This Is Us ran for six seasons on NBC before coming to a tear-filled, fulfilling end. While the story was well-written and focused, thanks to creator Dan Fogelman, there's no doubt that the show's success was fully due to the cast's palpable chemistry. The cast created powerful bonds over the years of filming.
Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia played Jack and Rebecca Pearson. They were accompanied by Sterling K. Brown, Chrissy Metz, and Justin Hartley, who played the adult versions of their triplets, Randall, Kate, and Kevin Pearson, respectively. The story focuses on the family throughout numerous decades of their lives, switching back and forth throughout the episodes.
Dan Fogelman figured out how to make the chaotic style of storytelling work, but he needed this cast of powerhouses to ensure it came out as perfect as possible. They surely delivered. It's hard to believe, but there were a few moments during development when other actors were seriously considered for the roles. Here's what the cast of This Is Us might have looked like had the casting directors gone the other way.
Who Almost Played Jack Pearson On This Is Us?
The spectacular Milo Ventimiglia plays Jack Pearson, the patriarch of the Pearson family, but that almost wasn't the case. Before seeing Milo read for the role, producers were highly considering no one other than Kate Hudson's brother, Oliver Hudson, for Jack's role. Don't worry, he was considered for the role well after casting directors had selected Mandy Moore to play Rebecca over his sister Kate.
During an episode of The Ladygang podcast in 2018, Oliver Hudson explained to the women that it was partially his fault for not getting the gig, saying he chose to go on a fishing trip instead of come in for a screen-test with Mandy.
"This will tell you how much I love to fish. I had a 10-day fishing trip planned. It's my life! Fishing is a big part of my life, and it was this 10-day fishing trip, and my agent says, 'We have to test, and they really like you, and this, this, and that.' And I said, 'Oh. I'm supposed to go on a fishing trip'… And he's like, 'Ok, yea…so? I mean this is a big thing.' And I said, 'You know what? I'm going to do my fishing trip," said Oliver on the podcast.
Milo Ventimiglia claims it took some convincing before casting directors began to seriously consider for the role of Jack Pearson. During his interview for Variety's Actors On Actors, he explained to actress Freida Pinto that he wasn't the first choice for the role.
"They wanted somebody completely different. I walked in with my beard and my long hair and set my motorcycle helmet down, and they went, 'Who is this guy," said Milo during the interview. After he read for them, however, they had different opinions. "I think they just saw something different from someone who had practiced the words. And they picked me," said Milo during the interview.
After accepting the job, Milo knew he wanted to stay with the story until its end. The creator of the series, Dan Fogelman, started the show with a plan for how it would end. He wanted the series to have a finite lifespan, giving the story and the audience themselves closure when the last episode aired.
"I always wanted and always had planned for the final episode of the series to revolve around the epilogue of the continuing story of the family, rather than the moment, and for us to be able to live heavily in a really normal day in the life of a family, long before anything had befallen them like this," said Dan to Variety in 2022 when speaking about the final season.
Who Almost Played Rebecca Pearson On This Is Us?
Another cast member of This Is Us tried out for the role of Rebecca prior to Mandy Moore securing the role, and it was none other than Alexandra Breckenridge. While she wasn't a fit for Rebecca, she went on to be cast as Sophie, who is introduced in season one as Kevin's ex-wife and high school sweetheart.
"I didn't know Mandy was testing until she walked in the room, and I was like, 'Oh yeah.' I just knew when she walked in, like, this is their show. I don't know why, but sometimes you get a gut feeling. And she got the part," said Alexandra to Glamour Magazine in 2022.
Despite being coy about her casting in the show, Dan Fogelman has said that Mandy was the clear front-runner to play Rebecca from the first time she read for the role. The two had worked together previously on Tangled, so Dan knew that Mandy was talented, but he said her first read-through of Rebecca's monologue from season one, episode two, was what really sold him.
"Watching her do it in the room and then on tape, it was very clear that she needed to do this part, she's got some serious chops, and that's really exciting," said Dan.
Who Almost Played Kate, Kevin, and Randall Pearson On This Is Us?
Chrissy Metz, Justin Hartley, and Sterling K. Brown are dynamite in their roles on This Is Us. The threesome foraged an unbreakable bond while filming as well. However, it was a struggle for the creator, Dan Fogelman, to find them in the sea of actors and actresses who auditioned.
Kevin was a particularly hard role for the team to cast. "We had seen so many actors for that part, and it was all that opening monologue about the Challenger explosion, and you hit a point where you get fatigued from hearing the same thing over and over, and we just weren't quite feeling it yet. And then Justin came in," said Dan to Entertainment Weekly. "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," said Dan.
Producers didn't know what they were going to do if Sterling K. Brown turned down the role of Randall. He was the top actor slated for prior to the audition process even starting. "We never really read anybody else — we just wanted him," said Dan to Entertainment Weekly.
"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," said Dan.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, a much slimmer Hollywood actress was being considered for the role of Kate. "The other actress was a sort of 'Hollywood overweight person,' struggling with losing, maybe, 20 pounds," said NBC Entertainment president Jennifer Salke. They ultimately went with Chrissy Metz, with Jennifer saying that she and the rest of the executives at 20th Century Fox was struck by the "authenticity" that Chrissy Metz brought to the role of Kate.
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