Miguel Rivas may be the last person one of the Pearsons goes to when they make decisions. But on Tuesdays This is us, his portraitist named all the photos.
Jon Huertas, a regular, headed up “The Ride,” an hour that followed when Kevin / Madison, Kate / Toby / Ellie, Rebecca / Jack and Randall / Beth took new babies from the hospital over the years brought. And at the end of the episode, a new episode of the Rebecca-centric flash-forward showed Annie and Deja – who was pregnant – arriving at Kevin’s house. (Read a full recap, then dive deep into the flash forward with our detailed guide.)
TVLine jumped on the phone with Huertas on Tuesday to discuss his episodic directorial debut, which included filming scenes with his very pregnant co-star, Mandy Moore. (“She was there. She could have broken her water on one of my shoot days!”)
TVLINE How did you come to direct this one?
I’ve been commissioned to direct the show pretty much since season one. We have a show that is a very desirable show to direct because of our cast. Many television and feature film directors wanted to sit in that director’s chair. So being an episodic director for the first time, I had to wait my turn, bide my time. One of the things I wanted to make sure – we had this conversation, me and [series creator] Dan Fogelman – I didn’t want to be in my first episode that I directed. I wanted to be able to focus on directing because I ultimately wanted to be a full-time professional there. To be an actor in it too would have been a lot more difficult. We found a hole where I wouldn’t be in the episode I filmed, and I wasn’t that much in the episode before. They were able to pile up all of my work so I could be there for the entire preparation period, because that’s the most important part of directing, the preparation.
I think Dan also thought this episode suited me, from conversations we’ve had in the past, what Kevin’s character is to me, he’s the character I interact with most personally. His desire to be accepted by his family. This is when Kevin realizes that I have to dedicate myself and my time to this new family, and that’s a decision I had to make at some point. Where I couldn’t dwell on what I was missing in my life, family friendly. And it had to be about me and my family, and more about my future than my past. That’s something I thought was really great about this episode, which they did for Justin [Hartley]’s character, which made him the decision to finally make a real proposal and really commit to this family he founded with Madison.
TVLINE These flash forwards are being heavily scrutinized by fans – and writers like me. With that in mind, was directing those scenes completely different from how you approached the rest of the episode?
Yes and no. What’s no different is that all of our episodes are a smaller part of a bigger story. And as that flash-forward ties into that overarching story of the entire series, I see it as one of the Legos in this thing that I’m building. But the part we should focus on is what they say, what do they do, and how do we make sure they don’t give anything away? And how do we shoot to be sure of that? And so the challenges were simply to find actresses who embodied who our younger versions of who are Annie, Tess and Deja are. That was the most challenging element, and I think we managed it very well. There is a scene that was removed from the episode with the adult Annie in it who is plain remarkable how much she looks like our Annie. As much as Faithe [Herman]But for the time being, we had to cut some of the episode. When I see those three girls standing side by side, from Randall’s POV, I am amazed how much they look like them, how much they look like them, how much they embody them.
… When Randall had that talk to Beth about wanting a big family and a big family tree, it was another way of showing that he got his dream, his wish, with these three beautiful girls. And one of them, Deja, we show in the car that she is expecting a baby. That speaks directly to where he says, “You’re going to give me grandchildren.” For me, that was the most important part of that scene, not so much what happens to the family and Rebecca in the future.
TVLINE Rebecca as a new mom dealing with everything that happened to her is not a Rebecca we’ve seen a lot on this show. This episode is directly about the character’s grief and shock. What were you and Mandy Moore talking about when you talked about those scenes?
The last time we saw Rebecca emotionally in that place was on episode 1 × 03, of the first season. And so I watched that episode and I said, “I want to do this right. I want it to feel like a piece of that episode.” But at the same time, we’re at a different time – the car ride home … the whole episode goes about everyone’s ride home with new babies – so what does that piece feel like? Because the reality is you have to be a mother now … We had to show the moment when she decides, “I have to be a mother.” … That was important to us: to let Mandy play through the grief of losing a child, but also the need to be a mother, which is almost instinctive. So we talked about that a lot, and I think it came across very well. Mandy did a great job of walking a really fine line to keep a little bit of that grief, but also to find this instinct.
And what was great was that Mandy herself was about to become a mom while we were recording it. She was 37 weeks pregnant. She was there. She could have actually broken her water on one of my play days. And I’m so glad she didn’t. [Laughs] [Editor’s note: On Tuesday, Moore and husband Taylor Goldsmith announced the birth of their son, Gus.]