The actor previews Thursday's episode and the most outrageous theories he's come across.
What happened to Trevor's pants? That's the long-standing question on CBS' Ghosts that began as an innocent character detail for the undead douchey but lovable Wall Street guy, but morphed into the comedy's biggest mystery. On next Thursday's episode, simply titled "Trevor's Pants," that head-scratching conundrum will finally be answered in a Trevor-centric episode where it flashes back to his pre-death life and the events that led up to him losing his trousers. As actor Asher Grodman teases, the answer is quite surprising.
But Grodman admitted he didn't think the mystery of what happened to Trevor's pants would be as big of a show-definer as it's become.
"You're the first person to ask me that question and yeah. I did not [think it was a big deal]," he said. "Before the show started airing, I never thought the pants would be... I just thought it'd be a punchline and people would make assumptions and go with it. I never thought that it would become this -- what many people have described to me as the prevailing question of the show, which is really crazy."
"It's taken on its own life. And I love hearing the fans' theories and what they hope it is and what they hope it isn't, and I can tell you that what it is... No one has even come close to guessing what it is," Grodman teased.
The 34-year-old actor, who is also an adjunct professor at Hunter College, shared some of the most outlandish theories that have floated around social media over the course the season. Because it involves Trevor, the majority of them have drinking, drugs and sex somewhere in the theory.
"It's always involving drugs and sex and a sex party, or something like that," he shared. "They usually start out very outlandish. At this point I feel like the most outlandish one would be if he was just home alone with a pet, reading a book and then decided to take his pants off. At this point, the non-outlandish feels like the most outlandish... Usually they're like drug-raging, sex parties, strippers and multiple laws being broken, things of that nature."
Without heading into spoiler territory, Grodman revealed he "really liked" what the writers ultimately came up with for the real story behind how Trevor's pants go missing.
"Something about the premise of the show that's so interesting is we take this thing that is so inaccessible, being the afterlife, and I'm not going to get philosophical here, but it's this thing that no one understands or is this mysterious unknowable thing. And we make it hyper knowable," he explained. "We basically turn all of these dead people into... as though they were our pets and we can have access to every single part of them, and they're just like us. And maybe even more childish versions of us. So, for me to be able to have flashbacks into his life and figure out, 'Oh, so what is it like when he's with other people from his time? How does that fit?' I thought [showrunners] Joe [Port] and Joe [Wiseman] and our writers' room did a great job with that."
While next Thursday's episode will close the book on the mystery of what happened to Trevor's pants, Grodman knows there is much more to explore with the character beyond that question. In fact, he sees several similarities he shares with Trevor. "When I first read Trevor on the page, first of all, I was like, 'This is so funny. I just have to get out of the way.' Joe Port and Joe Wiseman, who are writers and our creators, created something so good and so surprising that I was like, 'Let me just get out of the way and let the script do its job.' I know that he was written and I guess what's on the page already is the kind of... The Lehman [Brothers] background, the douchiness of the Wall Street world."
"When I auditioned, I made a point of not doing any of that and trying to bring some of myself. And I always saw him as kind of this little puppy in this Wall Street world," he noted. "He's really just looking to have a good time and he's at a party where there's not as much fun happening for all of eternity as he thought there might be and so he is trying to enjoy himself. I think the puppy stuff definitely resonates with me. Obviously, I can't tell you how much of a thrill it is to be Jewish and be able to play someone who's Jewish where it's not falling into a stereotype."
"I spent my childhood secretly hoping that Batman was Jewish or Indiana Jones was Jewish because there were no role models on television like that, especially not for a little kid. So, that's a similarity that I have with him that I love," Grodman continued. "But I went to Columbia University. A lot of the guys I went to college with went into the Wall Street world, so I think that I got some insight to that even though that's not really a world I would be comfortable in at all. It's a world I saw a little bit. Those are the two -- the Jewishness and the puppy-ness are my things."
Ghosts returns Thursday, March 31 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
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