Chrissy Metz (Kate) and Chris Sullivan (Toby) were unable to make the gathering as they were filming, but Milo Ventimiglia, Mandy Moore, Sterling K. Brown, Justin Hartley, Susan Kelchi Watson, and Jon Huertas all weighed in. “It’s a star cast,” Brown (Randall) said. “I get moved all the time. I’m constantly in awe of the people that I get a chance to play in this sandbox with.” But an especially memorable moment for the Emmy-winning actor came in episode 7, “Taboo,” the Thanksgiving episode, when Rebecca (Moore) made the big announcement as to who would take over her care if for some reason Miguel (Huertas) wasn’t around until the end, which we now know—spoiler alert—is what happened. “We were all sitting around the table, watching Mandy do her thing, and my first reaction was to just applaud,” Brown said. “I clapped in my seat. Not super loud. Not trying to distract my actor. And then I got up and walked around the corner, because we were in the cabin, and I walked into the kitchen, and I did what Mandy did in Season 1. She’d do this thing when she’d get ready, and she’d throw her arms down. But I was doing it just out of the joy, just like, ‘This chick is killing it, son.’" Huertas agreed that it has been incredible to watch Moore play Rebecca from about age 16 to 80, but that scene was especially singular. “I think before you started clapping, there was this just really long breath that all of us took,” he remembered. “I think it was rehearsal. It wasn’t even when we were filming, she brought it so hard in just the rehearsal that we were all in awe. Mandy, you really got all of us that day. That’s probably the thing that moved me the most, especially in the moment.” For Hartley (Kevin), there have been several exceptional moments, the one with Moore, included, but he said that when his script arrives each week and he reads scenes like that one, he has this sense of anticipation because he can’t wait to see what his castmates are going to do with a scene. “I’ll see a monologue that Sterling will have or that Milo will have, and you look at those and you read them, and you go, ‘I cannot wait to see what this actor does with this,’ and you’re impressed every single time, but you’re not surprised. It’s impressive. It’s six years now of pedal to the metal, 100 percent every single time.” One of those impressive monologues for Ventimiglia was in the fourth episode of the season, “Don’t Let Me Keep You,” when Jack had to deliver the eulogy at his mother’s funeral. “Watching Milo break in your mom’s funeral episode because Jack is so stoic and is able to be there for his family, be there for his wife, his kids in every capacity and knowing just what a strong man you are, Milo, watching you just completely lose it and break is like (sighing),” Moore said. “My heart was just in my throat during that particular scene. I think you’ve had one other time on the show where Jack has been somewhat emotional, and that was a moment that I really, really, really treasure.” Huertas added that he cried the entire time during that funeral scene, and Hartley added, “It’s been an incredible journey with that character because what you did, Milo, what you’ve managed to do over the course of these six years with your character is a long play and it’s so smart.” Ventimiglia lightened the mood a little by pointing out, “Six years in and I’m still a little sad that Jack’s dead and I can’t share a real scene with Susan (Beth) or Sully or anybody else without being on drugs or in the hospital or on alcohol.” Watson wrapped it up by saying there are just too many moments that hit her like a gut punch, for example, what happened between Toby and Kate, the aforementioned scene with Rebecca, and even watching Kevin finally become a man. “These are all the most beautiful things that I get to witness every day at work, and so it’s hard to put it into words sometimes,” she said. “And listening to y’all brings me so much joy because it really is the truth of what we experience on the set. And then we get to go home and watch what everybody else is doing in scenes that we’re not in and get blown away all over again.” This Is Us airs tonight at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. Next,This Is Us Quotes.
