GhostsmarksDanielle Pinnock’s very first series regular role. If you’ve seen even a single episode of the downright delightful CBS show, you’re well aware she’s making the most of the opportunity and that there’s just no better actor for the role of Alberta.
Ghostsis an absolute must-see, one of the best new comedy series in recent years, but just in case you’re a little late to the game, we’ve got a primer for you; the CBS show is an adaption of the British series of the same name. In this version,Rose McIverandUtkarsh Ambudkarplay Sam and Jay, a couple that inherits Woodstone Mansion and hope to turn the property into a B&B.
While getting settled, Sam suffers a bad fall and when she comes to, she realizes she can now see Ghosts and that her new home has a whole bunch of them, including Pinnock’s Alberta, a Prohibition-era jazz singer who’s convinced she was murdered.
WithGhostsSeason 2 now underway, Pinnock took the time to join us for an episode ofCollider Ladies Night Pre-Partyto discuss her journey to shining in her very first series regular role, beginning with the opportunity that first showed her the power of storytelling. She explained:
“I had been cast in this production called In Conflict in my undergrad. It was a production that truly changed my life. We were interviewing men and women who had just come back from war, and kind of what they were going through when they were back home with their families and PTSD. That production truly changed my life because we were able to perform as them and tell their stories on stage, and that was when I knew theater can change lives, TV and film can change lives. All of those veterans got to come and see the show, and they loved it and they brought their families, and they were so thankful that we were able to share their stories and what they went through. And I was like, ‘This is it. I’m doing this. If I can change the world in a small way, this is what I’m gonna do for the rest of my life.’”
Even though it’s now abundantly clear that Pinnock’s screen presence is through the roof, initially, she had her sights set on the stage and the stage alone. Pinnock explained that when the time came to consider screen work, “I was so self-conscious about my body and my little double chin and like, oh my gosh, what am I gonna look like on screen?” However, she got the nudge she needed from an audition for a project thatWhitney Cummingswas producing for HBO. “I didn’t get that audition, but the casting director said, ‘You know, your tape was so phenomenal and we loved working with you. We think you should move to Los Angeles.’” That summer, Pinnock moved to LA.
Relocating to Hollywood is a significant step to take all on its own, but the challenges don’t stop there. While the town is very much one of great opportunity, it can be tough to start carving a path to the roles you want right out the gate. With that in mind, I asked Pinnock for one thing she wishes she had done differently after making the move and one thing she did that proved especially effective that she’d recommend to other LA newcomers. Here’s what she went with:
“I wish I would have saved more. The choice to move was so fast. I didn’t have a savings really at all when I came here, and my husband and I we were sleeping on an air mattress for like the first year that we were in Los Angeles because we had a whole thing with the movers. The movers kind of held our furniture hostage until we could pay the full price, so I had to work in order to get the furniture back. That’s a whole nother story! But I would say for any actor that’s coming out to LA, the dollar in the dream thing is cute, but come with some savings.
The thing that I felt like I did right is I had an agent when I came to LA, and I think a lot of times it really is really hard trying to find representation as an actor in Hollywood because this is the acting Olympics, you know what I mean? The best of the best come, so I remember doing auditions with people that were in Living Single and somebody that won the Cinnamon Challenge on YouTube. There’s no rhyme or reason as to who you’re gonna be in these rooms with. My advice for any actors, please come out here, yes, with a savings but also make sure that you have some sort of representation when you get here whether it’s a commercial agent or a manager or a theatrical agent, somebody that can at least get you the auditions because that’s the only thing that you need as an actor. You just need to get in the room. That’s it.”
And that’s exactly what Pinnock did. She got in rooms that opened the door to projects that gave her the chance to learn from some of the best of the best likeViola DavisandKerry Washingtonin theHow to Get Away with MurderandScandalcrossover episode.
“It was a very small role. I was playing a hairdresser, [but] I got to see great titans work. Viola Davis and Kerry Washington are stunning performers. They truly are about the craft. I remember Viola opening her book that had all of her pages of what she was gonna do for the day. Everything was highlighted, notated, little post-it notes, little character descriptions. Kerry was like, ‘I think I want to feel my way through the scene. Viola, let’s workshop this.’ And seeing how they worked as an ensemble just in that brief episode, I said, this is what I want to carry with me the next time that I book — the next time and the one time that I book a series regular. I was like, I always want to be prepared. I always want to show up for my crew, for my cast. I want to be collaborative. I want to make sure that I do enough research for my character that I can come to set and be ready to play. And these are all things that I have used for Ghosts.”
Pinnock hit the series regular jackpot in so many respects. Not only is she right smack in the middle of an ensemble of hugely talented and hilarious artists, but every single character inGhostsalso gets the opportunity to pair those big laughs with some significant heart through meaningful storylines that reassess their experiences in the living world. In Pinnock’s case, yes, playing a “brassy, delicious diva” with “incredible confidence” is a huge treat, but she was also eager to explore what happens when that exterior cracks and exposes Alberta’s vulnerabilities.
That opportunity arrived in Season 1, Episode 9, “Alberta’s Fan.” Pinnock explained:
“In the Alberta’s Fan episode, getting to learn more about her father and her family through creepy Todd and all the toenails and the back tattoos that he had, it just made me feel like, the reason she is tough as nails [is] because of the time period that she came up in, which was, as fabulous as it is, it was also really shady when it came to black performers, black people in general. But also, she just wants to make her family proud, and I think that was where it tapped into the vulnerability for me. It’s like, wow, this woman, she doesn’t want to be famous just because. Even in death, even in her afterlife, she wants to make a name for herself. She wants her father, her mom to really be proud of her and to accept her for the performer that she is.
We also get to see a shade of vulnerability with her relationship with Pete, which we’ll get to flesh out a little bit more in Season 2 and Episode 2, Alberta’s Podcast. You’ll get to see a little stuff!"
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Ghosts, Season 2, Episode 2, “Alberta’s Podcast.”]An update on the status of the Alberta and Pete (Richie Moriarty) dynamic isn’t the only thing we get in “Alberta’s Podcast.” The episode also shows how Alberta scored her first big singing gig, and those actions wind up revealing suspect #1 in her murder case.
Alberta was tired of being a backup singer to someone less deserving, so she ratted out the headliner, Clara Brown, to the cops for bootlegging. While initially embarrassed and ashamed that the truth had finally surfaced, with a little help from Sam, Sass (Román Zaragoza), and Pete, Alberta comes to realize that her actions were justified and that, as Todd (Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll) puts it, she’s actually “a crusader against unfair body standards.”
While Alberta does vanquish her guilt over ratting Clara out, that might not be the end of their story. Turns out, Nigel (Brandon Scott Jones) and Sass saw Clara the night Alberta performed at the mansion — the night Alberta was murdered. While the episode did indeed pinpoint Clara as a prime suspect, Pinnock teased that there are more to come:
“She is suspect one. I’ll leave it at that. There’s a few different pieces to this puzzle and we’ll find out more in the season.”
Pinnock also added:
“For the 100 years that she’s been there, she’s been telling the ghosts that she thinks she’s murdered, and they’ve been gaslighting her the whole time. I mean, Hetty’s like, ‘Sis, you died of a heart attack. Leave it alone.’ And a lot of these ghosts probably were there when it happened, so I’m curious to see, as we get farther along in the episodes, which ghost knows more information than what they’re telling.”
Looking for more on Pinnock’s journey from stage to screen? you may find just that in her episode of Collider Ladies Night Pre-Party at the top of this article, or you can listen to the conversation in podcast form below.
Ghostsairs Thursdays on CBS at 8:30pm ET/PT and are also available to stream live and on-demand on Paramount+.
