(Recap:You suck at acting, Kevin, and Super Dad died ashamed of you!
Oh, yeah, Randall?
The day we adopted you was the worst day of my life!)
Sterling K. Brown and Justin Hartley on ‘This Is Us’.NBC
But so did the truth meter.
Kevin finally let his guard down and the brutal honesty out.
“You’re not just my smart, successful brother,” he said.
“You’re my Black, smart, successful brother, and I think maybe I did resent that.
I thought you getting special treatment was mixed up with you being Black.
And I wanted to take you down a notch.”
Is he ready to be Kevin’s best man?
Well, for starters, they’re both better men for this conversation.
What were the toughest challenges in bringing it to life?
JON DORSEY:I would agree with that.
Randall certainly has his own flaws as a character as well.
So all of that the calibration, the balance were definitely tricky.
And then our actors there’s very little wrong that Sterling K. Brown and Justin Hartley can do.
The chemistry between the two of them is just unreal.
I think the biggest thing is [these characters] are always honest with each other.
That part of it really came through.
And what’s great about it is that this is not a first-season conversation.
It’s not like the audience had not been privy to those things.
They’re just both so talented.
Read the dictionary and they’ll find calibrations, like, “What?”
But it was pretty incredible to watch them.
Kay, what the trickiest scene to bring to life as the director of the episode?
OYEGUN:It’s always getting levels.
Randall had to be modulated really, really well.
If this was the first time he’s not only realized that, but also admitted that out loud.
So it’s finding all of those.
And apparently they would have to have been your sibling for 40 years in order for that to happen.
You’re my Black, smart, successful brother, and I think maybe I did resent that"?
OYEGUN:I mean, you just saying it just gave me chills again.
[Laughs] That’s crazy.
Like, oh my gosh!
The power of admitting that is nuts!
OYEGUN:And for both of them.
Kevin, you’re now free from that completely.
Randall, you are no longer being gaslit!
The thing is now there.
What kind of work will he put in on that?
DORSEY:We’ll see!
It’s just impossible.
And I think it’s good.
It’s a positive that Kevin could acknowledge that.
Continuing to listen and hear those are all good things.
OYEGUN:What does the work look like?
That’s a question that everyone is asking themselves.
That’s a question that everyone is also required to find the answer for it.
But you know what?
I’ll say this: After reading the finale, he does put in some work, honey!
Did it just help to focus it a bit more?
DORSEY:I think it organically helped us explore all of their issues more.
And like Kay has said before, their racial dynamic didn’t come out of nowhere.
So it felt like a natural destination for the two of them.
We learned more about ghost kingdoms in this episode, and delved into Randall’s imagination.
Was that conversation real, or was that in Randall’s head?
Did you want it to play both ways?
OYEGUN:It’s a two-part thing.
It was written in a script beautifully as something that was very real.
And the thing that’s so funny about translating something I didn’t want to break Randall’s perspective.
There’s a world where the audience can take it two ways.
And so that conversation very much did happen.
So it’s up for interpretation in that way.
I know how Dan Fogelman operates, and you often have some interesting guest casting.
Did you go after Tom Hanks as Mister Rogers?
We’ve seen Rebecca coping with that loss, but that hasn’t been explored much with the kids.
How much have you talked about that in the writers' room?
DORSEY:We talk about it here and there.
I know I think about that every now and then.
Especially when I was doing research on ghost kingdoms.
So I think you’re right.
That’s human nature, it feels like.
What conversations are to come between these two?
And are they ready now to stand comfortably next to each other at Kevin’s wedding?
How did you approach those scenes with Logan and Niles?
OYEGUN:I’m so curious as to what the audience reaction is.
Because there are people who will say, “Oh, he didn’t do anything.”
There are people who will say, “Fresh Princeis awesome.
Carlton is amazing.”
There are all kinds of reactions to things.
And it’s a very real thing.
It’s one of those things where it’s like, “Where’s it coming from?
Who is it directed at?
How do you take it?
Are you thinking about it that way?
Is that other person perceiving it this way?”
So I think it begs the conversation.
And it’s something that Logan was game for and Niles was game for.
And I don’t think even Randall understood that he was being hurt.
It’s those gray areas that people tend to exist in that we just wanted to kind of explore.
Because it could have gone worse.
He could have said somestuff.
Are there more conversations to come with her?
But I think probably in ways that might bereallysurprising for folks.
Did you want to audiences to interface with that as a sigh of relief and a healing moment?
DORSEY:I see it as a sigh of relief, a beautiful moment.
It’s this idea that things can be true.
One doesn’t cancel out the other.
To me, it’s a beautiful moment where he’s solidified his bond with Kevin.
Obviously he’s going to continue to love and adore his Pearson family.
And now he gets a piece to himself to love and adore his biological parents as well.
OYEGUN:He has an Oscar for painting!
OYEGUN:Drip, drip.
DORSEY:Swollen toes.
