Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Tell me how you ended up onThis Is Us.Did you go through the regular audition process?Yeah.
An ode to the crying men on ‘This Is Us’
ForThis Is Us,it was just an audition, and it was super last minute.
I got the full script that morning, met Dan [Fogelman], Mandy [Moore].
It was just this crazy whirlwind.
It was really crazy.
We were so nervous when we first got on set.
It was so funny.
Me and Niles [Fitch, who plays Teen Randall] were like, Okay, here we go.
We start arguing, Mom comes in.
It was a great scene.
That was an easy job for you to land!
People will be jealous.It was really quick.
And thenThis Is Usis one audition.
I didnt get the film.
I was a runner-up.
But everything happens for a reason.
The show was a big hit right out of the gate.
How has your life changed?Its just been so amazing.
To come onto a show as a young actor, I just wanna get better.
Its really been a place for me to grow and start to take risks with my work.
Are people like, This Is Us!This Is Us!
everywhere you go?Yeah, that does happen a little bit.
Milo gets swarmed, I think, but no.
I get it sometimes.
I dont really notice, but my friends will be like, That tables totally looking at da-da-da.
Related Stories
Youre playing Kevin at a difficult age.
Hes struggling with adolescence, and what happens with football is really crushing.
With siblings, theres always push and pull with the parents.
Hes good in his heart and hes a really good guy; he just is a little bit misled.
Hes a little angsty.
There was a scene where Milo puts a tie on me, where Im trying on a suit.
Thats why I thought that scene was so special, because Kevin says thank you definitively.
He doesnt really say thank you a lot.
Hes not aware that his parents have done more than everybody else.
What about Justin Hartley?
Have you spent any time with him, talking about the character?A little bit, yeah.
Justin and I will talk.
Many people might think Im coached by him or something like that, or there are these rigid guidelines.
You really just run with it.
Early on, I did study him a little bit to see some of mannerisms and things like that.
It has to become a part of what you do.
But they really give you the respect as an actor to take it and do your own thing.
So, Im really thankful for that, that they trust me so much.
Thats a credit to you.
I think the casting is unbelievable, really.[Laughs.
]The casting is pretty good, yeah.
And a lot of that comes through in the writing.
Honestly, I dont have to do a lot of that.
Theres a lot of parallels that I cant take credit for.
Tell me about Hannah Zeile and Niles Fitch.
You guys work together a lot.
What has that been like?Weve become really close.
Especially with writing this good, its so easy to get so attached to the script and these characters.
Very quickly, we felt we were all siblings.
Theepisode that came out Tuesday night, we all bonded so much from that.
That was a lot of long days.
It was hard, but it was so rewarding.
To do it day after day after day can get really tiring.
But that plays into it, so it ends up totally helping you.
You really feel it.
Were you bummed that you werent in thebig fire scene?No, no, not at all.
I went and watched.
I wanted to go and support everybody.
I was there when they were shooting a lot of that stuff.
First of all, what he said to his dad was horrible, and he wasnt even there.
He was the only person not there.
Dad was his guy.
He never really connected with his mom as much, so now he only has mom.
Its just very, very rough and so complex.
What was it like to watch them doing the fire?It was really crazy.
The whole crew had these bright yellow firefighter suits.
Like, everybody had it for safety and they built this whole set and it was so secretive.
It was really, really cool.
The actors were just reacting to their surroundings because there were eight-foot flames blasting through the stairway.
Tell me about filming that.It was a crazy day, actually.
We filmed that two days after the season premiered, so I didnt have a lot of time.
I feel like when there are big scenes like that, stuff kind of goes wrong a little bit.
We were behind schedule, so [Ken Olin] was stressed out and it was this whole thing.
And in a situation like that, you have to bring that into the scene.
You have to bring in the frustration.
Inthe episode before Jack dies, you have that scene where Kevin is so mean to his parents.
It really hurts Jacks feelings.
Something that I dont think is super fun is just being the good guy.
It comes back to bite him because he takes everything for granted and then his dad is gone.
The details really make the show, I think.
Kevins reacting in so many different ways there.
Everybody wants to blow up and cry and leave and go back.
Theres just so many things going through your head.
Is there anything you might tease about the remainder of the season without getting fired?Probably not!
I would like to, but [laughs]Dan keeps his lockdown tight.
For the Super Bowl episode, I didnt even get an emailed copy because they didnt want electronic copies.
So they hand-delivered copies on blood-red paper so you couldnt scan it.
I think I signed an extra NDA contract for that.
But theres some great stuff coming, thats all I can say.
Its just so good.
I mean, Im so biased, but I dont care.
Theres so much good stuff coming.
Everyones going to love it.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
