‘Ghosts’: Rose McIver Talks Making Her Directorial Debut As The Mafia Visits Woodstone Mansion

Katie Campione

13 February 2025 at 9:00 pm·9-min read

SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from Thursday night’s episode of Ghosts.

Ghosts channeled its inner mafia mentality with Thursday night’s episode, in which Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) finds himself in some hot water after he gets a new recipe from his restaurant from Pete (Richie Moriarty).

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While Richie offers the recipe with no ill-will in mind, the thing he doesn’t realize is that Carol (Caroline Aaron), who he learned it from, was sharing a recipe made by her mafioso family members — who are not too happy when they discover that a tiny upstate B&B and restaurant has stolen it.

Series star Rose McIver took on a new role for this episode, directing for the first time, after years of aspirations to get behind the camera, in addition to her on-screen role as the ever-constant voice of reason, Sam.

In the interview below, she spoke with Deadline about her experience on the episode and teased what’s to come next week, when audiences will finally get to learn why Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones) holds such a grudge against Alexander Hamilton.

DEADLINE: Last time we spoke, you told me a bit about your directing aspirations, but what were the conversations like for you to direct this episode, specifically?

ROSE MCIVER: I’ve been wanting to direct for a long time. I’ve been working in film and television since I was a kid, and I always loved the spinning plates of how a set operates. I didn’t have grand ambitions to direct my own content…and I have no aspirations to be some sort of auteur. Set is such a distribution of compromise and trying to figure out how everybody can feel somewhat heard and create a vision together. I really like that aspect of things. I always knew I wanted to direct in television. When I had worked on iZombie, I did the Warner Brothers directing workshop, and had we been renewed for another season, I would have been directing there, but we weren’t renewed. So when I came on to Ghosts, I knew that that was something that I really aspired to do. This was the year that that became available. I was so grateful to the Joes [showrunners Port and Wiseman] and to CBS for allowing me to multitask and to be the lead in the show and direct at the same time. It was obviously a new challenge for me. I had, at the time, a six-month-old daughter, so I felt like I was getting very familiar with spinning plates, and if anything, actually, that was more helpful. But it was certainly a very full couple of weeks.

DEADLINE: You are pretty heavily featured in this episode, considering you’re also directing. Did that present any challenges for you?

MCIVER: Sure, I mean, a lot of the time I would watch my amazing stand in, whose name is also Sam, which is confusing. I’d watch her line up for me. Somebody else would read my lines. Then after we filmed the master shot, I would step out and review it. But a lot of the time, to be honest, I would review my own material on the monitor if I felt like there was something that I couldn’t visualize how it had translated, but I was directing from within the scene most of the time. A lot of that is thanks to an incredible trusting relationship with our DP, Michelle, and our first AD, Matt, who both were so generous in their collaboration on the job.

I think the harder part is getting familiar with being able to hold the mental checklist in your head that you have when you direct. Instead of being able to circle pieces on a script as I’m going, I’m just sort of doing it all mentally while trying to juggle saying the lines at the same time. So it was definitely dense. I would get home and my brain would feel like it was short circuiting. But I found that so stimulating and exciting, and it got easier and easier the more we went on, thanks to my great cast around me. We all know each other so well. We know how each other work. We have a short hand of communication, which made that easier and easier. I was very carried and supported by an amazing cast and crew. Everybody has lots of great ideas, and you, still, as a director, are curating those ideas and working out which is valuable in this moment. So no matter how much support you have, you have to maintain this sharp curatorial eye, I think.

DEADLINE: What was your experience like with the Warner Bros. directing workshop? Did you take anything you learned into this role?

MCIVER: Technically, because I didn’t have an episode that I went on to direct, I audited. But I participated in a 13 week [course]. Every Saturday, we would go to Warner Brothers Studios, and it was incredibly valuable to me. It was primarily very, very useful to get experience on stages, blocking through scenes with directing mentors who were there too, and my favorite aspect was they would throw you a curveball each week. Like, ‘Okay, great. One of the actors needs to leave at 6pm. How are you going to suddenly change your plan that you’ve come up with and reschedule in order to facilitate that while still making sure you get every bit you need in the scene?’ That kind of practical training is stuff that happens all the time, and that I don’t think people are necessarily prepared for it. There’ll be somebody who has a sty on one eye so you can’t shoot them from one side. Or the set that you were hoping was ready wasn’t ready. All these kinds of 11th hour challenges. So the course gave you experience in how you would navigate those, and you got tested on that. I love that, because that’s the real world challenges of directing in TV. It is not a luxurious schedule where you have everything planned out minutely in advance, and instead, you prepare as well as you possibly can to, on the day, be able to be flexible and turn on a dime.

You fall a little when you’re doing the class, and that’s the perfect environment to do that, so that you have more confidence and you have more flexibility and understanding by the time you actually get to a set. I thought that class was an incredibly valuable asset. I had literally been on set since I was two years old. I have plenty of on set experience. It a very, very different set of challenges that come when you’re the person calling the shots, literally. So I think even for somebody who has spent an enormous amount of time on set, or somebody who has studied film, I think that there was such value in honing your improvisational skills.

DEADLINE: How do you think that being on sets your entire life also put you in a solid position to direct? Did it give you any insights you think you may not have had otherwise?

MCIVER: The most valuable thing to me, and if I ever had the chance to direct on other people’s projects, if I can possibly go and watch a week early to see the dynamics between the cast and crew — see how people interact, see where we fall short in terms of time, see where things are held up, see how people like to be spoken to and directed specifically, because certainly different from every cast member to another, and I know from each crew member to another as well. So I think anything you can possibly do to familiarize yourself with the specific environment that you’re about to direct in, just so that when all of the inevitable surprises come up, you know who might be able to think on the fly in a certain way, or who may need more time with the material. The observational side of directing, I think, is the most valuable thing that I’ve learned from from spending a lot of time on sets. I heard somebody say to me they think of directing as selecting in television, and I really agree with that. I think lots of people present you with lots of stuff all the time, and being able to be selective is the key skill set to have.

DEADLINE: You mentioned directing on other people’s projects. Do you have any specific genres or projects you’d want to try next?

MCIVER: Growing up, I did a lot of drama, and I really miss some aspects of drama, particularly drama which weaves in comedy. I would like to kexplore that a little bit more. I think that’s something that would be interesting. But I certainly know that in my last 10 years, I feel very well equipped to navigate half-hour comedy right now. There’s something really fun that happens on set when the crew can be genuinely entertained by the material and they’re not processing tragedy constantly. So there’s certainly value in building my confidence, I think, in comedic environments. But long term, I certainly have an interest in unpacking some other stuff as well.

DEADLINE: What was your favorite part of this episode, specifically, to direct?

MCIVER: I really enjoyed shooting the flashback sequence with Richie in the travel agency. When you’re directing, you get the chance to talk with all these different departments about the immense amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to create the production value that you’re seeing — I really, really loved working with our production designer Zoe, who managed to pull out of thin air this fantastic travel agency from 1980s, and the costumes department and makeup and everybody. We feel like we missed an opportunity not doing an 80s dress up day for the crew that day that we filmed there. But it was this functioning travel agency in a strip mall, and it felt like this just incredible relic of a different era. Watching the magic of everybody bringing that to life was something that I wouldn’t have necessarily been able to experience just as an actor.

DEADLINE: Next week is the big Alexander Hamilton episode. Anything you can tease about that?

MCIVER: The Alexander Hamilton episode is absolutely phenomenal. Brandon Scott Jones, I mean, just any episode that is Brandon-centered is destined to be brilliant, and he doesn’t drop the ball. I think it was the episodes that, for me, read the funniest on the page out of any episode we’ve ever read in a table read. So I think people will be very happy with how that translates on screen, too. We have some great guest stars. We have Nat Faxon playing Alexander Hamilton. It’s certainly not the story people will be expecting in terms of why Isaac loathes Hamilton the way he does.

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