‘This Is Us’: Which Season 4 Star Wasn’t a ‘Huge Mega-Fan’ Before Landing the Role?
If you’re tired of hearing re-caps about the This Is Us Season 4 fall finale, rest assured, the show returns soon. The cast and crew have been off doing other things while on hiatus. One of the stars took the time to discuss the fact that the hit NBC series wasn’t on their list of “favorites.” Here’s the scoop.
The cast of ‘This Is Us’ holds one unique tradition that may not prove true with newer cast members
The cast of This Is Us has become a tight-knit group over the last few years. Since the show began in 2016, two of the actors have spoken at length about the tradition that began from the pilot episode.
Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia may play mom and dad Pearson on the show, but in real life, they’re close friends, watching every episode together in creator, Dan Fogelman’s office.
“We have watched every episode except one together for the entire history of the show,” Moore previously told Huffington Post. She explained that no matter what’s going on throughout the day, they meet up in [Fogelman’s office] to cry together.
While the rest of the cast might join in, Ventigmigla and Moore lead by example. With all the new cast members who joined in season 4, some wonder if they, too, appear in Fogelman’s office to watch. There’s one star who revealed This Is Us wasn’t on the radar until landing the role.
This star wasn’t an established fan of the hit series before getting the part
The season 4 premiere of This Is Us featured a whole new supporting cast for fans to love. Blake Stadnik, who plays adult Jack Damon, is among them.
In fact, it was Jack who revealed the first big twist of the season, teasing a new storyline with this mystery man called “J,” only to pull the curtain in the end with “J’s” performance of “Mesmerized,” as adult Jack.
Jack’s “big reveal” connected a lot of other Pearson threads, making his place on the show invaluable. However, Stadnik wasn’t always a fan of the show.
“I had seen a couple episodes, but it wasn’t really something that I was sticking with. I don’t know how that happened, because once I got the part, I binged the whole first three seasons in, like, a week and a half, and laughed and cried my eyes out,” he told Entertainment Weekly.
“And being from Pittsburgh and I have a very diverse family, I have no idea how I wasn’t already a huge mega-fan. But now I definitely am.”
Considering Fogelman set out to hire a visually-impaired actor to highlight inclusivity, we’re sure Stadnik happily champions the series now.
He further explained how working on the show touched him on a personal level.
“When I was diagnosed [with Stargardt Disease], I was six years old [and my mom] said to me, ‘I never want you to use this as an excuse and I never want you to let this stop you’,” he said.
“And when Kate said that, that reminded me so much of my own mother. I am so proud to be playing a visually impaired character that is so strong, and it is so successful because it gives a great example to children with disabilities of someone in the mainstream culture that they can look to and say, ‘If he can do it, I can do it.'”
How much of Stadnik will fans get in the back-half of ‘This Is Us’ season 4?
Like everyone else on the cast of This Is Us, Stanik remains tight-lipped about future cameos.
“I love being on the show, but I can’t say when or if I’m going to be back,” he said. “The show uses twists and turns so much as a wonderful tool for storytelling, I really can’t give anything away.”
Whether Stanik shows up in scenes or not, we’re just happy the Pearsons are on their way back to finish out season 4.
This Is Us returns Tuesday, January 14, at 9 p.m. ET.
