Mandy Moore on being frustrated with her TV husband and finally getting back to music
Yes, Mandy Moore reads your Facebook comments.
— -- Yes, Mandy Moore reads your Facebook comments.
Yes, she was upset after that episode too.
Moore currently stars as Rebecca Pearson, the matriarch in a family of three children and a devoted wife, on the NBC’s “This Is Us.” And just like viewers, she feels very strongly about the Pearson family and where life -- and death -- takes them.
“She’s deeply maternal, and this a woman I’m lucky enough to play from 23 to 66,” Moore said in an interview on ABC News’ “Popcorn with Peter Travers.”
WARNING: Major spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen the show.
Moore said she pretty much hyperventilated when she read the script where William, the birth father of Rebecca’s adopted son Randall, died.
“I was so upset, and I just remember thinking, ‘I don’t know if the country’s ready for this. We’re so fragile at this point in time anyway. Like, we’re all just barely hanging on by a thread. I don’t know if people are going to handle it,’” she said.
She also understands the frustration that some fans have with her character for wanting to pursue a music career -- even if she doesn’t agree.
“Don’t ever go on Facebook, guys, and read the comments -- but there’s so many women who are like, you know, ‘Rebecca has it all. How could she possibly, like, leave her husband and family? Isn’t that like her responsibility -- is to them and them alone?’” Moore said. “And I’m like, we’re in 2017, guys. Women can try and do it all.”
Watch the full interview with Mandy Moore on ABC News' "Popcorn with Peter Travers" in the video above.
And even though Rebecca’s husband Jack is pretty perfect, Moore said she does get frustrated with him sometimes too.
“I’m frustrated with Jack. Why couldn’t he just do it for her?! Goodness! Just take care of the kids,” she joked. “He fell apart, started drinking again. It’s like, come on!”
In real life, Milo Ventimiglia, who plays Jack, is also just as wonderful, Moore said.
“He’s the guy, I kid you not, who, like, walks around every morning and shakes every crew member’s hand and says hello to everyone,” said Moore. “I thought that I was a nice person, until I met Milo. And now I’m, like, actually scum of the earth because I don’t go around and shake everybody’s hand.”
Moore said her other castmates tend to tease each other often, so much so that she has to stay away from them when wearing her makeup as the older Rebecca.
“I can’t get involved in the teasing so much, because, first of all, Justin [Hartley] and Chris [Sullivan] are so funny. … And Sterling [K. Brown]’s really funny,” Moore said. “The makeup artist always gets upset with me, like, ‘Stop laughing. You can’t really move your mouth that much because you’re moving the prosthetics and they’re going to come unglued.”
It’s hard to believe that Moore had been considering going back to school or trying her hand at something else. She said she had just read for three failed pilots that didn’t get picked up before she received the script for the pilot of “This Is Us.”Moore says she’s grateful to “This Is Us” creator Dan Fogelman for changing her life. The two first met because he wrote the Disney movie “Tangled,” and will be working together again on Moore’s new Disney Channel show, “Tangled: The Series,” in which she voices Rapunzel.
Even if the show didn’t get picked up, Moore said she would have been proud to have a role in the pilot.“I thought, at least we’ll be proud of the work that we do if it doesn’t move forward, so as not to disappoint myself too much or get my expectations up,” she recalled. “And here we are. And a crazy journey -- we just filmed it like a year ago, so it’s been an interesting year.”
It was in the first grade that Moore said she found her calling. She was born in New Hampshire and grew up in Florida, where she went to a school with a drama program and a music program.
Moore said she dreamed of starring in the sixth-grade play.
“My goal was to be the lead in the sixth-grade play when I got there. And I was,” Moore recalled. “To me, I thought that I peaked in sixth grade … like, if I can be the lead in the play, that’s kind of going to be it for me.”
As it turned out, Moore continued to find musical success at a young age, before also pursuing an acting career. She thanks her parents for helping her stay grounded while growing up in the spotlight.
“Mom and dad never wanted to be my manager. They just were always mom and dad. And they traveled with me at a young age when I was starting off in the music industry,” Moore explained. “No one ever treated me differently so, therefore, I always regarded myself as any different.”
Now on a break from filming “This Is Us," Moore says she has time to think about making music again.
“I miss it. I miss writing. I miss performing. I miss making records,” said Moore.
Moore was just 15 when she made her music debut with “Candy” and toured with the Backstreet Boys and ‘NSync. (She admitted she had a crush on Justin Timberlake.)
Now, nearly 18 years later, she says she’s ready to make music she actually likes.
“I hadn’t even lived a life that warranted singing about anything that I knew at that point, you know? I hadn’t really loved anyone or, like, had my heart broken at 15 or 16,” said Moore.
“Now I could write all about that stuff with my eyes closed. A divorced woman,” she added laughing. "I have so much to say."
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