This Is Us stars reveal the one scene they wish they could have done

Dan Snierson
·7 min read

This Is Us drilled down on all sorts of family dynamics and offered up myriad plot twists over its six-season run, but there are only so many emotional gut-punches and so much Big Three jollity that one can stuff into 106 episodes. That's why we asked the cast of the recently departed family drama if there was one scene or episode that they had always wanted to do but never had the chance. It could be absurd. It could be serious. And, sure, it could be immune to all budget restraints. The actors furrowed their brows, stroked their chins, and reached deep into their reservoir of dreams to pull out something unfulfilled from their wishlist. Interested in watching Kevin (Justin Hartley) at the center of a Hawaii-set intervention episode? Want to see Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) on an obstacle-laced romantic date night? Can you imagine Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Miguel (Jon Huertas) taking young Randall, young Kevin, and Miguel's son, Andy, on a father-son camping trip? Fill up your canteen and drink in these colorful could've-been scenarios.

This is Us
This is Us

Ron Batzdorff/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images 'This Is Us' stars Susan Kelechi Watson and Sterling K. Brown shooting a scene

Susan Kelechi Watson (Beth)

"I always wanted to do a real love scene between Randall and Beth. I felt like we've seen that with Kevin and his loves. And we seen even with Kate [Chrissy Metz] and Toby and definitely with Rebecca [Mandy Moore] and Jack, I don't think Randall and Beth ever got one. And I get it; they've been in the game for a while, but look, they're still in love. They still get it poppin'. I always wanted them to have this episode where they fight for a date night and finally get it. I hear couples do schedule a night to be intimate with one another and have sex and all this. And [Beth and Randall] just keep missing each other. And then it just goes down in some way that they didn't expect. People expressed that they felt like it was important to see that. That would be something that would be nice to see, is them still have that spark and that love in their marriage. Well, we'll just have to imagine that it was there one of those nights when the head scarf and the coconut oil was on the side table. [Laughs]"

Milo Ventimiglia (Jack)

"There's too many, honest to God. I think Jack would've loved to have had a conversation with his daughter-in-law and his son-in-law and see these people that his kids had fallen in love with. So to work with Susan, to work with Sully — I mean, shit, just to work with Chrissy a little bit more, or Justin or Sterling a little bit more. You come out the end of six years and I feel like I don't know them as well as they know each other, and that's kind of heartbreaking to me — but also I do know them and they do know me. I would've liked more with Michael Angarano [as young Nicky]. That was the one thing that I did not agree with Jack on, how he shut his brother out. It was a really hard pill to swallow for me. But that's what people do. Mandy and I had so much fun, but still, if there was, like, one more thing to do... Mandy and I always wanted a family vacation to Hawaii that we never got. So yeah, let's break the bank on a family vacation episode."

Mandy Moore (Rebecca)

"We always wanted to do a family vacation. And we pitched Dan [Fogelman, the show's creator] on it, and I think there was a time where we were going to go to Pittsburgh. And we were supposed to go to a Steelers game, present-day and in the past, and that didn't happen because of COVID. I was like, 'Can we go to Niagara Falls? Can we go to the Grand Canyon? Can the Pearsons have some sort of family vacation?' And that wish fulfillment never came to fruition, but that's the one thing I wish we had been able to do."

Chrissy Metz (Kate)

"I wish I would've seen Kate pursue her music more. And maybe that's just selfish because I'm a singer and I love to see that journey through any reality show or anybody that's new in the music world. So much of it was always start-and-stop with Kate, I would've loved to have seen her do a real cool gig or even start singing back up for some big artist. I think that would've been really fun."

Justin Hartley (Kevin)

"I always thought it would be great [that] maybe when Kevin was still struggling with his addiction — not that that's funny, but I think this would be really funny — if they decided that the intervention was, 'Hey, we gotta get Kevin back on the right track. Let's all go on a family vacation to Hawaii.' And Kevin realizes when he gets to Hawaii that it's an intervention, and he's stuck on an island. He's forced to do this. I thought that would be an interesting episode."

Sterling K. Brown (Randall)

"We were going to go to New Orleans for my birth mom episode and in the middle of COVID that got taken [away]. We had to figure things out. [It was filmed in the Los Angeles area.] That would've been cool…. I had one episode where Tobias and Randall got to bond over their mental health and how they were coping with that. It got truncated a little bit. I wish it would've had a fuller breath because I thought it was a pretty fun time. And we didn't get a chance to do a whole bunch together but it was always fun when we did."

Chris Sullivan (Toby)

"I would've loved to have had some kind of fantastical scene between Toby and Jack — a dream sequence. A lot would've been revealed about the character of both men by giving them the chance to meet face to face. It's a delicate relationship that he had with his son and his daughter and wife, and then we all came in, long after he was gone."

Jon Huertas (Miguel)

"I would have really liked to have done a father-son camping trip with Jack, Kevin, Randall and Miguel's son, Andy. The drama, bonding, and display of friendship and love of Jack and Miguel would've made for a great piece of an episode. And I think we could've seen two different parenting styles exchanged with the kids, where Miguel's wisdom solves what Randall and Kevin are dealing with and Jack's could've affected Andy's."

Ron Cephas Jones (William)

"I did have some scenes with Justin when he lives with us for a little time and we have a little bit of comedic banter. I had a little quick scene with Mandy in the bedroom. And I had a quick flashback scene with Milo where we're sitting on the couch, laughing together. Chris, we never had really a scene together, but we were closer in proximity in the Christmas scene when he faints. But I never had a scene with Chrissy where we actually talk. Except when she comes in to the Christmas dinner [in season 1], but then the scene ends. That's what I thought about quite a bit: 'Damn, I never had a scene with Chrissy where we're introduced properly.' It could be something where she just happened to be there, and I'm playing the piano and she starts singing a song. I thought maybe that might happen since she sings and I'm musician and a poet, but it never came so."

Say goodbye to the Pearsons with EW's special This Is Us edition, available to purchase online or wherever magazines are sold.

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