This Is Us stars reveal how they were cast

This Is Us stars reveal how they were cast

For six seasons, you've been learning how the Pearsons came to be. But how did actors from all walks of Hollywood life — credits range from Heroes to The People v. O.J Simpson to Mr. Robot to Revenge — come together to form this unconventional, unpredictable family at the wide-open heart of This Is Us? Before you watch the series finale on May 24, the stars of NBC's time-warping family drama (plus creator Dan Fogelman) walk you through their casting experiences way back in 2015. Start scrolling, because you love flashbacks, remember?

Susan Kelechi Watson (Beth)

Previous credits: Louie, The Blacklist, Third Watch

Watson went to great lengths — or at least cross-country — to nab the role of Beth. "Susan came in from New York to read for it, and we just loved her," creator Dan Fogelman tells EW. "We all knew her from Louie. I wrote a monologue for her. I knew it was going to be a strange thing to give so much of the ending for the second episode to a character that you haven't spent that much time with yet. [But] when I showed it to people, even internally, for the first time, everybody was just going, 'Oh my God! Susan!' That was one of the first reactions people would have. She's just so lovely. Her and Sterling — you think they're married in real life. They're just so beautiful together as a couple."

Susan Kelechi Watson (Beth)

Some audition days are good days. Some are bad. And every once in a while, it can be both. "I had felt, to be honest, in my spirit that something really good was going to happen," she says. "I was doing a flurry of auditions at that time, and this was one of them. It's funny because I went in for this on the same day that I went in for another audition for a friend of mine — and completely bombed. After that was so terrible, I got a call that [they were interested in me for This Is Us], and that made me feel kind of better, but I was still feeling really bad about that horrible audition. I went in for this again with [executive producers/directors] John Requa and Glenn Ficarra. It was the scene where [Randall] is cracking up and he said, "It's like an episode of What's Happening!!" And I grew up watching reruns of What's Happening!! and even when I was rehearsing that scene, I was laughing through that part. I just thought it was fun and funny and interesting — and I liked the fact that she was so supportive of her husband. I have played characters who are harsher — a little more rough around the edges — when it comes to the significant other. So it was nice to play somebody who was very supportive of her husband, who was just trying to support what he was doing and had his back."

Susan Kelechi Watson (Beth)

Heading into her follow-up audition, Watson had one advantage: Her scene partner was her NYU grad school classmate Sterling K. Brown. "I knew that Sterling had the part," she says. "I knew Sterling, so when I got into the room, it was so great to see him and be able to vibe with him. I feel like it was one of those auditions where I walked away and I said, 'If that's not what they want, either way, I did the very best I could.' I felt really at peace with whatever way it went."

Ron Cephas Jones (William)

Previous credits: Mr. Robot, Banshee, Sweet and Lowdown

Similar to Watson, Jones was recruited from the ranks of New York-based actors. "It was an instant hit," says Fogelman. "Our casting director, Tiffany [Little Canfield], from inception, was like, 'Ron Cephas Jones is going to be your guy for this. I just know it.'… I knew of him. Mr. Robot had come out around then. He's such a beloved theater actor in New York. Bobby Cannavale, who I did a film with [Danny Collins], texted me and was like, 'Bro, are you casting Ron Cephas Jones in your show? He's the best of all time!'…. He read all his scenes on tape in New York. And that was it. It was easy. It was so obviously him. It was so real and it was so beautiful, and you could just see the path."

Ron Cephas Jones (William)

While Jones was pleased with his taped audition, he was surprised to learn that he landed the role of Randall's terminally ill biological father without meeting with the This Is Us producers in person. "I was really close with identifying with the character, just knowing so many people that are going through this same situation in their lives at the moment," he says. "I did some real good homework on it. I felt like I did a really good audition, and I got some feedback afterward, and then I split. And the next day my agent called and said, 'They're interested in you.' I said, 'For a callback?' She was like, 'No — they're interested in you to hire you.' And then a day or so later, I got an offer with an email from Dan telling me that what he saw on the tape was so beautiful and so honest: 'There wasn't a false moment in the audition, and I'm so happy to have you onboard with us.' One of the first things you want as an actor is for people to identify with your work. That's what I base my reputation on, so when he said, 'Great work. I hired you based on your work for the tape,' I was very, very happy. It was my first lead role in a television series for a major television network. I couldn't have asked for a better role."

Ron Cephas Jones (William)

"There was so much to explore, as far as his condition, and working with all the emotions that come with the character," continues Jones. "That's what excited me — to have a character that's going through some physical problems, is going back to see a son that he had left behind at a fire station, so there's history there. And it was the idea that the writers would take me and the audience through that exploration. As an actor, you want a role that's going to have some impact and takes the audience through a culmination of experiences and feelings." Two guest Emmys is "some impact," indeed.

Mandy Moore (Rebecca)

Previous credits: Red Band Society, Grey's Anatomy, A Walk To Remember

Fogelman, who wrote the screenplay for Tangled, had a lovely if limited experience with Moore on the 2010 animated fairy tale film. "I wanted to meet all the actors and really read scenes with them," he says. "I don't even know if I called it 'auditioning' as much as like, 'Let's see it all on its feet and make sure we're all feeling right, because the show feels special.' Mandy did a scene, and did a little test with Milo [Ventimiglia]. She was the one character in the pilot that didn't get a little monologue, so I wrote one for her that she read; it is the monologue in the second episode where she dresses down Jack. So essentially that was what got Mandy the gig — I always wanted her — and it was almost exactly the same [as what aired], except I think there was a f—in it. It was so powerful when we played it for the network and studio that it was over. It was, like, 'Done!'"

Mandy Moore (Rebecca)

Moore had been chewed up by disappointment through several pilot seasons, switching agents and losing faith. "I was like, 'I just don't know if I have it in my bones anymore to go through this kind of rejection and heartbreak of being a part of a show and it not moving forward,'" she says. "I don't know how actors do it. I had three years of that, and I was like 'Oh, I think I may need to tap out.' But then I read this and I was like, 'Regardless of whether this moves forward, it's so special. If I'm lucky enough to be a part of it, I know I'll be a part of something I'm really proud of…. [Plus] I get to wear a 35-pound prosthetic belly. Like, how many times in my life am I going to play a pregnant-with-triplets mother?"

Mandy Moore (Rebecca)

"I was one of the first people that came in," she recalls of the audition process. "And then I heard, 'They really liked you but they're going to New York and read a bunch of girls there,' and I didn't hear for a month. That's when I got word: 'They're going to bring you back and do a chemistry read with Milo and some other guys. And there are going to be some other girls there.' They gave me the original [script pages] — which was the pregnancy dance, that first scene in the first episode — and Dan also had written the monologue that I say in the second episode: 'You have to quit drinking — be a man and fix it.'… I read with Milo; I didn't read with any other guys. It was pretty instantaneous. I was like, 'Oh, if I didn't already want to be a part of this, after meeting Milo and reading with him, I really want to do this." I heard that they were really high on Milo. I felt like, 'This is maybe my only shot. I gotta really do my best!' And it was just so easy with him. We had an instant rapport and it was super comfortable. We shook hands, and then he had to start nuzzling my neck right away, and I was like, 'Okay! It's fine! It's not as uncomfortable as it could be with some other people.' I felt like, 'Oh, God. I really hope it's us.'"

Chrissy Metz (Kate)

Previous credits: American Horror Story, My Name Is Earl, Entourage

"I just fell in love with her," is how Fogelman sums up his first meeting with Metz. "Everybody knew the character was going to break out a little bit if we got it right,. So I brought her in to read with Justin — who we'd already cast — to NBC, in front of everybody, which is the worst experience of all time. I have an affinity for that character because it reminds me of my sister. Chrissy got it that day in the room, and calling her was probably the highlight of the process for me. We told her she'd gotten it, and she was in the parking lot at NBC, and she started screaming and crying… It was just such a cool moment. You could tell where this was going to go for her if it broke the right way — that people were going to go crazy for her in the part — so that was exciting."

Chrissy Metz (Kate)

Metz swears that there was something fortuitous in the air when she went to her meeting. "It felt different walking to the audition that day, like, the birds were birdier, the sky was bluer," she says. "I'm like, 'What is this?' It just felt different. Maybe I felt different. I think intuitively we know things. But it wasn't until the callback where Glenn complimented me, and I was like, 'Wait, wait, what?' It's not very often that you get complimented in the room. Maybe behind closed doors or the casting director will say, 'Oh, the director loves you,' but for him to say, 'Wow! You're talented!'? I nearly lost my mind. And these are people that I revere and I love. I'm so in the moment that I'm not trying to think about, 'Is this a great performance?' I just want it to be real and authentic, so it was kind of overwhelming. But also he's like, 'Hey, can you grab your purse?' and I was like, 'Sure.' So I grab the purse and he's like, 'Just walk in the door with it,' and I'm like, 'Oh, my God, he's directing me. This is a good sign, right? Maybe? Or maybe they're not sure if I take direction well.'"

Chrissy Metz (Kate)

When Metz was called back for the final test in front of the network and studio, a future co-star made an impression. Sort of. "Justin walks in and I'm not attracted to him in real life, but I'm like, 'Oh, really? He's my brother? Am I attracted to my brother right now?'" she says. "Because I watched him on Revenge and I loved him. I'm like, 'How am I going to do this?' But it was all very fun — a little stressful, because when you want something so bad…. The girl that I tested with, it was between [us] two, she's like, 'I was praying for you when you were in there.' I am of the thinking that you can't keep anything you don't give away, so I was sending her good vibes too, because that's what it's about. You always get back what you give. So it was a magical experience, all in all — and it continues to be."

Justin Hartley (Kevin)

Previous Credits: Revenge, Smallville, The Young and the Restless

The role of the studly actor-in-crisis wound up being one of the hardest to cast. "We had seen so many actors for that part, and it was all that opening monologue about the Challenger explosion," says Fogelman. "And you hit a point where you get fatigue from hearing the same thing over and over, and we just weren't quite feeling it yet. And then Justin came in. Our heat had broken in our casting office, so we were doing it in this conference room. It was the worst place to read a script. And I remember John Requa kept saying, 'How can a person that f---ing good-looking be funny?' He was so annoyed by that."

Justin Hartley (Kevin)

Similar to Moore, Hartley recalls feeling chewed up and beaten down after a few disappointing pilot seasons. "These actors that you compete against during pilot season, you just have to have that edge, otherwise you're just never going to work," he says. "I remember for the first time in my life thinking, 'I don't think I can compete with them. I don't have the energy. The idea of going out on a pilot right now is exhausting.' He took a gig on The Young and the Restless — which he says he loved and allowed him to stay in L.A. to be with his daughter — but then the TIU script grabbed his attention. Or, rather, his buddy's. "My friend read the script before me, actually, and he was like, 'Do you know Dan Fogelman?' and I was like, 'Yeah,'" says Hartley. "And he was like, 'Well, how long have you known each other?' And I said, 'Well, I know of him, we don't hang out.' And he goes, 'I read this script and I was pretty sure that he wrote you.' And I was like, 'You've got to send that over to me.' Lo and behold, my agent was sending it to me at the same time. I saw the character and I fell in love with it, and I thought immediately, 'I've got to figure out a way to have them see me,' because I just knew that I had a voice for this character that was really unique, based on my past. I got him. I understand what he's going through. This guy could very easily come across as just this whiny, annoying dude who gets a lot of women, who's bitching about the show that he's on, making tons of money, and that's not what he is. I wanted to make sure I was in the room so I could tell his story the way that I know it goes."

Justin Hartley (Kevin)

Once Hartley got into the room, the process was all ease and breeze. "They put me on tape and then they gave the tape to the network and the studio, and they signed off on it, and that was it," says Hartley. He remains grateful that Fogelman & Co. were able to see past the pretty-boy actor stereotype. "Everyone gets put in a box, right?" continues Hartley. "And you have to show people that you're more than just whatever their preconceived notion is. That's in every walk of life, in every job, in every relationship, every time you meet someone. So whatever it is in Hollywood, specifically when you're talking about casting, it's like, 'Well, this guy does this,' and you have to show them that you do other things, too.' And it's really difficult to get that opportunity. So I'm forever indebted to these guys for giving me that opportunity. I knew what I could do with it — and I was lucky enough to get it before I died."

Sterling K. Brown (Randall)

Previous Credits: The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Army Wives

Having impressed in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot — which Requa and Ficarra directed — Brown was on the producers' wish list from day 1. "We never really read anybody else — we just wanted him," shares Fogelman. "He did that monologue where he dresses down William at the front door, and we're like, 'Yeah, that's good. We can move on from casting that part. That's it.' It was the easiest. I thought it would actually be the hardest, because I didn't know if they were going to want a name in that part in some shape or form, and sometimes you have to push for that. As it turned out, the same studio had O.J. in the can, so they were like, 'Great!' And I was like, 'Really? It's that easy? Amazing!'"

Sterling K. Brown (Randall)

Brown felt an immediate connection to the script — and to the challenge of playing Randall, the perfectionist straddling two worlds. "I had a Black friend raised in Boston adopted by a white family and he has siblings, and I got a chance to talk to him a little bit about what his experience was like," Brown says. "What is it like when you are physically something but not necessarily raised in that culture? At what points in time do you find those things to weave in and integrate into yourself? It was intriguing to play somebody who is frequently a fish out of water. He's a fish out of water sometimes with his family because he's the Black guy, and then he can be the fish out of water with a group full of African-Americans because he's the Black guy that's raised by a white family. Then the part with the father resonates hugely, because of having lost my father at 10, and recognizing how deep that goes. Even just after 10 years, you remember it. The love is remembered. And to be absent of that but to still have the opportunity to possibly reclaim that in William is a fascinating story. If there was someone in this world that could duplicate what my father gave to me and had authentic claim to me as a parent, well, that would be a fascinating thing to explore."

Sterling K. Brown (Randall)

His audition included the soccer scene between Beth and Randall, as well as the scene in which he knocks on William's door. "It was one of the first times in which I had a meeting with the producer and the directors before the actual audition," Brown recalls. "It was just to meet, see how we vibe with one another, get a chance to talk about the project and talk about how I felt like I connected with the project. Most of the time, if you're lucky, you're going in to read for the producers. If you're unlucky, sometimes you have a pre-read. Then after the pre-read, there's the producers. And then, after the producers, God willing, there's a test. And then this test goes from studio to network and then you find something out. This one was: meeting, audition for the producers, and then there was one more in which I put myself on tape, so that the studio and network could look at it, and it was done. It didn't have the same sort of angst that a lot of tests can have."

Jon Huertas (Miguel)

Previous Credits: Castle, Generation Kill, Sabrina the Teenage Witch

In the conception and casting stages, Miguel was the least fleshed-out character — his original name was actually Mike — making the role an amorphous challenge for Fogelman to cast. "I knew that I wanted him to be Jack's buddy, and that he would wind up with Rebecca, and that would provide for the audience a jolt at the end of the second episode," recalls the creator. "I don't think I'd fully thought through how big a part that would eventually become and how much that was going to demand. By the time we were [casting], I was going, 'Oh, s---, this is another big character, potentially. We need somebody who can do this, but there's not a lot on the page right now.'"

After Fogelman met Huertas in the audition, the blanks began to fill in. "I remember thinking how charming he was and that he had a wildly different, but also somewhat similar energy as Milo and Jack," Fogelman says. "And I was like, 'Oh, this is just interesting.' I remember that gut instinct because there wasn't that much to read at the time. Just feeling good about him." The creator's next concern was figuring out the best way to present that Rebecca-is-married-to-Miguel-not-Jack! shocker in the present day. "Jon's origin story on the show was one of getting him to walk through that door and be instantly recognizable," says the creator. "We had spent so much time getting Mandy's age makeup correct, but we hadn't had as much time with Jon because he was cast later. I think we reshot his entrance into the doorway four times, just to go, 'What are we going to do to make sure this is clear to the audience? I don't want people to think that Milo has been put through weird age makeup when they're calling him grandpa.' Then I was working on having Randall call him 'Miguel.' It all worked out in the end, but we put the poor guy through his paces right after joining the show."

Jon Huertas (Miguel)

Fresh off of Castle's cancellation, Huertas found himself doing chemistry reads with Justina Machado for a role on the One Day at a Time reboot. While he was feeling the chemistry, he wasn't quite feeling the role. "I just wanted to do something different with the character," he recalls. "And the casting director from that show said, 'Hey, there's something else that you might like. Can you get to Paramount today by 3 o'clock?' It was a little harrowing as an actor to [hear], 'Can you go be somewhere by 3 o'clock? They want to know if you're good enough to be in this show.'"

Jon Huertas (Miguel)

Needless to say, he didn't have much time to prepare for his big shot. "I walk in, [executive producers] Ken Olin, Dan, John [Requa] and Glenn [Ficarra] just talked to me for a long time: 'Did you read the script?'" he recalls. "I was like, 'Well, I didn't have a chance. I read as much as I could. I like the idea that this guy is this stalwart best friend and would do anything for this guy and helps him in his relationship.' That's all we knew about the character. It was great because they really asked me about the last show I was on, Castle; they talked to me a lot about that experience and the stuff I wanted to do moving forward. It was a very, very easy casting. I drove away from that thinking, 'I don't know…' There were a bunch of other guys that went in before me that looked a lot different for me. I was the only person of color up for the role. And then I got a call 30 minutes later saying, 'Hey, so they want you to start next week.'"

Milo Ventimiglia (Jack)

Previous credits: Heroes, Gilmore Girls, Rocky Balboa

You could say that Ventimiglia made Jack. "He was not at all what I had in my brain," admits Fogelman. "I was picturing a much more normal, schlubbier guy like me. Milo came in with long hair, beard, and a motorcycle, and a leather jacket. He met with us and did a scene. I was like, 'That's him. Let's base the family off of that.' And John and Glenn, who were with me, had the same exact reaction… [Ventimiglia auditioned] with all his big stuff from the pilot. It was the scene where he talks to the doctor about how everything's going to go right today. And it was his scene at the top with Rebecca about the Terrible Towel. There was a blue-collar alpha-ness, a kind of optimism to him, 'I'm going to will this family forward,' that I hadn't intended. But it was so clear that that's the guy.'"

Milo Ventimiglia (Jack)

The pilot was cast outside of the traditional broadcast network timetable, and fresh off a string of darker roles (Gotham, Chosen, Mob City), Ventimiglia was grateful for a change of pace. "This came what I'll call 'off-cycle,'" he says. "It wasn't in the crush of normal pilot season where you have to read 40 scripts in two days and figure out what you like and what you want to hopefully get a meeting on and prepare material. This was in October. This was an island. It really was on its own. The nice part about it was it still stood out. I read it, I loved it, I talked to my team about it, and I was like, 'This is a beautiful script and an amazing role.' And the kind of roles that [I'd] played in the last couple of years, they were very, very heavy. There was no hope, there was no smiling. And they were great. I enjoyed my time, but they weren't lighthearted. They felt like I'd have to wear a heavy heart for several months of filming. This one felt hopeful. It felt exciting. It felt like going from real life to real life, going from being just Milo in real life to being Jack in real life. There's no far cry of disbelief: 'Oh, my God. The world is ending and aliens are coming down!' It's not really play pretend; it's kind of play real."

Milo Ventimiglia (Jack)

Things got very real for Ventimiglia once Moore walked into the room to be his scene partner. "Mandy came in, and just, I mean, she's magic," he raves. "She's incredibly talented and genuine with her choices, but also she's a kind person.… The first time we're actually performing together is in front of Dan and John and Glenn and casting — and it's on tape that's going to go to the studio and the network. We didn't have the luxury to work out anything before we went on camera. It was literally just like: Dive right into hot water. It was that pilot scene where Rebecca's water breaks. We were there doing that, but what struck me was when it was done, there was no fuss, there was no nothing. She stood up and said, 'Okay, thanks, guys.' Then she stopped at the door and she turned around, and she goes, "Oh my god, Milo, it was so great to meet you." We locked eyes, and then she turned and walked out. I was like, "Wow, man. She's special. I think that's Rebecca."

Chris Sullivan (Toby)

Previous credits: The Knick, Stranger Things, The Normal Heart

Sullivan's rising profile had put him on the radar of TIU producers in 2015. "Chris had been in everything lately," says Fogelman. "It was another [role where] we'd been looking, looking, and found a lot of people we really liked. And then Chris came in, and we were getting fatigued by the scenes in the script, and it was like, 'Okay — there's the guy.' I had never watched him on The Knick, but Glenn was a Knick fanatic, so he immediately had a man-crush on him the second that Chris walked in." Oddly enough, the man who would play Kate's romantic interest never did a chemistry read with Metz, who had already been cast. "It was so obvious, we were like, 'We don't need to see him with Chrissy,'" says Fogelman. "It was that kind of obvious.' He's great for Chrissy. They play off each other so nicely. This [was] such a big deal for Chrissy; all of a sudden she's doing such tremendous heavy lifting. And to have Sully there by her for half the scenes, it really frees her to go to some really vulnerable places and makes her very comfortable. He's that great of a guy, first of all, in real life, but he's also such a tremendous actor."

Chris Sullivan (Toby)

Sullivan also recalls coming into focus in the Knick of time. "I had first come to John Requa and Glenn Ficcara's attention because they were fans of The Knick that I was lucky enough to be on with Steven Soderbergh," says the actor. "I don't know how they came to the idea that the guy that they saw on The Knick might be someone they could see for Toby, but I am very thankful for their out-of-the-box thinking." Sullivan remembers submitting an audition tape three weeks prior to being summoned to meet with the producers. "I got a phone call from my reps who were like, 'They're holding auditions in L.A., but they want to put you on tape again,'" he says. "And I'm like, "I'm in L.A.!' I was in L.A. shooting Live By Night, with Ben Affleck. And they're like, 'Okay, great. Well, can you go over right now?' And I was like, 'Uhhh… yeah?' I was on my way to the airport, and they sent me the scenes. I had not read the script when I auditioned, and I was obviously a little nervous about that, but the scenes were great. My flight was at 1 o'clock, and at 10 a.m., I stopped by Fox [home of 20th TV, which produces This Is Us] on my way to the airport."

Chris Sullivan (Toby)

While a bit stressful, the accelerated audition ultimately benefitted Sullivan. "It's kind of the way I prefer it," he says. "I would rather not have a whole lot of time to think about it, because the longer I think about it, the more I get in my own way." And finally getting to read the full script after his audition only heightened Sullivan's interest and intrigue in the project. "It was a bit unorthodox as far as all that stuff goes," says the actor of the casting process. "I read the pilot episode and I was like, 'Oh, man! I really hope I get this!' It was kind of backward, just because things got rushed."