The Minds Behind Ghosts Recreated A California Mansion In Montreal
"Ghosts," the CBS sitcom adaptation of the BBC One series of the same name, became a rousing success for the network during its first season, leading to a full 22-episode order for Season 2, which is wrapping up in early 2023. The show follows a similar plot to the BBC original in which Sam (Rose McIver) survives a near-death experience and gains the ability to see ghosts that no one else can see. When she inherits a mansion with her husband, Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar), she must learn to live alongside the spirits that still haunt the palatial estate.
Besides the creative ensemble of ghosts on the show, the mansion itself is something of a main character as well. The crew painstakingly built a ton of detail into the set, which is used for most of the scenes throughout the entire series. Audiences wouldn't know from watching the show due to the extreme details, but two different locations were used to bring the estate to life. The cast of the show revealed how that came to be, and divulged some secrets about the show's standing set.
The cast of Ghosts revealed some of the best kept secrets from the set
In a revealing behind-the-scenes video from ET Online on the set of the CBS sitcom "Ghosts," Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar, who play married couple Sam and Jay on the show, shared that the mansion where most of the action takes place was filmed in two different locations. They shot the pilot for the series at a real mansion near the University of Southern California campus before relocating to Montreal for the remainder of the show. The Canadian set was built to exactly match the California location.
During a tour of the set, the actors also revealed that some of the outdoor backgrounds that the audience sees through the mansion's windows are actually just giant matte paintings so the actors can remain on the indoor set. They also gave a look at some food props that were a combination of real and fake. McIver bit into a real apple from the kitchen set, but Ambudkar called a fake bok choy a "shower curtain."
Brandon Scott Jones, who plays Captain Isaac Higgintoot on the show, told ET that a lot of the props on the set are glued down for the sake of continuity. He also makes a good point about their wardrobe catching some of the props, saying they would be knocked down or damaged if they weren't glued in place. Speaking of wardrobe, Asher Grodman, who plays the pantsless Wall Street bro Trevor Lefkowitz, gave a look at his ensemble and disclosed that he has tear-away pants that he wears from his walk from the trailer to the set. He also said that he likes to think that his character wouldn't have chosen to wear the tie he had if he knew he was going to have to wear it for eternity.