This is gold.
With the Season 3 premiere of “This Is Us” right around the corner, NBC released the cast’s original audition tapes Monday, giving fans a peek into how this Pearson clan came to be.
In one clip, Sterling K. Brown (Randall) recalls thinking the script “was the best network television pilot that I’ve ever read.” The video then shows bits from his adorable audition with his future on-screen wife, Susan Kelechi Watson (Beth).
“The casting process was one of those perfect dream scenarios where I got to cast everyone I wanted to cast,” Dan Fogelman, the highly-rated family drama’s creator, said in another video, before showing Milo Ventimiglia (Jack) and Chrissy Metz (Kate) read for the roles that America would soon come to love.
Ventimiglia warmly recalls trying out for the part of the now-deceased family patriarch, saying he “could see Dan in the back of the room literally, just like, smiling and I was thinking to myself, ‘OK, I think I must have done my job.’”
Another video shows Mandy Moore noting she was one of the first cast members to audition and was called back weeks later for a “chemistry read” with Ventimiglia.
“He was the only guy I read with, and we sort of just instantly had this connection,” Moore says. Well, that should give you enough to cry over until “This Is Us” Season 3 premieres next week.
Watch Brown and Watson’s audition above and Metz, Ventimiglia and Moore’s below.