This Is Us is always an emotional affair. In Season 6 alone, we’ve watched Rebecca tackle the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s, Jack lose his mother, and — specifically in the last few episodes — the dissolution of Kate and Toby’s marriage. As the story in the most recent episode focused on KaToby, and how the Green Egg Smoker played into their eventual divorce, there was one delightfully bright spot in the otherwise tense hour: The performance of 3-year-old Johnny Kincaid as Jack Damon. His co-stars thought so too, and they gushed about the adorable little man during a recent interview.
Johnny Kincaid made his acting debut as Kate and Toby’s son Jack Jr. at the beginning of This Is Us’ final chapter, but “Saturday in the Park” really put the focus on him. Johnny, like his character, is visually impaired, and some of the episode was shown through Jack’s perspective, with extremely fuzzy visuals. Johnny executed quite a bit of dialog as Jack showed Rebecca his shoes and talked about his parents fighting. Twitter went wild over the young actor, and his co-stars were equally enamored when they spoke with Glamour, with Susan Kelechi Watson gushing:
I stan Johnny. He's going to win an Emmy, that little boy. He's so good. He's the loveliest little boy. You ask him something and he answers, like, ‘Yep.’ He stings my heart every time. He's genuinely so great in that role.
Johnny has albinism, according to a post on the Instagram page that he shares with his mother, Marisol Kincaid. Albinism is a different visual impairment than the one Jack Jr. has, but Marisol said she was excited about the opportunity Johnny has to represent the low vision community:
Johnny has albinism which comes with low vision and an eye condition called nystagmus. Although his character has a different visual impairment, we are SO thrilled for the representation and inclusion of the blind and low vision community in a television show that does so well at showing all the nuances of life with SUCH a huge reach!
The love and respect seems mutual, as Chrissy Metz described her TV son as “so special,” and Mandy Moore opened up about her scenes with Johnny, who she called a “lovebug.” From his acting to his fun personality, Moore couldn’t find enough good things to say about the little guy:
He is the most gregarious, cutest kid you've ever met. His mom is there, and his grandpa's on set with him a lot of times. He is so inquisitive and curious. I think he works on the lines with his mom at home, but then the kids all have an on-set acting coach, who is there to help them in the moment. He doesn't really need a lot of help. He's really right on it.
Whether it’s the family’s involvement or the acting coach or just Johnny’s natural-born ability, this toddler has something special, and I can’t wait to see more of him as Season 6 continues — even though that obviously means putting the last nail in the coffin of Kate and Toby.
This Is Us continues at 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday, April 12, on NBC with the next episode called “KaToby,” so unfortunately I think we all know what to expect. Hopefully Jack Jr. will get us through! In the meantime, be sure to check out our 2022 TV schedule to see when new and returning shows are premiering. If you want to revisit earlier days of This Is Us when Kate and Toby were happy together, you can stream the full series with a Hulu subscription!
