Stop What You’re Doing and Watch These Amazing ‘This is Us’ Audition Tapes

Casting an ensemble series can be quite the undertaking, especially when its a family. Casting directors have to not only find the perfect actor for the part but an actor that blends in perfectly with the others to create a cohesive and believable family unit. This Is Us mastered this process flawlessly. The core Pearson 5 (+ spouses) may not look like your average TV family, but they have certainly topped our list of favorites thanks to Mandy Moore, Milo Ventimiglia, Sterling K. Brown, Justin Hartley, and Chrissy Metz.

At this point, to us, the actors are essentially their characters in real life – I mean take Ventimiglia for example.

.@MiloVentimiglia out here doing what he does best… being Jack Pearson. #Emmys #ThisIsUs pic.twitter.com/yuuzBiX10Z

— This Is Us (@NBCThisisUs) September 18, 2018

Well, thanks to the recent Paley Center special celebrating This Is Us, we got our first look at the Pearson’s audition tapes and they are nothing short of iconic.

[row]”The casting process was one of those perfect dream scenarios where I got to cast everyone I wanted to cast,” Creator Dan Fogelman said during the special. [/row]

One of the video clips showed Sterling K. Brown and Susan Kelechi Watson auditioning their soccer field scene from the pilot episode, which you can watch below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0ei_gTjly4

Another clip shows both Mandy Moore’s audition and her chemistry read with Milo, which is just as perfect as you’d imagine.

[row]”I got called in to audition with Milo. He was the only guy I read with and we sort of just instantly had this connection.”[/row]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykPU2Aus7Cg

The third clip showed both Milo and Chrissy’s individual auditions aka Jack and Kate Pearson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90pkfRM73sg

If you haven’t had the chance to check out the hour-long Paley Center special we certainly encourage you to! It’s available for free on NBC On Demand. It featured a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the show, interviews with the cast and creators, and an exclusive sneak peek at the emotional stories coming up for the Pearson family in Season 3.- it’s a This Is Us fan’s dream!

This Is Us returns to NBC next week on September 25th and 9:00 pm EST on NBC!