Interview: Rose McIver (‘Ghosts’): ‘It’s a lot of spinning plates’ with a big comedy ensemble

“Ten people ask you to know how to communicate with different people in different ways,” reveals Rose McIver about working on the ensemble comedy “Ghosts.” For our recent webchat she explains, “Something that might land with this person isn’t necessarily the inroad with that person. The building of camaraderie, and how much we are letting that bleed into the show, is part of the magic.”

The CBS sitcom is set in a house haunted by people who have died there over the course of history. The eclectic group of ghouls includes a Viking, revolutionary officer, lady of the manor, native American and scout troop leader. Rose plays Sam who had a near death experience, is able to see and hear the ghosts.

Rose admits, “I think she wasn’t a cool girl at school, and she wants to be liked; a lot that I can understand. I mean, I’m an actor. I’m dying to be liked all the time. That’s what we do. A lot of her humor is that she’s a little bit misfit in her generation. She’s also got some major control issues. She needs to balance trying to be somebody who’s cool and fits in, with a propensity to control. She does control from a very well-meaning place. She wants it to work out and everybody to be okay, but she doesn’t realize that she’s getting in her own way sometimes.”

Because other living humans can’t see the spirits, Rose often needs to perform scenes with the ghost actors and then again without them. She reveals, “You shoot with everybody, then you have to memorize everybody’s positions. I have to map out in my brain pretty fast what their intentions were so I can be serving that when they’re not actually there. It requires a lot of focus. It’s a lot of spinning plates. It’s very fun and silly in lots of ways. But, I can’t drop it or we lose the basic logic we’re trying to hold onto. It’s weirdly more technical than you would expect a sitcom to be.”