonding experience for the other ghosts. Patience is a great frenemy. It’s like when you work a service job with a really mean manager. It bonds the others.”
McIver has shown a knack for impersonation when Sam became possessed by Thorfinn back in season two, but she takes that to another extreme by embodying Betsy Sodaro’s Nancy. The way she turns her head and stomps around is nothing short of genius, but it was an unexpected collaboration between the two performers. The voicework is so impeccable that I had to ask McIver if the gateway into Nancy starts with the voice.
“That’s totally it,” McIver admits. “Betsy Sodaro is one of the kindest, most generous actors that I’ve ever worked with, and her attirude is really a north star for me. She took so much time to help me, because it’s not her job to do that. She’s just so giving like that, and she would record lines and send them to me. Betsy told me that it was like she was auditioning to play herself. I received this recording that she made in LA since she wasn’t on set at the time, and a gateway word for me was, “Stuart.” Betsy says it in such an iconic way, so whenever I did start to wander, I would always use his name to bring me back. Somewhere there’s a lot of B-roll of me saying it..”
Sometimes a sitcom gets comfortable in its dynamic rhythms, but Ghosts always pushes the limits with its characters. Ghosts fans have a solid foundation in the marriage of Sam and Jay–they are a couple that we ship, adore, and would fight for. Jay become jealous when Ben Feldman’s Kyle arrives at Woodstone sharing the same gift that Sam has. It’s a uniquely intimate thing that only Ghosts can dive into, but it shows how the relationship between Sam and Jay can only grow stronger.
“Ben [Feldman] is really talented at dancing between comedy and pathos, and, in my real life, there are couples that I look up to and admire,” she says. “We can do surface disagreements on the show, but like things that are real wounds that happen in real life can be scary to go towards and explore. Sam meets someone who has this strange, exact experience, and it’s a ground-shaking moment for her. If we didn’t have Jay get worried, it would’ve been so false. It wasn’t about Sam questioning her love of Jay–that didn’t diminish. It anything, it feeds it, and it gives their relationship much more rich complexity. Laughter is so close to tears. I know, for me, when I’m trying to get into an emotional scene, the worst thing I can do is shut down and close myself off. You can draw upon tragedy with humor because you’re vulnerable, and the walls are so open when you laugh. Episodes like that really set us up for funnier dynamics in the future, and it makes the jokes matter more.”
Ghosts is streaming now on Paramount+.
