EXCLUSIVE: The Spectacular Reinvention of Mandy Moore
“I’m in a completely different chapter of my life, and I don’t begrudge anything.”
On a balmy Sunday afternoon in April, Mandy Moore lounges on a white leather couch in a corner of a bare four-star West Hollywood, California, hotel room, counting down the final minutes of a rare day of work during a picturesque spring weekend. Glam in a chic designer black dress and barely there makeup from a prior event, gone in that moment is any sign of the bubbly teenage blonde pop star singing about puppy love in “Candy.” In her place is a mature, fulfilled 33-year-old who has since demanded the world’s attention on This Is Us.
In NBC’s undisputed breakout family drama, Moore slips into the complicated world of Rebecca Pearson, wife and mother of three (twins and an adopted son), with a signature performance that’s deft and understated in its time-jumping complexities. Getting to this point in her career, though, didn’t come immediately to Moore, who at one point was best known for her pop music and teen roles in films like A Walk to Remember, The Princess Diaries and Saved!.
“It’s all led me to where I am now. I’m happy to acknowledge [the past], but also stay focused on the present,” she says honestly, referencing past credits in a candid conversation with ET. “I think it’s cool to have different chapters of your life and career and for there to be a portion of an audience out there that just knows me from [This Is Us]. I’m totally fine with it because there’s plenty of stuff in the past I’d like to forget.”
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In many respects, This Is Us represents a
pivot point in Moore’s life. Before the acclaimed series came along, she was at
a crossroads “in every sense” of the word -- both in her personal and
professional life. (Moore’s divorce from musician Ryan Adams, her husband for
seven years, was finalized in June 2016.)
“I’ve gone through my share of career lulls and rejections
and disappointment,” she acknowledges. “I sort of feel like my life has hit on
so many different notes that that collective experience [is something I can]
bring to the table with a role like this and sprinkle a little bit of that into
this woman.”
Moore credits This Is Us creator Dan
Fogelman, with whom she fostered a close relationship during 2010’s Tangled, for
taking a chance on her once it came time to fill the coveted part of Rebecca.
The gig wasn’t going to be the typical TV experience (“I was terrified of the
prospect of working in TV,” she confesses at one point), with the premise
calling for her to play the character from her early 20s to age 66. She embraced
-- and aced -- the test.
“I tell Dan Fogelman every chance that I get that he’s
changed my life. I was waiting for the opportunity for [something like this],
where someone would allow me to challenge myself and stretch in a way I didn’t
know I was capable of,” Moore says with a deep sincerity in her voice. “Dan did
me the greatest favor in the world and really allowed me to do something that
no one else has allowed me to do before.”
Moore points to several key scenes that have stuck with her
the most, though having her pick is like asking her to name a favorite child.
She lands on a handful of moments after taking a second to file through her
memories: Rebecca’s speech imploring her husband, Jack (Milo Ventimiglia), to
be a “9” for their kids; Rebecca tearfully admitting to her unborn babies that
she’s unfit to be a mother; and the devastating marriage-ending fight between
husband and wife in the season finale.
Of the latter, Moore freely admits she and Ventimiglia were
deeply affected by Rebecca and Jack’s decision not to compromise, often having
their own private discussions over the benchmark scene: “I expected them in any
part of their marriage for one to go, ‘This is dumb. Why are we doing this? I
love you. You love me. I can’t walk out that door. I packed a bag, but I’m not
going anywhere. We’re going to fix this.’ They’re not going to
let this happen. I was the most surprised by that.”
“The material that all of us have had is beyond our wildest
comprehension,” she says, speaking more broadly of the embarrassment of riches
she and her cast mates, who include Sterling K. Brown, Justin Hartley and
Chrissy Metz as her three grown children, are afforded. “We would get the
scripts week to week and go, ‘How are people, first of all, going to
emotionally have the constitution to handle what’s happening?’ God, you wait a
whole lifetime, a whole career to be a part of something like that. It’s not
lost on any of us.”
What also isn’t lost is the stratospheric rise Moore’s life
has taken since This Is Us broke through last September -- and
with experience comes a newfound appreciation for such a rare lightning-in-a-bottle
treasure.
“Life has changed for all of us exponentially on every
level. It’s indescribable,” she marvels about starring on a hit show, an experience
she’s just learning to grasp. “I’d never been part of something that has
resonated this deeply with people out there in the world, [or got] that sort of
feedback in every corner of your day-to-day life, with people coming up talking
to you.” And not just to say “I love the show,” the actress explains; they want
to come up to her and talk about their life and how they relate to the
characters on the show. Though not a mother or currently married herself,
people treat Moore like she’s Rebecca and share with her their deepest
insecurities or unexpected tribulations. “It’s really heavy stuff you wouldn’t
expect a perfect stranger to come up and unload on you.”
The public’s immediate embrace of the Pearson family and, in
turn, the actors who portray them, wasn’t something Moore initially expected.
In hindsight, maybe she should have. “It’s very humbling,” Moore says of being
that emotional safe haven for perfect strangers. “It’s like, ‘Wow, we’re a part
of something that feels important.’ It means something to people in this day
and age and this crazy world we live in where everything is forcing us to
divide. We’re a part of something that’s uniting people.”
That resonance with fans is, in large part, why it’s become
so wildly popular so quickly. “I am beside myself being a part of a show that’s
garnering the recognition that it has. That’s my priority and that's what’s
most important to me,” she says. “But you know what the most mind-boggling fact
of all of this? Milo and I were sitting waiting with bated breath to see if the
show was getting picked up this time last year. To be in this position now
is beyond.”
And she’s taken advantage of the added attention during her
hiatus, returning to her Tangled roots for a Disney Channel series
and leading two films, I’m Not Here, opposite J.K. Simmons,
and The Darkest Minds, alongside Amandla Stenberg and
Gwendoline Christie.
“I’ve gotten better at saying no,” Moore says of what she’s
learned as she gets older. “I was afraid to own my power. I felt I had to
please everybody and to be genial and polite, and all of that is still possible
while saying no, but I think that comes with time and the clarity and wisdom
that come with age.”
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