Hold off on the eggnog — spooky season is not over! Through Dec. 4, the Ahmanson Theatre is showing Danny Robins’ supernatural play 2:22 — A Ghost Story, starring Constance Wu, Finn Wittrock, Anna Camp and Adam Rothenberg. Directed by Matthew Dunster, the London hit centers on two couples who gather for dinner in a home that may be haunted and make a pact to stay up late to know for sure. THR sat down with the cast and asked whether they know for sure.
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“I believe in ghosts but not in the way most people do. I don’t think it’s a spooky, scary, haunted thing. I think ghost encounters are very ordinary. Mine happened in broad daylight in a neighborhood, not in a haunted house or with any scary vibes around. I saw a very old lady standing there and she was very nice with these thick glasses. And then, just like that, she was gone. It wasn’t scary and she wasn’t threatening. It just seemed like she was a little lost.” — Constance Wu
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“I grew up hearing a lot of ghost stories because my dad worked at Shakespeare & Company in Massachusetts. They had the company at Edith Wharton’s old mansion and it’s notoriously haunted. There was this guy who would say it felt like there was a hand pressing up against his neck. My dad had an experience where he woke up in the middle of the night and his lamp was extended to the edge of the cord, the light was on and his books had been rearranged but there was no one around. I grew up hearing this and asked, ‘Are you sure it was a ghost?’ Then as I was getting older, I thought it could be an actor doing that in the middle of the night to freak [them] out. So, I don’t know. I don’t know. It could be real, it could be not real, but the amount of stories I’ve heard of weird stuff happening makes you think something’s going on here.” — Finn Wittrock
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“I believe in ghosts. I’ve had a couple supernatural [experiences]. I own two Ouija boards and I actually got a warning from a Ouija board once in college about something that happened years later when I got another Ouija board. It was all interconnected and gave me chills and still gives me chills to this day when I retell the story. But there is something operating above and beyond just what’s happening here. I’m a firm believer.” — Anna Camp
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“Now that this question’s been asked a few times and I’ve been hearing [Anna], my position isn’t as strong as it was, but no, if pressed, I would say I do not believe in ghosts. However, I do not go certain places. One time when I was home alone where I grew up, I thought I heard the devil in the basement and I completely freaked out. It was probably the water pipes, but my mind immediately went to the most terrifying thing. I’m kind of a scaredy-cat, you know what I mean? But yeah, no, intellectually I don’t believe in ghosts, but physically, I’d be the first to run.” — Adam Rothenberg
2:22 — A Ghost Story is now playing through Dec. 4, 2022.
A version of this story first appeared in the Nov. 9 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
