-You know our next guest from the critically-acclaimed show
"This Is Us." New episodes air Tuesdays here on NBC.
Let's take a look.
-Oh, hey. -Hey.
Thank you for the edible arrangement.
It is elaborate, Kev.
And kind of romantic? -Was it?
Oh, see, I told them to take it easy
on the chocolate-covered strawberries.
I just wasn't sure what the appropriate gift would be
for when the birth mother of your twin sister's baby
is being induced.
-Uh, it's actually a Tesla. -Well, okay.
They were all out of chocolate covered Teslas, alright, so...
-Please welcome back to the show Justin Hartley.
How are you, Justin? -Hey, what's going on, man?
Good to see you. -It's good to see you, too.
Now, this is very exciting.
On the show, you're about to become a father
for the first time, but in real life, you have something
which is very exciting but also a little terrifying.
You have a 16-year-old who is learning to drive.
How has that been? -Yes, that's right.
"Learning" being the operative word.
And it is terrifying.
You know, there's nothing more terrifying, actually,
than taking your daughter or son, your 16-year-old
who knows nothing about driving
and putting them behind the wheel.
It's the worst thing in the world.
There's got to be a better way we can do this.
You put them behind the wheel,
you take them around the street, then you keep expanding.
And we're at the point where we kind of are,
you know, on the freeway and stuff.
So the other day, I take her out,
and I'm doing a father/daughter thing.
I'm trying to teach her how to fill up the tank
with gas and all this kind of stuff.
I'm thinking we'll maybe change a tire in a couple of weeks.
We fill up the tank, and I'm getting, you know, comfortable,
and I go into the gas station and I have a sweet tooth.
So I just stock up on gummy bears.
And I'm in the car and she's driving and she's doing great,
and I'm in the passenger seat.
I'm kind of feeling loose and I open up the gummy bears,
and as I'm eating them, I'm shoving them in my mouth
like a child, and I look up,
and we are cruising through a four-way -- a red light
with, I mean, just reckless -- she could not have cared less.
She was just -- and I just looked at her,
and we pulled the car over and then she realized what she did,
and I just looked at her and I said,
"That could have been my last gummy bear.
You have to be more careful." [ Laughter ]
And so we were okay.
My voice stayed -- you know,
tried to stay calm and everything
because the last thing you want to do is start yelling.
It just makes everything more tense.
-Well, I just want you to know, I think it takes away
a little of the edge of authority when you're,
you know, mowing down on a bag of gummy bears as an adult man.
-Yeah, yeah, well, that's the thing.
I was, like, shoving gummy bears in my mouth,
and she's not really taking me seriously, probably.
But we get home that night,
and this was, like, the night before my birthday.
I just celebrated a birthday, and it's raining in California.
And I kind of look at my girlfriend,
and it's late at night.
And I was like, "You know, let's swim.
Why not? It's raining in California.
It's kind of romantic. It's my birthday tomorrow.
Let's go swimming." So we go swimming.
We get in the hot tub. We're having a great time.
It's like 3:00 in the morning, and we're ready to come inside,
and as we're coming in, I have a sliding glass door
that my daughter had locked when I was in the pool.
So now it's raining, and now I'm getting cold,
and I have to walk all the way to the front of the house.
And we had just watched the documentary the "Night Stalker."
[ Laughter ]
But here I am at 3:00 in the morning,
knocking on my daughter's bedroom window.
You know, and she's probably -- and I'm like,
"This is going to scar her for life."
I mean, of all the things.
Finally, the dog wakes up. She answers the front door.
She opens the door and she looks at me
and she goes, "Why are you here?"
And it dawned on me what she meant was,
"I can't believe you're still here."
And I was replaying the events of the car,
locking me out in the rain, on my birthday.
And I was like, "My daughter is --"
And she's 16. "She's trying to kill me."
-Yeah. -And I thought,
"Now I'm going to sleep with one eye open.
I'm with this person who is very, very dangerous."
-No, I think we're about five years away from watching
the Netflix documentary about how it ended for you.
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah. Exactly.
Well, at least I got five years.
-You got five years.
So, you know, obviously, "This Is Us" is a show,
maybe more than any show on television,
about sort of the closeness of family.
You guys have an incredibly close cast,
as we've discussed before, and yet you're filming the show
in a time where physical closeness, at least,
is not a good idea.
How has it been on set?
-It's just that. I mean, it's tough.
We're lucky -- We're all very lucky,
first and foremost, to be working.
And I think the stories that we're telling are important.
And I think it's what the world needs right now.
That said, you know, it is different.
It's difficult to be around people
that you love and that you admire.
They're family. That's my family.
And you can't -- you can't hug them.
You know, you can't touch them.
You can't -- We're talking to each other,
like, Sterling and I will be in a scene together.
And we're sitting in these makeshift --
they're sort of like -- it looks like a shower.
It's, like, plexiglass with a shower curtain.
And you're in a box.
He's, you know, he's a foot away from me,
but he's on the other side of the plexiglass.
And so we're talking, you know, through plexiglass.
It's strange.
But what's also interesting, Seth, is how quickly
you get used to the new normal.
And if you look at what's going on from a distance, you're like,
"Wow, everybody's in a mask.
It's not safe to be around people.
I've been home since March.
Haven't gone anywhere except to work.
And my daughter tries to kill me in the car."
-[ Laughs ]
-But you get used to it.
It's so strange how --
And that's the creepy part of it, I think, is that
you start to get used to it.
I don't know how to talk to people anymore.
So I'm, like, turning into a caveman.
-[ Laughs ] Well, I feel like
you've at least faked it very well today.
It felt like the normal Justin. -Thank you.
-Hey, man, thank you so much for making time.
So excited to see new episodes.
It's always a pleasure.
-Thanks, man. Always good to see you.