Yahoo Sports ‘Ghosts’ Star Utkarsh Ambudkar On His Path From Rapper To A TV Series Lead & And The Big Opportunity That Got Away
Even if you haven’t watched CBS’ hit comedy Ghosts, chances are pretty good that you’d recognize Utkarsh Ambudkar — the actor-rapper best known for his breakout role as one of the Treblemakers in Pitch Perfect and as Mindy Kaling’s younger brother in The Mindy Project. But playing Jay Arondekar — the unseeing husband of Rose McIver’s Sam who can see the spirits who live inside their hotel — is his biggest achievement yet, and a job that should keep him busy for a long time. Here, the Maryland native talks about his start in rapping and acting and what’s so brilliant about playing a guy who can’t get spooked by spooky roommates.
DEADLINE: What happened while growing up in Baltimore that made you want to devote your life to acting and rap?
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UTKARSH AMBUDKAR: I wasn’t like a tough kid, so I wasn’t gonna scare anybody around me. I think being South Asian in Maryland in the ’80s was still very much a new ethnicity to America. So a lot of people didn’t know what we even were. I had to find a way to fit in. One way was to entertain my friends. I had a proclivity at home for making my family laugh, and my mom and dad were very keen on pop culture. We had all the records, and we watched a ton of Bollywood movies, which are very over the top but beautifully made. I was the only kid who was making up songs on the spot and doing voices and making people laugh. And then, when I was nine or 10, we would sneak out and listen to the new Dr. Dre record, the new Snoop Dogg, Tupac or Notorious B.I.G., basically what is now considered the second golden age of rap. I feel like I got confidence and joy at Wootton High School in Rockville, Maryland. I could go on stage and do a Shakespeare play and start improvising. No professor was gonna start yelling at me if I started adding monologues on stage, which I would do frequently because I would get caught up in the moment. I had a ball. I would get such a rush off of that, and the audience would love it.
DEADLINE: How was your time studying at New York University?
AMBUDKAR: They still didn’t really know what to do with an Indian, if I’m being honest. They were very much like, “Well, I guess you could play the Prince.” I remember a teacher — and I won’t say his name because he’s passed on, and he was an incredible teacher — but the only note that he ever really gave me was that my brown skin looked really good under the lights. I started to take rap and freestyling really seriously. It felt like a place where I could really embody all of who I wanted to be. I could be the minority, the South Asian. I could be cool, I could be vulnerable, I could be political. And in New York City, you go to an open mic in the East Village every Monday and Wednesday night. On top of that, I could get into any cypher, which is like just a group of dudes rapping on a corner.
DEADLINE: What was your first job?
AMBUDKAR: My first real job was assistant directing a play at the Hip Hop Theater Festival in D.C. that Chadwick Boseman wrote. He was such a brilliant guy. The Hip Hop Theater Festival was just a bunch of broke dudes doing comedy raps. Little do I know that I’m walking into a room with Tommy Kail, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Christopher Jackson. The amount of Tonys, Grammys, Oscar nominations and Emmys that are in that group! So we’ve all just stayed together. I joined Freestyle Love Supreme [the improvisational hip-hop group formed by Miranda and Anthony Veneziale], and then I remember we were in Seattle doing a show at some festival, and I get a call from my new agent at Gersh about Pitch Perfect. I end up being featured on every song as a vocalist, which for a first movie or a second movie is pretty freaking cool. Then Mindy Kaling sees Pitch Perfect and goes, ‘Oh, I have an idea for a rapping brother.’ I am flabbergasted. So Mindy kind of broke me into television.
DEADLINE: Is there something in those last two decades that you wish would’ve gotten more attention than it did?
AMBUDKAR: The one thing that I wish more people could have seen because I think it’s really, really good is Brittany Runs a Marathon [in which he played Brittany’s boyfriend, Jern]. It’s such a feel-good movie. And star Jillian Bell is so freaking funny. She’s my favorite. We’ve done four movies together, and it’s always the best working with her. In the way that people respond to Ghosts, I think the same people would love Brittany Runs a Marathon.
DEADLINE: Can you remember when Ghosts launched? Did any fear pulse through your veins about this show working because it’s so freaking hard to launch a comedy on a broadcast now?
AMBUDKAR: I don’t think so. Honestly, like when we did Pitch Perfect, you knew that something really, really good was happening, and people watching it knew it was gonna be good. Like, there was no question watching Rebel Wilson and Adam Devine, hearing the music, we were like, ‘Oh, this sh*t is gonna be good.’ Ghosts is the same way. When you see Rebecca Wisocky, Brandon Scott Jones and Devan Chandler Long, you’re like, ‘Oh!’ it was almost an immediate acceptance of like, ‘Wow, you’re here.’ It’s a successful show and these people are good and you found a spot to land. I’m married with two kids and one on the way. My priorities are different.
DEADLINE: The writers could have made your character, who runs a bed and breakfast with his wife Sam, a disbeliever when it came to the ghosts. But they didn’t.
AMBUDKAR: What can you do with a character if he doesn’t believe his wife? He’s just always the antagonist and then the audience is like, “F*ck that guy.” Now, he’s either along for the adventure and pushing the adventure forward. Jay is sort of the glue guy. I’m there to facilitate, as much as I can, the ghosts’ stories and Sam’s story, and be the audience’s window into this world.
DEADLINE: So the second season ended with this pretty fun cliffhanger. Jay and Sam see a burst of light out of the mansion and think someone is going to be sucked out [Ghost-speak for a soul finally moving to the next dimension]. Does that mean it’s time to thin out the ghosts on Ghosts?
AMBUDKAR: I hope not. Anytime you lose a character, it feels like you’re losing a family member. So as a fan, I don’t really want that to happen. I don’t know who’s getting sucked off. I really hope it’s not one of our main ghosts.
DEADLINE: Tell me about the Disney+ movie World’s Best. What’s it about?
AMBUDKAR: It’s about a young boy named Prem [newcomer Manny Magnus], who’s a math wizard. But he doesn’t want to be because he’s an outcast in school. He learns that his late father was a world-famous rapper and he wants to change his identity, so his father [played by Ambudkar] starts to visit him as an imaginary friend and teaches him how to become this great rapper. He has to realize that changing his entire identity may not be the best thing. It’s a family story about growth. I’m really proud of it.
DEADLINE: You’ve had a charmed career. Does it feel that way?
AMBUDKAR: My mistakes have been huge. Lin-Manuel originally wrote the role of Aaron Burr with me in mind for Hamilton. And I played that role in the first iterations. I’m sober now for eight and-a-half years, but my sobriety, or lack thereof at the time… I mean, I dropped it. Lin put it in my hands and I let go of it. [Ambudkar was replaced by Leslie Odom Jr.]. So, I understand what I have. Charmed? I guess if you look at it that way, it is charmed. They didn’t kick me to the curb. They loved me enough until I could love myself, and that’s really special.
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