As ‘This is Us’ ends, Mandy Moore ‘excited,’ ‘scared’ as new musical chapter begins

It’s about 24 hours before Mandy Moore’s family drama “This is Us” airs its series finale on NBC, and the actress is a jumble of emotions about how this one major ending in her life is giving way to a whole new chapter of beginnings.

For six seasons, Moore has gained critical acclaim playing the family matriarch, Rebecca Pearson, on “This is Us” over different ages and generations. After Tuesday, though, she will resume her career as a musician and songwriter, kicking off her first major tour in over a decade to promote her album, “In Real Life.”

“I feel really grateful to have the tour to process my feelings because I think I might be curled up in the fetal position in my house otherwise,” Moore, 38, told The News & Observer, the day after the series finale was screened for a VIP audience in Los Angeles.

“It’s very bittersweet, but I get to feel all of these feelings, and like put them on stage every day and not just kind of jump into another job,” she said. “Which I feel like I would have a lot of trouble with because I would just compare and contrast it to ‘This is Us.’”

Yet, she acknowledges that separating her music from “This is Us” isn’t so simple. The TV show influenced her desire to return to music, she said, and much has happened in her personal life since the series debuted in 2016 that has informed her songs. She married fellow musician Taylor Goldsmith of the group Dawes in 2018. They had their first son, a boy named Gus in 2021.

“I feel like ‘This is Us’ opened up the idea of music back in my life again,” Moore said. “It put me back face-to-face with musicians. Literally being in the studio, and I just remember coming away from that going, I need this, I have to figure out how this is going to be a bigger part of my life again. It activated something in me.”

The studio album, “In Real Life,” which was released in May, is her first LP since she and Goldsmith had their son. It’s a followup to her March 2020 album, “Silver Landings,” which was Moore’s first album in more than a decade.

Moore’s In Real Life Tour launches June 10 in Atlanta and will stop at the Carolina Theatre of Durham on June 12. It’s a far leap from the pop music of her teen years — 1999’s single, “Candy” — but will get a nod on the setlist, she told The N&O.

We talked with the Emmy, Grammy and Golden Globe-nominated singer-songwriter and actress ahead of her upcoming performance. Here are excerpts.

Q: The series finale of “This is Us” is airing Tuesday and was screened last night. What can you tease about it and what do you hope fans will take away from it?

Moore: It’s beautiful in its simplicity. It is sort of summarizing what the show has kind of been all along. I think it’ll be a gentle hug for people. It will leave people with a cheerful smile on their face. It’s kind of everything people have gravitated towards the show and loved about the show, just very simply put. It’s not a heavy-handed finale.

So much of this episode feels like a real flashback, like a time capsule. Because we filmed it four years ago. It’s really cool in that sense, because I didn’t know what it was. I had totally forgotten everything that they had done.

Watching it yesterday, I felt like a real audience member. I could really engage with it and not know what was coming. And I loved it. I got to kind of just ride the roller coaster and say goodbye to this family that way. I think people will ultimately be very satisfied.

Q: What was the inspiration behind this album?

Moore: Well, it was written at a time in the early, early days of the pandemic, sort of like the response to trying to process everything. And then shortly thereafter, I found out that I was pregnant.

So, a lot of emotions factoring in to that, and again really leaning on music and trying to process what this next chapter of my life was gonna look like if things were to change so dramatically.

Thinking about my own childhood and my parents and how grateful I was for them and grateful for my husband. There was so much I think that colored what ended up getting written about for this record.

Q: Are there any interesting stories behind how a particular song on this album was written or made?

Moore: I’ll be able to listen back years from now and remember what a moment in time it was. Starting out in the beginning of the pandemic, where it was just my husband and I writing together in a room and then slowly, but surely, branching out to close friends and sitting outside six feet apart with masks on.

The germ of this album really came from one song, the last song on the record. (“Every Light.”)

We’d been trying to have a family for a while, and it just wasn’t happening. And so this was like, our cathartic attempt at trying to just make sense of this time. It’s our little melody for our future family member that hopefully would join us at some point, just letting them know, like, “We’re here, we’re waiting for you, we know you’ll find your way to us at some point.”

And I think that’s kind of what unlocked the whole process.

It really was just Taylor and I, I’ll never forget, on a random evening when we all sort of would have a glass of wine as soon as it turned 5 o’clock, and we’re sitting on the floor of our living room and just sort of disappointed and thinking, “When is this going to happen for us?” And writing this song together and feeling the catharsis of like, “Ooh.” It felt good to get it out and it opened the door for writing the rest of the record.

Q: You haven’t been on tour in a while. What are you most excited and most nervous about with going back on the road?

Moore: It’s been 15 years. I’m excited about everything and scared of everything. My life looks very different now than it did the last time I was on the road. With my husband and our baby, it will definitely look a little different. Days off will be spent finding ways to occupy Gus.

It really is a family affair and I know it’ll never be like this again.

My husband and their band tour all the time. They are always on the road, and the fact that they had this little break in their schedule where we could share this time together and play this music ... We wrote this and the last record together, but I just never in my wildest dreams thought we’d ever be able to tour it together.

So that’s what I’m most excited about is being able to look to my side every night, and there’s the love of my life.

Q: Will you have any old songs on your set list for fans?

Moore: We will be revisiting some songs from the past, but there are plenty of songs that I don’t think deserve to be revisited. We’re going to do our renditions of “Candy” and “I Wanna Be with You” and “Only Hope.” It’ll be fun to have our own new iterations and arrangements with this band.

Q: With two musicians, I’m assuming music is almost always playing in your house. What artists do you listen to the most, or is it a lot of creating music together?

Moore: Definitely. That happens a lot. There’s a lot of jazz and really playing the classics for Gus. He’s really into “Wheels on the Bus” right now. We make up a lot of songs for him and we practice a lot of our songs, as well. So it’s just mom and dad singing in harmony a lot.

One day he’s gonna be like you guys, shut up.

Q: How has your success on “This is Us” impacted your music career?

Moore: I’m well aware that there are probably plenty of people who had no idea that I did music before the show. I don’t begrudge that at all. And if they want to come to the show there’s definitely going to be some songs from “This is Us,” and hopefully they like the other music, too.

It’s part of my character’s backstory.

I really feel like so much credit goes to the show of just unlocking music and not being scared of it anymore.

Q: What do you mean by being scared of music?

Moore: I just had so many emotions and fear and lack of confidence or lack of self-awareness, like so much wrapped up in my relationship to music. I just compartmentalized and put it on the back burner. I was like well, even though that’s something that served me so much in the past, it’s not a part of my life anymore moving forward.

I had a lot of baggage around it and it really was the show that helped me go, it doesn’t matter: Figure out how to incorporate it into your life again, because there’s no reason that it can’t be.

Q: As an artist, how does the singing side of your career feed you, and what does the acting side do for you?

Moore: From a very surface level, the idea of taking ownership of the music and having complete creative control, and all the responsibility resting on your shoulders is amazing. And it really fulfills one side of me, I guess, the control freak. I love to see a vision through from start to finish.

Then there’s the other side that quite frankly, I love as well, which is being a part of a team and a whole machine of watching something come together as a collective, and working on it and being proud of the work that we all contribute and bring to the table. I consistently thrive on getting a little bit of both of those.

Q: “This is Us” really introduced you as an actress to a lot of people. Do you see yourself pursuing another TV series or film at some point in the future?

Moore: I’m excited to figure that out and allow myself a little distance to figure out how this experience shaped me and what I want to do in the future.

I think so much of how I want to spend my time has changed to becoming a parent. I am so much more guarded with my boundaries and advocating for myself.

This show was such a gift on every single level, I know nothing will ever be it. So I’ve reconciled that I can’t even factor it in when I’m figuring out what comes next. I’m excited for a challenge of something I haven’t done before.

Q: Is there anything that you’re looking forward to specifically about being in North Carolina?

Moore: I spent a fair amount of time in that part of the country, and we filmed “A Walk to Remember” in Wilmington. I have very, very fond memories of Wilmington. (Moore starred as Jamie Sullivan in 2002’s “A Walk to Remember,” based on the Nicholas Sparks novel.)

I love Durham, I’ve spent family vacations growing up in Raleigh and it’s one of our favorite parts of the country. I’m always excited to get back on stage and perform.