In this exclusive interview, we talk with Mandy Moore about her time playing Rebecca on This Is Us, and everything she learned about motherhood from it.
By now, everybody knows This Is Us, one of the best series aired, in my opinion, is going to end! I’m pretty sure, just like me, we all cried rivers watching the episodes, especially in this last season. Last night, the penultimate episode was broadcasting at NBC at 9:00pm and I had my tissues ready. If you missed it, you can watch it now at NBC website and on Hulu.
This Is Us follows the Pearson family across the decades: from Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) as young parents in the 1980s to their kids (the big three), Kevin (Justin Hartley), Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Randall (Sterling K. Brown) searching for love and fulfillment in the present day along with Toby (Chris Sullivan) and Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson).
This grounded, life-affirming dramedy reveals how the tiniest events in our lives impact who we become, and how the connections we share with each other can transcend time, distance and even death.
Mandy Moore, who plays Rebecca, delivers an outstanding performance throughout the seasons. I think she ended up playing three versions of the same character in different ages. She does really great job!
I had the honor to chat with her about Rebecca, the last season, how much she learned about motherhood playing her, and so much more.
When she did the pilot, Moore never thought the show would be successful,
“I remembered being floored and then, when the show got picked up, I was like ‘what?’ and I guess we tell the story linearly like bringing the babies home from the hospital and then Dan was like ‘no, that’s not how we’re doing it, we’re sort pf going to tell these stories all out of the order and we’re going to jump around in time’ […] and I was like ‘whoa’ and I was going to be playing this woman present day like none of that was obviously in the pilot. So, I had no idea what was in store for me, that the show was going to connect with people, was going to resonate so deeply that we would be here six seasons.”
We also spoke about how she plays different versions of Rebecca and how she prepares herself to it and when I asked her which Rebecca version, she like the most, she said: “for different reasons, I love playing present day Rebecca allows me to work with everybody, like pretty much everyone on the show but Milo, but the younger Rebecca is what made the present day Rebecca.”
Moore learned a lot playing Rebecca and she’s still digesting and learning.
“Family is the penultimate, is the most important and I feel like I’ve always known that, and I’ve always lived that, but since becoming a mother myself in the last year like it just everything has crystallized in a way and makes sense in a way that I never expected and obviously hadn’t experienced before [..] I’ve learned patience, I’ve learned just the importance of forgiveness, of mot judging one another, everybody sort of grieves at their own pace […] I want to go back and re-watch the show when we’re done and I feel like it again being a parent now I will probably change the way I parent.”
Full Mandy Moore Interview
Check it out the full interview with Mandy Moore below to get the inside scoop on This Is Us, and her time as Rebecca.
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About This Is Us
Jack and his wife – who is very pregnant with triplets – have just moved into their new home in Pittsburgh. Successful and handsome television actor Kevin is growing increasingly bored with his bachelor lifestyle. Randall – who was abandoned at a fire station by his father as an infant – is a stylish New York-based businessman working to raise two daughters with his wife, Beth. These people are among a group, several of whom share a birthday, of seemingly random individuals whose lives intertwine in unexpected ways.
The This Is Us series finale airs on Tuesday, May 24 at 9/8c on NBC, streaming next day on Peacock.
