Backroom Casting Couch - They're Real And They're Spectacular

And it was just like we knew. It was just [Beth] trying to figure him out and making sure he wasn't going to bring Randall any more pain than he already had. It took me aback — I didn't realise how it put my name and my image on the map as an actor in Los Angeles and Hollywood. The series was a balm during the Bad Times, and its brightest light was its Blackest characters (thanks in large part to two Black women, writer Eboni Freeman and executive producer and director Kay Oyegun). And he whispered something to me. And I was like, "Okay, mom, I don't think I booked this. "

She's not the wife whose sole job is to support her husband. Maxson, who also served as associate producer and appears in the film, lives in Petaluma with two young daughters and her husband, fellow actor Gabe Maxson, who also appears in Burn Country; his semicomic turn as an inquisitive, philosophical, and deeply inebriated thespian leavens the film at a crucial moment. Herman (Annie): It was my first audition. Baker (Tess): I had an audition for an untitled drama series by Dan Fogelman and I went in, and I had no idea that it was even going to be this big NBC show. Ross: Even with their mistakes, The Pearsons took them in and acknowledged them. At the audition] If I remember correctly, Sterling and Susan were there, Eris, Faithe, Ken Olin the director, and I think Dan Fogleman was there too. A whole one (what a concept! ) So the entire first season, I kind of avoided meeting [Sterling] because I didn't want to overly do it and have it not come off real and authentic, because even though they are both Randall, younger him wouldn't act the same as adult him. Herman: I hope people will take away from this show is that seeing how family — especially Randall and Beth — come together and how they support one another and how they deal with real life issues. They existed for like five minutes before everybody got cell phones. So I went in and auditioned for William. Ross (Deja): At that point, I was going on all of these auditions and I wasn't getting any calls back and I didn't know what was going on.

Beth Pearson, my mother, my best friend, my everything. Cephas Jones: We're in a difficult time. Enter: Deja (Lyric Ross). Ross: I think out of all of us, Faithe should be the older sister. That says a lot about her that's all I'm going to say [laughs]. He says not to call him Mr. Sterling, but it's still hard because I'm from the south. There were a lot of other people in the room too. And so what would it mean if they weren't a couple anymore?

Kelechi Watson: At first it was tough [between Beth and Deja], but I always saw it as the challenge of what it was to adopt an older child. We never sat and said, "What do you think about our chemistry? I remember I got a knock on the door the first day of filming for me and it was Sterling, Eris, and Faithe and I opened the door and they were all screaming like, "Yay, you're on This Is Us now! " It meant a lot to me for them to just be normal folks. I'm grateful that I could say I was there when it started. I think Eris was the most emotional, which was so sweet. This is about to end. " But filming it was really cool because Logan [Shroyer who plays teen Kevin] and I — he started This Is Us when he was 18. Kelechi Watson: Normal can be really special. Kelechi Watson: I love that scene with Ron [when Beth and William get high].

Randall puts the "Pearson" in the Black Pearsons and it's not just his name that makes him a key member of the family. I was like, "Really? " And just to have that, to have pretty much a blueprint in your family of what a man should be and what a relationship shouldn't be. And I don't even remember what it was because we were just caught up in the moment. A lot of us don't really know how to do that yet. Deja was taking everything out on these people who were welcoming her and taking her in. And I was right for a few, but I never doubted R&B. Who gives up on her dreams of becoming a dancer but finds a new professional passion in teaching dance. But it was the minutiae of life. I literally had just come back from swim class and was ready to lay down and then I got the call.

Baker: Those are my girls for life. And people were like, "He probably walked away to cry. " Even with the Pearson sisters, it was the same with them. The result is a dyed-in-the-wool Northern Californian artist, with focus and skill to spare, in a complicated, challenging role.

Herman: I can't imagine how nervous Lyric was but soon as we met her, it was so nice. Their bond — like the need for a box of tissues for every episode — was the show's one constant unwavering good thing. Everybody knows those problems in some way, shape, or form, and this was giving us a chance to just live with those issues and problems and try to get through them the best way that we knew how. And he just kept laughing and walking away. It's a look so awesome that if she were to appear on the cover of a magazine, she might set off a fierce new trend in feminist glamour. Kelechi Watson: For [Ron] to now be experiencing the type of success he is and getting the type of love he is now after all his years in this is just so well deserved and so amazing to watch. And that's what we did for six years, we were a family and that was it. Randall is the perfect dad. There are rooms that he and I will both be in and we get treated completely differently. I wouldn't be talking to my dad today if it wasn't for William. We're not real brothers in real life, we were put in situations where those conversations have made us [closer] so it was real cool. It's always just been us really trying to be as honest as possible. In the scene, I pick up one leaf and I'm trying to figure out how I'm supposed to eat it and they were like.

I remember seeing Sterling and Susan walk into the room before anybody else... You know how you get this chill when greatness walks through? Randall and Beth (R&B) Forever. Since day one, it was a sisterhood and me, Lyric and Faithe, we love each other like sisters, we fight like sisters, on and off the camera. We just start joking around and people calling other people out. Susan kelechi watson. As for the role], I've heard a lot of feedback from former foster kids who are adults now and it blows my mind every time because when they tell me how spot on I was with every decision and every choice in the portrayal, it's incredible because these are people who actually went through it. He's doting to the point of annoyance, armed with a dad joke at all times, and fiercely protective of his girls. And I was just like, "I love you guys and I don't know what I'm doing. " My mom remembers sitting by Eris and she doesn't normally talk to any kids at an audition. Oh God, my voice is getting shaky. Several times during our talk, one or the other of the two girls interrupts us, and Maxson gently scoots them back out, her calm responses to their requests always involving the word "sweetie. And to be able to see a family like this, I know it means a lot to people. But how did he get there?

He was just not having it. Cephas Jones: When I got to LA, [Sterling and I] sat across the table from one another, we were already very familiar with one another because in New York we were brought together by Tarell McCraney, the MacArthur writer who wrote Moonlight. We're still going to keep in touch, well they better keep in touch with me! Fortunately he was adopted by the right people who showered him with love, but also neglected to understand that there was a part of him that was longing for something. It was amazing how [the writers] were able to capture that. Cephas Jones: I always wished I had more time with those two, Eris and Faithe. "He came here, and I got out my flip camera, do you remember those?

But they didn't start me off easy. I'm still intimidated by him. A flashback scene in Season 2, Episode 3 with Annie and William as he tries to slip out of the Pearson house the first night Randall brings him home. I think that's when I started getting teary eyed. Cephas Jones: The [reaction to William] was worldwide.

My mom's dad passed away when I was two years old in 2009. Everyone knew all along that was only going to be six seasons but it was very hard to express myself. A lot of people felt happy that William gave them an opportunity to go back and experience it. During production, both parents juggled their jobs as theater teachers at the University of San Francisco an hour away, and shared childcare duties.

So he said that it's okay to mess up and that's a part of learning. And he would be like, "Stop it. "