Chrissy Metz Praises This Is Us Crew for 'Working Around' Pregnant Mandy Moore's Baby Bump
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Chrissy Metz Was 'Emotional' to Learn About Mandy Moore's Pregnancy: It Was 'Really Special'
PLUS: Metz opens up about This Is Us’ new season’s pandemic plot
Production on This Is Us season 5 is in full swing — and surprisingly, one of the least challenging parts is working around Mandy Moore's pregnancy, according to creator Dan Fogelman.
"We haven't really adjusted our plan. We're just going to work Mandy right till go time," Fogelman told reporters with a laugh on Friday during a virtual panel attended by PEOPLE. "Amongst the many challenges of this season of production, that's not a big one."
"We are so far ahead in scripts that we can compensate for things as need be," he continued. "Because our timelines are so split and because we live in so many timelines, there may be a brief period and window where you don't see a lot of old Rebecca on the show because she would have some really complicated explaining to do."
"But other than that, we're going to be sticking with the plan and we couldn't be happier for Mandy," added Fogelman, 44.
"I did tell Dan before I told most of my family, just because I wanted him to know in preparation for writing the season what to sort of expect," Moore, 36, said during the panel. "Oddly, I was nervous. I don't know why because I know you, Dan. But it was the loveliest exchange and conversation."
Eric Charbonneau/Invision/AP Chrissy Metz and Mandy Moore
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Chrissy Metz — who plays Moore's character Rebecca's daughter, Kate, on the NBC drama — said that she "was so excited, [she] cried" when Moore told her she was expecting.
Of how This Is Us will work around her baby bump, "Mandy gets to go back and forth in time; luckily she's pregnant sometimes and so she can kind of cover-up her belly," Metz, 40, told ET. "They've done a brilliant job of working around it. I don't know how, I guess it'll be magic."
Milo Ventimiglia (who plays Jack, Rebecca's husband) said that he was also "so excited" for Moore, sharing that she told her show colleagues the news while they "were all on a call talking about some stuff preseason."
"It was Dan and the whole cast and then Dan hopped off and she told all of us the news. It's wonderful news," said Ventimiglia, 43. "You get excited about that. Mandy and Taylor [Goldsmith], her husband, they are just the best people. They are the kind of folks who should be parents."
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Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Mandy Moore and Chrissy Metz
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Mandy Moore Is Pregnant! Actress Expecting a Son with Husband Taylor Goldsmith: 'Coming Early 2021'
Mandy Moore and Taylor Goldsmith got engaged in September 2017 after dating for two years and married in November 2018
PEOPLE caught up with Metz last week, when the Breakthrough actress said she was "so excited" to hear the news that her friend and costar was expecting.
"I know that she plays my mom on TV and that we're friends, but I don't know, it was just really special and it made me very emotional," Metz said. "So I'm very, very happy and excited for them."
Moore and her musician husband, who married in an intimate backyard ceremony in November 2018, first announced their exciting baby news last month.
"Baby Boy Goldsmith coming early 2021 💙," the proud mom-to-be wrote alongside several black-and-white snaps that showed the couple beaming and showing off Moore's baby bump.
This Is Us' two-hour season 5 premiere airs Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.
