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Getting to know the cast of ‘This Is Us’
Los Angeles — One of the more emotional and surprising hits on television these days is the drama series “This Is Us” which follows the lives and families of two parents and their children.
The TV series is created by Dan Fogelman and is now on its third season. It features Milo Ventimiglia (Jack Pearson, the father) and Mandy Moore (Rebecca Pearson, the mother) and acting as their children are Sterling K. Brown (Randall Pearson), Chrissy Metz (Kate Pearson), and Justin Hartley (Kevin Pearson). The series also stars Chris Sullivan as Chrissy’s husband, Toby Damon.
We met the cast recently at a Beverly Hills hotel and below are excerpts of our conversations with them:
Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia:
On how emotionally involved they are with their characters and what we can expect from their characters this season:
Milo: I feel like Mandy Moore’s cried all the tears that a human being can cry, so maybe we go back to a little bit happier times. This season, I know for Jack and Rebecca we talk about new, budding love, the joy and difficulties of finding your way when you want to be with someone, but maybe things aren't quite pointed in that direction or they are, or they're not or they are.
Things get in the way so we go to happier times for Jack and Rebecca, which is great. And then Jack is also in the throes of Vietnam, which is a very different contrast to young love of Jack and Rebecca.
Mandy: I think the wonderful thing about a show like this — we've had 36 episodes to explore these characters and tell these stories, but we get to dig even deeper.
And for a network television show to be able to do some of the things that we're doing, like what Milo said in regard to Vietnam, is intense. I feel like it's not really been done in this fashion before; I wasn't on set, but all the stories that I've heard about that episode in particular, which is a storyline that's going to be carried through for a good deal of the season, it's like a movie.
But to be able to have the time and the grace to explore that story in particular, which is so at the center of who this man is and what he's carrying with him then for the rest of his life into a relationship with my character, into a marriage, into fatherhood, it’s so compelling and it's so rich. And I feel lucky that this is the opportunity that we have to really lay it all out there.
On what Jack would say to Milo and what Rebecca would say to Mandy:
Milo: I guess I probably could just talk to myself, whisper in my own ear. (Laughter)
Mandy: Where does Jack end and Milo begin? That's the question.
Milo: Yeah, I think Jack would probably…you know what? I feel like I'm like diving into Jack. I feel like Jack would tell Milo to take it easy on himself.
Mandy: I was going to say the same thing. You stole my answer. I think that’s what Rebecca would tell Mandy too, be kinder to yourself, go a little bit easier, and be a bit gentler.
Milo: So then hold on. Rebecca was talking to Mandy? At what age? Because I see 54-year-old Jack talking to 41-year-old Milo.
Mandy: Is that funny that that's sort of what I feel is synonymous? Maybe it's because the wisdom that comes with — they are parents, their kids are about to go off to college. I'm sure they're taking stock of their own lives at that point. So maybe that's why I tend to think of them in that era too. I think we're both on the page with that. That's a great question.
On how it feels this time around to be famous again with the show:
Milo: It feels like a bigger responsibility to represent something good. Or a bigger responsibility to hopefully validate a way that you've lived your life before, which is, doing your best, admitting your mistakes and your faults, but also just trying to be just a good person, because when we are out in the world, we can't take our character masks off at all.
No matter what, Mandy walks around as Rebecca, I walk around as Jack with or without a mustache and people…we've been in people's homes and sat with them and we've held them in a way, through their own stuff that we don't even know about.
I feel like there are these experiences that the audience has, that we have been a part of their lives. So when they have an opportunity to bump into us, to talk to us and be with Rebecca or be with Jack, I feel like there is a responsibility to just be open to whatever's coming our way from that person and hopefully just be a part of something good. Because at the end of the day, love is the only thing that's real.
Mandy: It's incredibly gratifying though. I've never been a part of something like this, a part of a television show. And there is a discernible difference about coming into someone's home. The intimacy that is just automatically there. They don't have to go to the movie theater to see you on the big screen.
And so people do feel like they know you and specifically I think this family. And I feel that way too. I look at that poster, I'm, yep, I relate to these stories and these characters and I cry reading these scripts and I cry watching the show. And so we're not immune to it either, but I think, not to place too much of…have too much importance on a television show, but in this day and age with how divisive things are, with how divided everybody is, I keep coming back to the fact that we are a part of something that ultimately is celebrating what unites us and what brings us together. And I just don't think there's enough of that in the world right now.
So I stand so proudly beside my cast and our writers and our crew and what the show represents and the fact that it forces us all to sort of hold up a mirror to ourselves and our lives and the world around us. And it's beautiful and it's not…it wears its heart on his sleeve, but it's not overly sentimental. It's real. And I think that's what people continue to respond to when it comes to our show.
Justin Hartley and Sterling K. Brown
On Sterling’s singing performance at the Emmy
Sterling: Yeah! I started off doing musical theater in high school. “Godspell” being the first one, followed by “Fiddler on the Roof,” then “Cabaret,” then “West Side Story.” Those were my four years of high school, thank you very much. And it is fun. And I can carry a tune, and I have decent rhythm, you know, so any time you get a chance to do it, it’s a good time, yeah.
On how the sibling relationship on the show resonates with their relationship with their own siblings:
Sterling: It is interesting because I have two brothers and two sisters in real life and I was just home visiting with them. And every once in a while, my brother would be like, “You know, you don’t talk about us that often.”
I say, “Oh, I didn’t realize that, man.” He’s like, “Yeah, you’re always talking of your TV family.” “But you’re not talking about your family.” And I say, “You know what, man? I will rectify that situation.” So my oldest brother…
Justin: You are hoping right now that he doesn’t decide right now to do that, right?
Sterling: No, but they’re very sweet and they’re very supportive of the show. So, my brother’s the oldest, he’s fourteen years older. My sister’s twelve and-a-half years older. But they, when they see the show, they see themselves. Like, everybody sees themselves in all of us.
SKB: Which is such a remarkable thing. When I first heard the title of the show, and I was like, “What’s that mean?” And then I watched it, and then I watched how people watched it…
JH: It means, it’s the inclusive part of the whole thing of it…
SKB: Yeah. But I don’t know if it, does it feed, like how it affects your relationship with family?
JH: I think that it certainly makes me think about the importance of those relationships and how easy it is, especially they always say the world’s getting smaller and smaller because of travel. But we’re really just moving further and further apart. Like, no one’s here. My siblings are in Chicago and scattered all over the place.
SKB: I have that Kevin feeling, myself. Like in terms of, “Where are you? You’re always here and there, we can’t find you…”
JH: So, it does make me take time and reach out maybe more than I would have before. There’s really no competitiveness on my part with my brothers and my sisters. My brother’s a copy. My sister is, I think she’s a property consultant, I don’t really know what she does, I’ll have to find out. And then my other sister, I forget what her name is, she’s uh…I’ll figure it out. She’s actually an actor/singer. So we have a lot of common in that regard.
SKB: My brother’s a pharmaceutical salesman. But he is competitive. We like to play games.
JH: He’s like, “My drugs are better than yours!”
SKB: Yeah. I get the Grade A stuff. I would be like, “You’re probably right.” But he likes,if we’re playing pool, or if we’re playing ping-pong, he loves to beat me.
JH: Now you’re not competitive in that regard, are you?
SKB: I don’t consider myself competitive, because I’m better than him.
Chrissy Metz and Chris Sullivan
On what was the healing that took place as a result of them doing the show:
Chrissy: I had a family member who, I specifically brought up the miscarriage thing because she had one and we never talked about. It was like, let’s brush it under the rug. And I couldn’t have first talked to her about it when I was prepping for the episode and I just remember thinking, this is such an important subject matter and I want to do it justice and I want it to be authentic and I couldn’t talk to my family member about it.
But afterward, we were sobbing on the phone and she’s like, I wish I could have told you this and told you that, but there’s so much shame around miscarriage, because you feel inadequate and you feel like you are failing at something or you are broken.
And we all feel that way at some point, but miscarriage being specific to women and there’s so many women that go through them that we have no idea. The statistics are staggering — I think one out of five women will have at least one or more miscarriages and just things that we never talk about. So that definitely brought my family member and me closer together.
And it happens that way with the children and my sister is like I didn’t know what to say to my son and the show is helping me do that. It seems that everyone is affected by a storyline. But for me, the miscarriage one was really difficult. And also I think a mother and child’s relationship particularly Rebecca and Kate, was always hanging in the balance of so much going on and finally she was like okay, I am going to let my guard down and she is going to let hers down and we are going to come together. And that is a really beautiful and subtle by-product of something really traumatic happening.
Chris: I think the conversations that are being started, not only in my family, but in most of the families that I know that are watching it — I have a friend who has two daughters that are ten and eight, and they watch the show and the show, each episode, helps them start conversations that you wouldn’t know how to have and you wouldn’t know where to begin and you wouldn’t know how to initiate them.
And perhaps you don’t want to wait for a miscarriage to happen to explain to a child the realities of that part of trying to start a family. But they use the show to have those conversations. And I think that the general themes of depression and addiction, they are flat out, Kevin says it in Season Two, and “we are a family of addicts.” And whether it’s food or alcohol or co-dependency or anxiety, people can be addicted to their anxiety, families who don’t acknowledge those realities, will never have an opportunity to help each other, to help each other through them and to be a support system for one another, so all of those things have played into my familial relationships along with many of my friends.
On the kind of reactions they got that surprised them:
Chrissy: I’ve had varying degrees of reactions. I just was asked to propose to a gentleman’s girlfriend for him, (laughter) and I’m like, I can do the video, I can say, oh you would like to say a very important question, but I am not going to say Beth, would you like to marry Jeff? That’s a lot of pressure and you want to live that forever? I don’t think so.
And then on the other side, I was on a flight to New York and a woman’s 10-year-old son came up to me and he was like, oh gosh Chrissy! And I was like first of all, he is 10 years old, how does he know who I am? But that happens all the time, because the demographic is so large. But he just said I love you and you really inspire me. And I am like okay what does that mean? And then he gave me these really beautiful notes and pictures that he drew, and his mom included a note and she said, what you don’t know is that he is going to an eating disorder clinic and what you have done for him is to accept himself for who he is.
And I am sobbing on the plane and the woman was like what do you do? And I was like, I am an actress. And she was like, I have to watch the show. And it’s just so raw and it’s so real that it allows people to just tell you everything. And it’s so beautiful because that is why I think we are here, to help us through this thing called life and so I have had so many beautiful reactions, very fun and exciting and very, very emotional.
Chris: One of the most interesting reactions I get from people is from people who refuse to watch the show, who say, I have heard about your show and I can’t watch it. I ask why and they say because it makes people cry all the time. I said, and why don’t you want to cry? And they go, I can’t, I just can’t. And I think that the interesting thing about this show, people call the show sad and the show is not sad. The show elicits feelings in people, the show elicits reactions in people. And the reason that you have a reaction to something, is because you want to relate to it.
CM: If you spot it, you got it.
CS: And the emotional reaction that people are having to this show, I think is a clear indication of where we stand right now as a society and as a people, as a county. There is a lot of pain, and there is a lot of pain that has gone ignored for a long time and this show is helping people tap into those feelings. So much so, that they forget about the laughter that this show provides, (laughter) the comedy, I mean, you just talked to Justin and Sterling, who I think are two of the funniest actors that I have ever seen on television, their timing is impeccable.
And so the people who refuse to watch this show because they just don’t want to have these feelings, I think it says something really interesting about where we are and maybe the work that we all still have in front of us, myself included. And I think that’s a complete thought that I just had.
On some of the traits their characters had that they wished they had:
Chrissy: I wish I was a little bit more type A. I feel like Kate is a little type A. I feel like because she can’t control a lot in her life, she tries to control things and it comes from a good place.
Sometimes I am like, oh it’s fine, whatever! I think I used to be that way because the only thing I could control was myself and now I am like whatever. But maybe I need to set that at medium a little bit more, because I am going to try to live in the present moment.
CS: You think there is a balance between going with the flow and standing up for yourself.
CM: Right. Healthy boundaries and all of that, I am still trying to figure that out.
CS: Yeah, that’s fascinating for me too. I think Toby is very straightforward with what he thinks and what he feels and I think he does it in a very honest and loving way. And I think I could use a little more of that in my life as far as not stuffing things. It’s the same type of thing of oh it’s all good, everything is fine and everything is okay. And my voice just gets higher and higher until I can’t speak anymore. But yeah, I think it’s probably a bit of the same.
On how the show has changed their lives
CS: I think the way that it has changed my life is that I am called to be present with strangers frequently. There are people who have emotional reactions to this show and their recognizing me around or seeing me in public or seeing me at the airport, has little to do with me as an individual and more to do with oh, there’s a piece of that thing that gave me this emotional reaction and I would like to connect with, and I appreciate being made to feel those things and I would like to express that. And so there’s a responsibility there.
You have participated in making someone feel something on their couch, in their home, and now they would like to share that feeling with you. And that is a great responsibility and an honor to be called to do that on a daily basis. But aside of that emotional aspect of navigating the world, you get into a couple of restaurants easier.
CM: Yeah, sometimes that is a little easier. And that is the age old benefit of being on a show like this.
CS: A good reservation.
CM: And I have also got to meet a lot of my heroes because of this show.
CS: Yes. And especially when they are fans and you are like what, you know who I am? That’s always exciting for me.
CM: The most recent was, I met Henry Winkler at the Emmy’s and I think he is such an amazing spirit and such an amazing person, not only in this industry but just as an incarnation walking through this world and I got to meet him on the red carpet there. And I rarely get that star struck feeling, but he is a pretty incredible guy.
CS: Yeah really special. My life has completely changed. As we all know, a broke actress, just trying to get out of debt. And so being able to do things that I have always wanted to do, be it music on my own and I mean literally like having my own apartment for the first time and all that have sort of been on that journey with me.
And then being able to invite my sister to the Emmy’s, and being able to pay for her plane ticket, that is a really big deal. And it was a really special moment, because she was there with me when I was like I can’t do this. I’m like how many more auditions can I go on and cry my way through and never get anything? So it’s such an added bonus to everything that has been given, and earned as well. But to be able to share it with people that you love, especially your family, is been there from the ramen noodle days. So yeah it’s been incredible.
On how their relationship with their parents changed after the show
CS: Mandy Moore’s performance in this show has given me great insight to what it means to be a parent. I have gained quite a bit of understanding for my parents and what they might have been through raising two very large boys. And so I think insight and empathy are through the roof since I started working on this show.
CM: Yeah. As a parent, do you love too much or not enough and there is no instruction manual. And you give up dreams and you sacrifice and I think the most selfless thing you can do is be a parent, biological or not. And it definitely has made me understand that perhaps the decisions that my mom had made previously, obviously weren’t about me, but just her trying to do the best that she could. And being able to talk about that and say that hurt my feelings, or I felt like I was neglected or something wasn’t ever worked through and I can go back and relate to the show that I happened to be on, which is really cool.
CS: Everything that has happened to us, good, bad or otherwise, has led us here. And I am grateful for all of those things, whether in the moment I thought they were the worst things that ever happened to me or the best things that ever happened to me. It’s all part of it and it’s all necessary. — LA, GMA News
