The wrap
‘This is Us’: Jon Huertas on the direction of 8 babies and the scene that tore him apart
We hope you will not have babies. Last week’s “This Is Us” featured the births of Kevin and Madison’s twins, Frances and Nicholas, and Kate and Toby’s adopted daughter, Hailey, as Tuesday’s episode is even more baby-centric. And even more emotionally, if Jon Huertas, who plays Miguel in the NBC family drama and is directing the upcoming hour, can be trusted. Seriously, the actor says one scene with Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) even made him tear up. And that only makes us a little worried, because in the preview of the episode, titled “The Ride,” we saw Jack apparently buying a bottle of whiskey on a pit stop at a gas station while he and Rebecca took the newborn Big 3 home from the hospital. “It’s such a moving story. I watched Milo [Ventimiglia, who plays Jack] ‘do a scene with one of the other actors and the camera was on Milo and I started to miss,’ Huertas told TheWrap. ‘My eyes started watering because I was so happy and appreciative to be able to direct such an actor, that someone gave me so beautiful and touched me so deeply. The whole experience was deep for me. And I think I, after looking at the first operating system, sat on my couch and my wife was next to me, and when the deed was done, I just started chatting. ‘Read also: Ratings:’ This Is Us’ returns in Key Demo on Tuesday, but ‘Zoey’s’ and’ Nurses’ drag NBC down. During the hour, we will not only see Rebecca (Mandy Moore) and Jack take their bundles home. joy, but also Kevin (Justin Hartley) and Madison (Caitlin Thompson), Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Toby (Chris Sullivan), and Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson), who jumped through time for some of those storylines, of course. NBC “This episode is about starting new families,” Huertas said. ‘And we’ll see in all the family units that’ This Is Us’ created, we’ll see everyone start a brand new family, or a new version of their family somehow with a baby or babies, . And it can be a very stressful thing to bring new babies home. And each of our characters handles it differently. And we will see the different dynamics between each of our families within the Pearson family, our microfamilies, from Beth and Randall to Toby and Kate to Jack and Rebecca. And it’s really cool how we have some parallel stories with some of our characters. Kevin and Madison bring twins home, and neither of them were parents, it was an unexpected pregnancy. I think that’s what we’re dealing with. How do these characters handle these new situations? And how they handle it differently and also very similarly, because they are all part of an overall Pearson clan. OK, so if you paid attention there, then you know that there are a lot of couples plus a lot of babies doing a lot of scenes in cars. Yes, it was not the easiest episode for the first director Huertas to start with. ‘The episode was very challenging, but I think it will make me better in the long run, because once COVID is over and we do our normal activities, it will feel a lot easier. “But I like to be challenged,” Huertas said. “We had Mandy, who was 37 weeks pregnant. We had eight babies. Like the youngest baby. Not like a 1-year-old or a 2-year-old, like 1- to 3-month-old is what we worked with. It was crazy. Then lots of car work, shooting in and around cars. So it was very challenging, but the episode is so good. Also read: ‘This Is Us’: Justin Hartley on how Jack Kevin’s journey leads and whether he will see Madison give birth. Although we have not seen it yet and can not personally testify to how Huertas did, “This is us” Creator Dan Fogelman told us that the episode became beautiful. “Jon has been very clear since the beginning of the show that he wanted a recording to direct an episode,” Fogelman told TheWrap. ‘He is such a wonderful man and is so loved and respected by all that it was an easy request to honor. The episode he ‘got’ happened to be one of our most challenging of the series – filled with babies and cars and a ridiculously fast turnaround time … during Covid. He absolutely crushed it. The filmmaking, the performances, the way he leads the set. I could no longer be proud of him, and honestly no longer grateful either. He made a beautiful television episode. ‘NBC and Huertas were grateful for the opportunity and told us that, although he may have torn up at the yet-to-be-seen Jack scene, which really made him cry over the episode, he first watched it with his wife. “It was about the moment of realizing that I was allowed to do this,” the Castle alum said. ‘Because in all the TV shows, which did about 300 and some episodes, I was only directed by one grown man, Latino. And be Afro Latino and now know that I will be able to be there for younger actors who want to see someone who has the same experience or who they think has had the same experience and will understand why an actor makes the choices he does. To have me on the other side of the camera for that actor, that there is a real possibility for it because of the gift that Dan and all the producers and the studio gave me, I just lost it and started bawling . “This Is Us” airs on NBC on Tuesdays at 9 / 8c. Read the original story ‘This Is Us’: Jon Huertas about directing 8 babies and the Jack Scene that made him tear up at TheWrap