-Welcome back to "Late Night,"
We're here with Sterling K. Brown,
Justin Hartley and Chrissy Metz.
So I don't want to know anything about the ending,
but I'm curious, Chrissy,
how much have you been told about the ending?
Did the show's creator, Dan Fogelman --
does he lay it out for you? -Oh, does he.
I mean, we know everything.
And I think he is really excited to share it
because it really is brilliant.
So I always get so excited when he calls or he texts,
and we're like, "What?" But, yeah, we know everything.
-Now, do you know -- I guess, so, Sterling, does everyone know
everything about all the characters?
Or do you know secrets that your other cast mates don't know
about how your character ends things?
-I may know some things that other folks don't know.
I used to go into the writers' room all the time.
That was one of my favorite things, just to listen to them
make the sausage. And I would be fully invested.
Like, I think I knew about the divorce before --
I'm not giving -- before Chrissy did.
And then I remember talking to her when she found out,
and she was just crushed.
-Nobody ever wants to hear
about their divorce from a third party.
-Exactly. [ Laughter ]
Exactly.
-So, yeah, I asked Dan as much as I possibly can,
and sit in the writers room, and listen to them come up
with everyone's storylines, and the detail that they have
for everybody has been second to none from the beginning.
It's -- they're so conscientious about crafting these arcs
and finishing them off right. -Well, and they are.
They're, like, so finely tuned, and so much of the show has been
this incredible ability to maintain these twists and turns.
As actors, did you always want to know everything?
Or did you like to have some surprise as it came?
-I wish I was cool enough to have that in me,
that I wanted some surprise. I always admired those actors.
I thought it was so cool, the actors that are like,
"I don't want to know." And I'm -- I'm an idiot. I'm a dork.
I'm, like, I need to know everything.
Give me all the information. Help me out.
So I always like to know. -Well, we span so many years.
So it's hard, you know, like if there's something
the teenagers are going through that maybe as adults we're like,
"Oh, wait, we went through that."
Oh, that informs is something else completely,
when we're doing, you know, our stuff.
So I like to know. I like to know.
-I also think that, like, if you're doing a play or a movie,
you get to know the beginning, middle, and end
from the beginning.
So why not, if you have the opportunity in a TV show
to have a similar sort of, like, information from the beginning?
-Yeah. -And now, Justin,
are you ever -- do you ever have family, friends,
try to get it out of you before it's going to air?
-I used to. I used to quite a bit.
And how I put the kibosh on that was --
this was a couple years ago, when families could still
get together and all of that,
and my whole family was together.
And they were pressuring me, pressuring me,
and it got so annoying.
And I kept telling everyone, I said,
"You think you want to know, but you don't."
And they're like, "No, no, tell me, tell me." So I told them.
I just -- I crushed them.
I ruined the whole entire thing.
I told them the entire thing, and I said,
"And now, you know, you can choose to watch it or not,
but now you know what's going to happen.
Don't ever ask me again." And so they've stopped.
They've stopped asking me.
They're afraid that I might actually say something.
-Now I -- you know, again, we've talked about --
and, Sterling, you mentioned you want to get out
while the gettin's good, while people still love the show,
but you also appreciate how important it is,
especially with a show like this,
that has marvelled with its plot over the years
to nail the landing.
Have you talked to Dan about the importance
of getting the landing right? -Oh, bro, you know I have.
Listen, one of my favorite shows of all time, until it ended,
Seth, was a show called "Game of Thrones."
-Oh, no. [ Audience laughs ]
-And listen to me now because I've seen you --
I've seen you talk about "Game of Thrones" a lot.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -You would go back and --
I'd watch it from the beginning, in preparation
for the next season, right? -Yeah.
-During the pandemic, I had no desire to watch it,
and that made me sad
because I loved that flippin' show,
but they didn't stick the landing.
And so, when I watched -- -You know there are, like,
10 different prequels of that show right now
that you could be cast in? And I don't want you to blow this.
[ Laughter ] -Listen, I know Dan and Dave.
I appreciate that.
And they know -- I've said it enough.
I think they know, it just wasn't quite right.
And so I watched the finale, and I said,
"Dan, we got to do better than this."
And he texted back, "We will." I was like, "Okay, good."
-Does that mean -- you're promising me the finale
of "This Is Us" doesn't end with Bran being King?
-I'm promising you that.
I'm promising you that the twins don't die together
with a building falling down on top of them.
-It would be nice.
If there was a "Game of Thrones" cross-over,
I think that would be really nice.
And I know you've written the scripts and everything is done,
but I think you guys should try to do that.
-Let's do it. Be happy to.
-Hey, you guys, congratulations.
It's so hard to do a network show at the level
that you've done it for so many years,
and I really do hope I see you next time in-person.
Thank you for being here. -Thank you.
-Thank you. -Thanks for having us, man.