PROFILE

Asher in high spirits as barmitzvah gave him confidence to act

MIKE COHEN is relieved that Asher Grodman is wearing trousers — unlike his Ghosts character Trevor — during their Zoom interview

TURNING up for work and immediately removing your trousers would normally result in a visit to the HR department for a dressing down, so to speak.

But when actor Asher Grodman arrives on the set of sitcom Ghosts, he is expected to be pantless.

The series, based on the BBC1 comedy of the same name, sees Asher play Trevor Lefkowitz, a Wall Street investor who died while partying at Woodstone mansion — naked from the waist down.

Married couple Samantha (Rose McIver) and Jay Arondekar (Utkarsh Ambudkar) inherit the house — and after Samantha falls down the stairs, and is dead for three minutes, she discovers she can see the ghosts.

Joining Trevor in the afterlife are Lenape Native American Sasappis (Román Zaragoza), closeted gay American Revolution officer Captain Isaac Higgintoot (Brandon Scott Jones), jazz singer Alberta Haynes (Danielle Pinnock), scout leader Pete Martino (Richie Moriarty), hippy Flower (Sheila Carrasco), Viking Thorfinn (Devan Chandler Long) and Samantha’s great-great-great-great-grandmother Hetty Woodstone (Rebecca Wisocky).

The American version of Ghosts, which is available to watch on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer, is the breakthrough Asher wanted after being “a failed actor for like two decades”.

His desire to become an actor began at his barmitzvah.

The 35-year-old explained: “I was a very, very shy kid, and acting was never on my radar.

“Having a barmitzvah and being up in front of people for the first time was definitely the initial step because it was the first time that I was just allowing myself to be seen by people in any format.

“So that was the first ‘Oh, I’m part of something here’.”

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