Top 5 Surprising Facts About This Is Us

“This Is Us” is unique in that it is constantly flashing between the past and the present. One moment Mandy Moore’s Rebecca is in her late 20s/early 30s and the next she is 66! The disparity in age is considerable, which means Moore will often spend somewhere around four hours in makeup prior to shooting. Maybe that’s part of the reason why we rarely get to see present day Rebecca. The process is rigorous and takes a superhuman effort on the part of the makeup team to make it a reality. However, as fans of the show will undoubtedly know, they do a bang up job!

If you were shocked the first time you saw Chris Sullivan in public, we don’t blame you! The actor who plays Toby on “This Is Us” is not quite as large as the show would have you believe. In fact, he wears a fat suit in order to make him appear larger. The prosthetic suit is strapped on prior to shooting and once Sullivan throws on a shirt, it is practically impossible to tell where he ends and the fat suit begins! Although this revelation was met with some controversy, Chrissy Metz has stood by her co-star, arguing that Sullivan was the best actor for the role and people often wear prosthetics in showbiz anyway.

A writer will often draw inspiration from personal experiences when working on a project. “This Is Us” creator Dan Fogelman is no different, loosely basing the character of Kate on his real life sister, Deborah. In fact, the relationship between the fictional Kate and Kevin is quite similar to that of Dan and Deborah, as Dan and Kevin both found success in show business while their sisters were struggling with their weight. Unsurprisingly, Deborah has been called upon on a number of occasions to consult on the direction of Kate’s character and will often send notes to the writers with suggestions for how she should be written.

Too often do we see hit TV shows lose their footing in later seasons because the creators never figured out how they should end. Thankfully, Dan Fogelman has a plan and he intends to stick to it. In an interview with Glamour magazine, Fogelman made it clear that he knows how the show will end, going so far as to say he already has the key moments for the next four to five seasons planned out in the back of his mind. When you have a show like “This Is Us” that takes place in different time periods, it pays to have a plan.

It may be hard to fathom, but the show’s original title was at one point quite different. “This Is Us” was originally called “36,” in reference to the age all of the characters are turning in the first episode. According to creator Dan Fogelman, he couldn’t think of a proper name for the show, so he used “36” as a working title until he could come up with something better. He eventually came up with “This Is Us” during an editing session. In fact, the decision couldn’t come soon enough, as the shows title had been a hotly debated topic amongst the cast and crew for some time!