Thank goodness for Dan Fogelman, the creator of This Is Us, for having the perseverance to endure the empty-headed suggestions of network executives.
This Is Us star Chrissy Metz recently recounted a story Fogelman told her: Back when Fogelman was “pitching it originally as a film, one executive at some, I don’t know, wherever place said, ‘Oh, wait, so the plus-size girl, she’s, like, how plus size? Like Kate Winslet?’ And [Fogelman] was like, ‘First of all, what are you saying? Second of all, no, this is a real woman who’s really dealt with weight issues and it’s plagued her entire life,” Metz said on an episode of The Jamie Kern Lima Show.
Ron Batzdorff/NBC; ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty
Metz, who played the character Kate Pearson throughout the show’s full run, explained that her character “was loosely based off of his sister, so I think Kate was very important to Dan.”
“Anytime I think about Dan, it really makes me emotional,” she told Lima. “He’s absolutely brilliant in the most humble way, self-deprecating way. And he’s just so in tune with emotion in the human condition. It just comes through, I think, with everything he does.”
Sign up for Entertainment Weekly’s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
Metz was honored with one Primetime Emmy and two Golden Globe nominations for her performance on the series. This Is Us was lauded for its character construction during its run, especially where Kate was concerned. Fogelman and Metz were recognized as groundbreaking for their humane, nonpatronizing portrayal of a plus-size woman as a mother, wife, daughter, and sister, not just as a vehicle for cultural commentary.
This Is Us marked the actress’s first major television role. She’d previously worked for years as an agent, appearing in small, single-episode parts on series like Entourage and American Horror Story. “Everybody on the show had 10, 15, 20 years of acting experience. That was the first show I ever tested for,” she explained.
She felt so connected to Kate on the page that she “felt like compelled to write this letter…to the executives at Fox and at NBC, the studio and the network of the show. I just said, ‘I know what it’s like to be the second fiddle. I’ve been in the shadows of so many aspiring actors. I know what it’s like to be judged solely on the way I look, and I know what it’s like to have bigger dreams, and all the things that I feel like Kate was really about.'”
Ron Batzdorff/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty
“‘So whoever you choose is going to be the right person. And I’m excited to watch the show,'” she continued. And obviously, the rest is television history.
Since This Is Us concluded in 2022, Metz has made sparse appearances in films and television. In May, she was revealed as the Poodle Moth on season 11 of The Masked Singer. She told Entertainment Weekly that she thinks it “would be cute” to do a This Is Us reunion movie, “because all of us are so close and the show meant so much to all of us.”
“I’m sure everybody would be up for it,” she said. “I know that fans would be.”