Sterling K. Brown warned us that the ugly crying was coming. The actor experienced what the rest of us fans went last week when he watched the April 19 episode, “Day of the Wedding,” a few days after it aired. As the story jumped a few years into the future for Kate and Philip’s wedding, this was the first time we’d gotten to see Mandy Moore playing Rebecca in the further stages of her Alzheimer’s. Brown was inspired by the performance, so much so that he posted a nearly 7-minute video with a tearful, passionate plea for his TV mother to win an Emmy Award.
The man who plays Randall Pearson could win an award himself for that outpouring of emotions, as he marveled at the woman portraying his fictional mother. In the episode, Rebecca had been thrown off by the travel to the wedding and being out of her daily routine. She didn’t always remember Philip’s name, and she regularly confused Kevin for Jack, whom she thought was still alive. (I mean, Jack and Rebecca are marriage goals, even in death and dementia.) When she performed a special song at the reception, everyone was in tears — Sterling K. Brown included. Check out his unbridled praise for Mandy Moore on Instagram:
It’s probably a good thing I don’t get a say in the Emmy Award winners, because that speech convinced me! Honestly, though, Sterling K. Brown could say the butter on his morning toast deserved an award, and I’d probably feel compelled to email someone about it. Can we get this man to run for president?
Of course, it’s not like I needed SKB’s endorsement to be convinced of Mandy Moore’s talent. In the Season 6 premiere she was already crushing it, proving that the final chapter was really going to bring the feels, and she continued to show that in an emotional speech to her children in “Taboo” to set up the final Big Three Trilogy. Sterling K. Brown had to let it be known in his post how in awe he is of her:
This girl Mandy Moore — this grown woman, excuse me — Mandy Moore. I want anybody who votes in the academy, okay? Anybody who’s got a say in what happens, the Tastemakers, etc., etc. Mandy Moore is killing the game, son! She is killing the game. And she deserves to be recognized. I love you, Mandy, fellow Aries, you know what I’m saying, we roll deep, we roll hard, and we’re together.
Tears welled up in the actor’s eyes a number of times during the video, and he got so excited that he seemed to struggle not to raise his voice. I get it, because it is pretty wild to see Mandy Moore on screen playing the mother of three actors who are all younger than her. Sterling K. Brown said that’s one of the things that makes her amazing, because he said she just feels like his mom on the set:
Man, that woman. Y’all know, Mandy Moore is eight years younger than me, and she plays my mama. And there’s never a moment on set — I don’t know what it’s like for you guys to watch — but there’s never a moment on set where I’m like, ‘Mandy Moore too young to play my mama.’ No. She is my mama. And the beautifully, subtle, nuanced work and the portrayal of someone going through what her character’s going through, it’s just exquisite, man.
The Randall actor seems to be able to completely forget Mandy Moore's real age when they're on set, and he’s not the only one. Griffin Dunne, who plays Rebecca’s brother-in-law Nicky, has said he keeps forgetting she’s not really 70 years old, and he was shocked to learn how young she really was when they saw each other at a press event.
While we’re talking award consideration, I don’t know if there’s a Group Dance category anywhere to be found, but I’d like to submit the video of the This Is Us cast doing “the wobble” between scenes while filming “Day of the Wedding.” That post was truly amazing enough to make me momentarily forget that there are only a few episodes remaining before we say a final goodbye to the Pearsons.
New episodes of This Is Us air at 9 p.m. ET Tuesdays on NBC. Find out when all of your shows are ending on our spring finale calendar, and be sure to check out our 2022 TV Schedule to see what’s coming soon.
