Rose McIver has been on sets since she was 3 years old. But not in a creepy way.
“I still had a regular childhood and went to school and everything,” says the star of CBS’ Ghosts. “I’ve just had a lot of exposure to sets, and I love the organized chaos of it all. There is a real marriage of logistics and creativity.”
Given her long tenure as an actress, it’s not much of a surprise that McIver would want to branch out. And she finally did during the recent fourth season of Ghosts, directing her first episode of television after a few false starts. Speaking over the phone to The Hollywood Reporter earlier in June, McIver, who’s already set to direct another episode of her series, described her first time at bat, what she’s been told about season five and why she thinks this may be the summer break where she finally learns enough French to impress her Montreal-based crew.
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I know you’ve directed shorts — but was this your first opportunity on a series, right?
When I was on iZombie for five years, I did the Warner Brothers directing workshop. It was so incredibly valuable, and it’s sad that program doesn’t exist anymore. It was 13 weeks of blocking on stages, working directly with heads of department and resolving problems every Saturday. I think I get a lot of adrenaline from that. Then I made short films and, if IZombie had gotten one more season, I would have directed on that. So it’s been this long gestating dream.
Who have you shadowed?
Quite a few people. My very dear friend Dan Etheridge, who was a producing director on iZombie, Veronica Mars and all sorts of shows is kind of my true north. He’s so generous and took so much time to walk me through the pre-production side of things that I hadn’t had the same exposure to. Maggie Kiley has also been a mentor to me in many ways. And Trent O’Donnell, pilot director for Ghosts, he’s my absolute role model in terms of comedy direction. By the time I was in the director’s chair, I’d had lots of opportunities to ask questions about anything that I might come up against.
Yet I’m sure something surprised you.
There were moments, especially when I was directing and acting in the same material. That was a rude shock. You just cannot prepare for having to have a split screen in your brain — focusing on being lost in your character while going through the mental checklist. All of the multitasking was more than I could have anticipated. I started to get a groove on by the end.
It didn’t appear like your screen time was impacted in the episode.
Well, I had a new baby. It felt like there were lots of times at the start of the season where, coming back with a 3-month-old, there was mindfulness around my time on screen. People were doing their best to try to accommodate that. Everyone fantasizes about this profession and this industry being so deeply creative and born of impulse and character. The truth is that there is so many logistics. So many schedules to navigate. I love how you still have to try to find the heart and the art in it all, even though so much of it is managing everything behind the scenes.
Does Ghosts have many alts for a comedy set?
Our show is very technical for a sitcom. We have the ghosts and the ghost-less passes. That alone takes up a lot of time, so we don’t get many opportunities to play jazz. If something’s not working, we take the time to rehash and unpack. In an ideal world though, we move pretty quickly through a day. There are 10 regular cast members. There’s a lot of coverage, a lot of dialogue.
The first time I witnessed coverage on a set, I was horrified by how many takes there were of the same scene — especially around a table.
You can always spot a rookie actor when they really tuck into a giant meal and they’re eating 50,000 different bites of everything in the first take. You’re like, “Oh man, you are setting yourself up for hours of this.” Rahul Kohli, from iZombie, is one of my dearest friends. That show was his first series regular role, and I remember that he ate so much Chinese food in this one scene that we all were shocked. He held it together, but I think he was violently ill by the end of the day.
This show loves a cliffhanger season finale. Do you get insight at the end of the season of what’s going to happen for you?
Very little. There are pragmatic questions that I ask, “Are we doing a direct pickup? Can I get a haircut or not?” They don’t tend to tell us much too far in advance. I think they know we’ve got a lot of loose lips amongst us. Just yesterday I started fishing around in the group chat. They threw us a little bit of chum about a couple of teases for the first couple of episodes back this year. But, no, we are all kind of anxiously waiting as much as the fans are to know how we dig ourselves out of this one.
Are you working on anything over the hiatus?
I’m in this insanely fortunate position of going back to another two seasons of a network TV show, so I’m trying to really lean into the hiatus of it all. I’ve got a 1-year-old. Mainly, I’ve been being a mum and going to my French classes. We’re going into year five of shooting in Montreal, and my French is still very coffee. I’m hoping to go back and wow my crew.
I’m sure any effort is appreciated.
Our crew is working in two languages all the time — communicating with each other and with us. They are so patient with our abysmal French. I think there is an obligation, when you film somewhere, to at least become familiar the basics of the language. We are picking things up slowly.
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Ghosts is now streaming all seasons on Paramount+.
