‘This Is Us’ Cast Revealed Their True Thoughts About The Legacy Of The Series At In-Person PaleyFest Event

The cast of This Is Us agrees on one thing — how they want fans to remember the series.

As the six-year run of the show draws to a close, the actors and creator/executive producer gathered to give fans an inside look at how they feel about the series coming to an end.

The This Is Us panel at the Dolby theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday served as the opening night of the 2022 PaleyFest LA.

Maureen Reidy, President and CEO of The Paley Center for Media, introduced This Is Us as a series that has, “charmed, delighted, and enthralled us with incredible writing and one of the best ensembles on television.”

The audience cheered when Reidy welcomed them back to an in-person PaleyFest after three years of virtual events.

Prior to the panel discussion, creator and executive producer of This Is Us, Dan Fogelman, informed the audience that they were about to watch the next episode of the series and that it was ‘a heavy one.’

As the screening took place, fans sighed, laughed, and emitted sounds of both fear and shock.

Once the episode ended and Fogelman and the actors — including Mandy Moore, Sterling K. Brown, Milo Ventimiglia, Chrissy Metz, Justin Hartley, Susan Kelechi Watson, Chris Sullivan and John Huertas — took to the stage, he admitted that eight years ago when he began working on the pilot script he felt he had something special when he showed the script to his football buddies and they had a reaction to it, with at least one of them crying.

Fogelman also made a point to give a shout out to the This Is US casting directors, saying that they were the geniuses behind all of the iterations of the Pearson family and their decades spanning storyline.

Mandy Moore, who plays matriarch Rebecca Person, revealed that prior to this series she hadn’t done any television before and that, “I remember when I got a job I was like, ‘how do we do 13 episodes of television?’ So, it’s unfathomable to me the idea that [we’re going to close out with] 106 [episodes].”

Chrissy Metz, who plays Kate Pearson, cried when she said that prior to being cast, “I was broke, but I was also broken.” She remarked that at the time she didn’t even have an acting resume and added that she was given an opportunity that she never thought ‘a big girl from a small town’ would get.

Playing Randall Pearson, Sterling K. Brown surmised that the ensemble cast has learned that, “It’s not about any one individual, it’s about all of us.” He likens the group to a band, saying, ”Sometimes you’re front and center, sometimes you’re playing the tambourine, but you are just happy to be a part of the group.”

With storylines focused on race, Fogelman says that the goal in including these issues has always been, “I think there’s no answers for what’s going on. We just try to make honest and truthful storylines and we try to [be] accurate and truthful and honest — trying to find common ground.”

With storyline that’s been carried as a throughline during the series, Moore, who’s character has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease says, “It’s not lost on us, the responsibility that we have telling all [this story], and this is a reality for millions of people in this country. Being able to have that conversation on a gigantic platform that is our show, to destigmatize the conversation around the Alzheimer’s diagnosis and caregivers and family members [and invite] people into this conversation, that’s been such an incredible gift.”

When asked about the final installment of This Is Us, Fogelman admitted that he’d just finished writing the last script, but revealed that he’d envisioned the final scene of the series from the very beginning.

Knowing the pressure of closing out a series beloved by fans in a matter than satisfies them all, Fogelman remarked, “This has been eight years in the making so [my team and I] have taken it very seriously.”

When the cast was asked, with a skillful prompt from panel moderator Scott Evans who appears on Access Hollywood, to give a one word description of what they hope the legacy of the series will be, those words included reconciliation, healing, forgiveness, joy, compassion, patience, connection, hope, and finally, from Fogelman himself — family.

But the true takeaway from the series, as explained by Chris Sullivan who plays Toby, should be that the series was not all doom and drama, but that it was funny.

He said to the audience, “When all of you were watching the episode, you were laughing. I want people to remember the laughter.”

Everyone on stage agreed, but it was through tears of both sadness and joy — which feel like completely appropriate emotions to feel at this time for this unique series.

‘This Is Us’ airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on NBC and streaming on Peacock.

The 2022 PaleyFest LA continues until April 10^th with panels and snek previews of ‘Cobia Kai,’ ‘Ghosts’, ‘Hacks,’ ‘Better Call Saul,’ ‘Superman & Lois,’ ‘Emily in Paris,’ ‘The Neighborhood,’ ‘Riverdale, ‘black-ish’ and a salute to ‘NCIS.’ Tickets and more information are available through The Paley Center.