And, of course, there’s the obvious, that the cast, from the oldest Pearsons down to the elementary schoolers feel like actual blood relations.
“It is like a family,” Brown told Elle. “It seems so clichéd, like, ‘Do they really love each other as much as it seems?’ The answer is yes! The joy is what I feel for my brother and sister, for my wife, for my mother and father, my mom who’s younger than me, and my dad who’s younger than me, these kids, my children, the younger versions of us.”
Because while they’re certainly talented enough to make it work, that genuine affection that viewers feel coming from their screens is completely authentic. “You can’t fake a relationship on-screen if you don’t have it off-screen,” Brown insisted. “I don’t know what the alchemy is, what Dan Fogelman saw in all of us…but he brought together a group of wonderful thespians who happen to be even better individuals.”
(E! and NBC are both part of the NBC universal family.)
(This story was originally published on Wednesday, April 3, 2019 at 3 a.m. PT.)
