'Ghosts' Star Rebecca Wisocky Details Her Haunted House Experience Ahead of Season 2 Premiere
Spooky season is upon us and with that comes tales of things that go bump in the night! But while many shows and specials surrounding the season will cater to the spirited celebrations, the smash hit CBS sitcom Ghosts brings along its own haunting charm all season long. With the show finding itself situated in the premise of a haunted house teeming with ghosts, series star Rebecca Wisocky opened up about her own experience during a conversation at Montreal's Just for Laughs ComedyPro as part of the world-famous event's 40th-anniversary festival this past summer.
"One of my first jobs coming out of college, I was the cleaning lady at a haunted museum," Wisocky told panel host Richard Crouse and eventgoers on July 30. "[New York City's] Merchant's House Museum — a museum that was built by a wealthy family in the early 1800s and it is preserved intact with the original furniture and artwork and some of the personal belongings of this Tredwell family that happened to live there."
Wisocky goes on to add how she would "give tours" to guests, but quickly clarified: "But I mainly… I cleaned the toilets there!" she said of the popular site, which has since been touted as the most haunted house in Manhattan, per the New York Times in 2006. "It was haunted by Gertrude Tredwell, though, and I always kind of felt a presence but I never saw her but lots of people did." Wisocky is not alone in feeling such a presence as many over the years have reported since the 1930s that the house has sparked strange occurrences and happenings, including staff, volunteers, neighborhoods, and even passersby citing sounds, sightings and smells coming from the residence.
The actress, who is best known for playing Henrietta "Hetty" Woodstone, is not the only one who has had a haunted house experience. Last October, Ghosts star Asher Grodman opened up about how his childhood home in New Jersey is listed as one of the state's most haunted. While he admitted he has never had a "paranormal experience" while living in the residence, he expresses how he believes in ghosts but only out of "loyalty" to the home and its "friendly" spirits.
"The house was built in the 1700s and the stories are that there were ghosts who would guide the Revolutionary War soldiers through the swamp and thick wood area at night," he told PopCulture of the home situated in the woodlands out west, immersed in a "kind of farmland" setting. "I've been back in those woods at night. I don't know that I've necessarily seen a ghost, but you walk through those woods at night, you're like, 'There could be something out here!' There's a lot going on out in those woods."
Co-starring Wisocky and Grodman alongside an ensemble cast led by Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar, Ghosts also stars Richie Moriarty, Sheila Carrasco, Danielle Pinnock, Brandon Scott Jones, Devan Chandler Long and Román Zaragoza. Season 2 of the multi-award-nominated Joe Port and Joe Wiseman sitcom returns to CBS on Sept. 29 at 8:30 p.m. ET. For more on Ghosts and everything Season 2, stay tuned to the very latest about the show, news about the cast, and everything in between only on PopCulture.