Utkarsh Ambudkar Hopes Ghosts Season 2 Cliffhanger Doesn’t Become a Walking Dead Situation

There are so many favorites but the Christmas episode was really great. Watching those guys sing their song on the steps was just gorgeous, and how much work I know they put in and how difficult it was for them to master that and for it to end up so beautiful. 

 We have such a huge cast, and because there’s a finite amount of time per episode and per day that we’re shooting with coverages and everything, it’s not economic time-wise to have the entire cast on set every single day. Anytime where all of us are in the room together such as the Christmas episode, when Thor and Flower are trapped in the ghost machine, or Alberta’s murder, those are usually my favorite days because you really see the dynamics of the group. You see the love, the communication. As actors, I mean, it’s one thing, but as people, we just have a lot of fun together. Those are really special moments where you can see your peers work hard and see their work be successful. 

Who was your favorite guest star to work with on Season 2?

I can’t just pick one because they were all so great. I have a soft spot for Punam Patel and Tristan D. Lalla, who plays Mark. Those are the first people Jay could speak to, and so I love them. I would say that it was a real, real treat to have Mathew Baynton, who created the BBC version of Ghosts, come and play a strange version of Pete in “Dumb Deaths”. We also had Rose Abdoo, Laraine Newman, Chip Zdarsky, Andrew Leeds, Rodrigo who plays creepy Todd. Oh, and then of course Tara Reid came and that was amazing. A little side story, Tara Reid came and we Face-Timed Rachael Leigh Cook, who’s a friend of mine, and so I had two-thirds of freaking Josie and the Pussycats on the phone, and it was amazing. I was like we just needed Rosario (Dawson) and it would’ve been a dream come true, but I need to see a Josie and the Pussycats reunion like 10 years ago. So that was a fun little moment.

Do you get any input on all of the pop culture references in the scripts?

We certainly give a lot of input, but you have two showrunners and a full writer’s room who are very good at their jobs. There are moments when they let us do our thing. One scene that stands out is possibly in season 1 when Jay goes on a rant about Jurassic Park, and they let me add quite a bit to that. I think even in the last episode with the run of baseball movies, they let me add a bunch of stuff to that too. I don’t think Sandlot was in the script nor was Bull Durham, I think I added all those in.