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PEOPLE & ARTS A29
Friday 10 March 2017
‘This is Us’ season finale focus is ill-fated Jack, Rebecca
LYNN ELBER tors’ chemistry made them This Jan. 8, 2017 file photo shows Milo Ventimiglia, left, and several possibilities.
AP Television Writer standouts. — The time-shifting ap-
LOS ANGELES (AP) — “This is “It’s a very intense hour of Mandy Moore in the press room at the 74th annual Golden proach adds an element
Us” creator Dan Fogelman television and I’m incred- of mystery to the family
helpfully explains his time- ibly proud of Mandy and Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif. and “twists up their narra-
twisting family drama’s am- Milo’s performance in it,” tive in a way that maybe
bitious theme: A vision of Fogelman said. “I’m excit- Associated Press makes people pay atten-
shared humanity, without ed to see people react — tion to a family drama in a
end. hate it, love it, and hopeful- “I encourage people to ers ages 18 to 49 and with way they don’t always.”
“There’s no dying. ly come back to try to find almost forget that Jack is women. — The casting, includ-
There’s no you, or me, or out some things.” not here present day,” she Its numbers are only get- ing the actors who play
them. It’s just us,” character Following Jack and Rebec- said. “I would hate for peo- ting better. Last Tuesday, it the three grown Pear-
Kevin says in a fifth-episode ca, their three children and ple to be sitting on pins and drew its biggest audience son children, Sterling K.
scene singled out by Fogel- others connected to them needles and saying, ‘Is this yet, 11.2 million, and at- Brown, Chrissy Metz and
man as key. isn’t a linear experience. the episode?’ ‘Is that the tracted 20 percent more Justin Hartley as, respec-
“It has always been part “This is Us” hopscotches be- episode?’” young adults than its prior tively Randall, Kate and
of our conceit that people tween decades past and But that intrigue likely is part telecast. Kevin. Count in Susan Kel-
die but stay a very active present as we meet people of the drama’s success. Among young adult wom- echi Watson as Randall’s
part of the lives of both at different stages in their “This is Us” has broken into en, “This Is Us” is the No. 1 wife, Beth; Chris Sullivan
the people who knew and lives. the top 10 shows among broadcast program for the as Kate’s boyfriend, Toby,
loved them” and the gen- total viewers, unusual for season. and Ron Cephas Jones as
erations that follow, the There are scenes whose a freshman series, and is a Ask Fogelman what’s be- Randall’s birth father, Wil-
writer-producer said. place on the timeline is un- big winner with advertiser- hind the show’s appeal liam.
But do not, even for a mo- certain, and the charac- coveted young adult view- and he gamely offers up — The characters all are
ment, expect his courtesy ters’ connections emerge “well-meaning and good
to extend to revelations gradually. but incredibly flawed,”
about Tuesday’s season Think of it as “thirtysome- providing a mirror in which
finale (9 p.m. EST) of the thing” meets “Lost,” every- viewers may see versions of
hit NBC drama already re- day pathos sliced into a themselves and their own
newed through 2019. jigsaw puzzle. relationships.
Or — spoiler alert for lag- In season one, Jack and But maybe he’s overthink-
gard viewers! — that he’ll Rebecca Pearson make a ing it, Fogelman says: “It
confess how Milo Ventimi- snap decision to adopt an honestly may work be-
glia’s Jack dies, or how abandoned African-Amer- cause people enjoy look-
Mandy Moore’s widowed ican baby after losing one ing at Mandy and Milo and
Rebecca ends up with of their triplets at birth, and there’s not too much more
married man Miguel (Jon the family’s multiethnic na- to it than that.”
Huertas), or any of the oth- ture is part — but only part (For the record, he also
er unknowns driving fans to — of the layered and emo- lauded them as “actors’
distraction. tionally intimate series. Be- actors. They just happen to
But Fogelman will say the cause of its zigzag nature, have the faces of stars.”)
season-ender is a show- we get glimpses of events Told of Fogelman’s sug-
case for Ventimiglia and yet to be explained. gestion that she and Ven-
Moore. While they’re part Moore, for one, recom- timiglia might be irresistible
of a gifted ensemble cast, mends taking the stories as eye candy and the show’s
their characters’ unexpect- they come, especially the draw, Moore laughingly
ed journey and the ac- circumstances of Jack’s brushes it off.q
death.
Samuel L. Jackson: Comments
about black Brit actors not a slam
RYAN PEARSON actors from overseas take an African-American pho- In this Sept. 26, 2016 file photo, actor Samuel L. Jackson attends
AP Entertainment Writer prominent roles in Ameri- tographer, played by the “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” red carpet event
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sam- can films. British actor Daniel Kaluuya, in New York.
uel Jackson said Wednes- “It was not a slam against whose white girlfriend
day he wasn’t trying to slam them, but it was just a com- brings him home to her par- Associated Press
black British actors when ment about how Holly- ents’ house.
he criticized their casting in wood works in an interest- Jackson also pointed to British performers put in to “We’re not afforded that
American films such as the ing sort of way sometimes,” Ava DuVernay’s “Selma,” take on American roles, same luxury, but that’s fine,
horror hit “Get Out” and Jackson said at the pre- which starred David Oyelo- but he said that was a one- we have plenty of oppor-
the Rev. Martin Luther King miere of his new film “Kong: wo as King. way street. tunities to work,” he said.q
Jr. drama “Selma.” Skull Island.” His comments drew criti-
Jackson told The Associat- Jackson noted on Monday cism from John Boyega,
ed Press that his comments that a lot of roles are go- the British “Star Wars” star,
Monday on the radio sta- ing to British actors. He said who on Twitter called the
tion Hot 97 weren’t neces- he wondered what “Get debate a “stupid” conflict
sarily misunderstood, but Out” would have been like “we don’t have time for.”
his criticism was not of the “with an American brother On Wednesday, Jackson
performers but rather of the who really feels that.” Jor- was complimentary of the
system that allows black dan Peele’s film is about skills and hard work black
