The world of Ghosts is pretty contained to Woodstone Manor, and even though we’ve been in the same setting for five seasons, there’s still so much to learn about it. Along with the house always changing and the world of the property expanding, there are also details about how the set works that make the world even better. Asher Grodman, who plays the eternally pantless Trevor, revealed one of those to me, as he explained why all the furniture they film with is incredibly “uncomfortable.”
While speaking with Grodman about wearing the same costumes all the time and the reality of playing a character without pants, we also talked about how the set has to be built to make it look like these actors are ghosts. That means, when they sit, they can’t impact the furniture, and that means it all has to be stiff, as the Trevor actor explained:
I think one of the weird things that happens on our show that people aren't aware of is all those couches and chairs and everything are like wooden boards. Because we can't affect fabric. So, like we're sitting in the most uncomfortable furniture possible, like the beds are literally like a wooden board that we lie on. And so it's just a funny little tidbit of a thing that we think about to try to keep it seeming like we're from another world.
I can’t believe I’ve never thought about this before. It makes so much sense. The ghosts cannot affect physical items. They can’t move anything (unless it’s Trevor, whose ghost power is to slowly move things), they can walk through walls (but not fall through the floor), and they can’t pass ghost boundaries (unless they’re Pete). So, it makes sense that when they sit on furniture, they wouldn’t sink into something like a couch like a normal person would.
Therefore, to pull that off, the furniture can’t actually be squishy, which means it can’t be comfortable. By making the chairs, couches, beds and more as stiff as a board, it won’t look like the ghosts’ weight is impacting the items. That’s great, because ghosts don’t weigh anything; therefore, they wouldn’t sink into or move any fabric.
Now, I do have questions about how the ghosts are able to sit on the furniture, because if they can walk through walls, why don’t they fall through chairs or beds? However, like the fact that they don’t fall through the floor, I’ll simply accept this silly reality Ghosts lives in.
Overall, this behind-the-scenes fact is fascinating, and it really got me thinking again about ghost physics. Like, I love the fact that the spirits will get stuck in a well if they fall in, because they can’t go up, and they’ll get lost in the ground. I also love the impact people walking through them have on everyone. The physical existence of ghosts is naturally funny, and the fact that Ghosts leans into it so hard, as proven by this production detail, is fantastic.
So, next time you watch Ghosts, whether it be an old episode with a Paramount+ subscription or one of the newer installments that aired on the 2025 TV schedule, pay attention to how the spirits impact the furniture. Because they won’t, and that’s because said furniture is so hard and uncomfortable that it won’t move.
