This Is Us ' Jon Huertas Reveals That Miguel Was Almost a Totally Different Character

This is us having our minds blown by Jon Huertas.

In an exclusive interview with E! News, the This Is Us star revealed that his character, Miguel Rivas—best friend to Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) and eventual second husband to Jack's wife, Rebecca (Mandy Moore)—was very different on paper before he was cast on the NBC drama. Specifically, Huertas shared that the character was originally named Mike and was not identified as a Latin American male.

"I was the only person of color up for the role," he recalled. "I had come from another chemistry read for another show, One Day at a Time, and the casting people from that show thought, 'Oh my god, maybe he's a perfect Mike.'"

However, this was not shared with Huertas until after the fact, as he originally thought that he was a "token" person of color to audition for the show. He was happily proven wrong.

"Not even 30 minutes after I left the room after meeting Dan [Fogelman], John [Requa] and Ken [Olin], they called me and said, 'If you want Mike, he's yours.'" he told E!. "What's great about this job is that Dan, Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger always had an open door with me and allowed me to collaborate with them to build out who Miguel is, and was, after being cast."

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Case in point: "After about three episodes, they changed the name to Miguel, to speak to his heritage," Huertas shared.

The Miguel-centric episode in season six, which aired on May 3, seemed to make reference to this origin story. In the episode, Miguel applies for a job under the name Mike Rivers, as he hadn't gotten any interview offers by using his legal name.

Huertas further emphasized his personal connection to Miguel, telling E! News at the NBC Upfronts red carpet on May 16, "His story is my story...feeling like you're stuck between two different worlds and you don't fit. All of our stories come from very personal places and I think that's what makes an audience want to tune in, they want to feel like we're gifting them with that. That we're connecting with them."

This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on NBC.

(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)

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