Photo: Ron Batzdorff/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
This Is Usis gone, but not forgotten — especially in the hearts of its stars, who still have some scenes they would like to see on screen.
The cast of the fan-favorite NBC family drama, whichended its 106-episode runon May 24, toldEntertainment Weeklyabout some of the scenarios that they pitched to series creatorDan Fogelman— and some that are only written in their hearts.
From a heavily in-demand Pearson family vacation that never materialized to heart-to-heart talks between beloved family patriarch Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) and even a little more hanky panky between one of the show’s couples, find out what they would have like to bring to the screen!
Ron Batzdorff/NBC
Susan Kelechi Watson, who plays Beth on the show, said she wishes there had been more intimate moments between her character and Randall (Sterling K. Brown).
Noted Watson, 40: “People expressed that they felt like it was important to see … them still have that spark and that love in their marriage. Well, we’ll just have to imagine that it was there one of those nights when the head scarf and the coconut oil was on the side table.”
NBC
Watson wasn’t the only cast member who would have liked to see more bonding between certain characters. Even though it would be impossible in light of the Pearson patriarch Jack’s premature death, Ventimiglia said he would have loved if Jack could have gotten to know his kids' spouses.
“I think Jack would’ve loved to have had a conversation with his daughter-in-law and his son-in-law and see these people that his kids had fallen in love with,” he mused. “So to work with Susan, to work with Sully — I mean, s—, just to work with Chrissy a little bit more, or Justin or Sterling a little bit more. You come out the end of six years and I feel like I don’t know them as well as they know each other, and that’s kind of heartbreaking to me — but also I do know them and they do know me.”
Sullivan, 41, also had a vision for a meeting of the minds between the two main men in Kate’s life for most of the series.
Ventimiglia, 44, added of the actor who played a younger version of his onscreen brother: “I would’ve liked more withMichael Angarano[as young Nicky]. That was the one thing that I did not agree with Jack on, how he shut his brother out. It was a reallyhard pill to swallowfor me. But that’s what people do.”
Ron Batzdorff/NBC.
Ron Cephas Jones, whowon an Emmyfor playing William, pointed out that his and Metz’s characters rarely had dialogue with each other on the show, something he would like to change if he could go back.
“But I never had a scene with Chrissy where we actually talk,” Cephas Jones, 65, toldEW. “Except when she comes in to the Christmas dinner [in season 1], but then the scene ends. That’s what I thought about quite a bit: ‘Damn, I never had a scene with Chrissy where we’re introduced properly.’ It could be something where she just happened to be there, and I’m playing the piano and she starts singing a song. I thought maybe that might happen since she sings and I’m musician and a poet, but it never came so.”
Ron Batzdorff/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
Several of the actors shared their desire for more travel-oriented episodes.
“We always wanted to do a family vacation,” revealed Moore, 38. “And we pitched Dan on it, and I think there was a time where we were going to go to Pittsburgh. And we were supposed to go to a Steelers game, present-day and in the past, and that didn’t happen because of COVID.”
She recalled, “I was like, ‘Can we go to Niagara Falls? Can we go to the Grand Canyon? Can the Pearsons have some sort of family vacation?’ And that wish fulfillment never came to fruition, but that’s the one thing I wish we had been able to do.”
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Hartley, 45, also pitched a tropical family vacation — with a somewhat dark twist.
“I always thought it would be great [that] maybe when Kevin was still struggling with his addiction — not that that’s funny, but I think this would be really funny — if they decided that the intervention was, ‘Hey, we gotta get Kevin back on the right track. Let’s all go on a family vacation to Hawaii.’ And Kevin realizes when he gets to Hawaii that it’s an intervention, and he’s stuck on an island. He’s forced to do this. I thought that would be an interesting episode.”
“We were going to go to New Orleans formy birth mom episodeand in the middle of COVID that got taken [away]. We had to figure things out. [It was filmed in the Los Angeles area.] That would’ve been cool,” said theEmmy winner, 46.
Huertas, 52, said he would have wanted to shoot a camping trip with the Pearson kids and Miguel’s biological son.
“I would have really liked to have done a father-son camping trip with Jack, Kevin, Randall and Miguel’s son, Andy,” he shared. “The drama, bonding, and display of friendship and love of Jack and Miguel would’ve made for a great piece of an episode. And I think we could’ve seen two different parenting styles exchanged with the kids, where Miguel’s wisdom solves what Randall and Kevin are dealing with and Jack’s could’ve affected Andy’s.”
For Metz, 41:“I wish I would’ve seen Kate pursue her music more. And maybe that’s just selfish because I’m a singer and I love to see that journey through any reality show or anybody that’s new in the music world. So much of it was always start-and-stop with Kate, I would’ve loved to have seen her do a real cool gig or even start singing back up for some big artist. I think that would’ve been really fun.”
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That said, the stars did find a lot to love in six tear-jerking, heartwarming seasons ofThis Is Us— most importantly, each other.
“We’re very close. We’re a very, very close family and we have beenfrom the beginning,” Mooretold PEOPLEin January as she looked ahead to the series finale.
And carrying that sense of family with us is exactly where Fogelman, 46, landed when he toldEWwhat message he ultimately hoped fans would take away from his show.
He shared, “You never lose anyone, because you’re living in six different versions of your own life in a given moment, and you’re carrying the pieces of people forward.”
source: people.com
