Chrissy Metz is the breakout star of NBC's hit TV drama This Is Us.
Now she's a red carpet staple and a champion for buxom beauty.
Before the show brought the actress into the mainstream, she snagged a recurring role on
American Horror Story: Freak Show.
But success wasn't always the story for Chrissy Metz.
Here's a look at what you might not know about Hollywood's newest A-lister.
Growing up overseas
Although she was born in Homestead, Florida, a suburb of Miami, Metz actually spent her
formative years growing up in Japan.
When she was just six months old, Metz, her two older siblings, and her parents packed
up everything they had and moved to the Land of the Rising Sun.
She lived in Japan for a whopping eight years while Metz's dad, a Navy officer, was stationed
there.
She has fond memories of the place and says she grew up as "a little spoiled with really
great toys."
Accidental audition
After graduating from college, a 21-year-old Metz was working as a preschool teacher when,
one fateful day, she accompanied her 14-year-old half-sister Morgana to an open casting call.
She told Glamour, "There was this woman sitting across from me who said to me that she taught
theater at my high school.
I was thinking, 'I don't know this woman.'
She said, 'You really should audition,' and I'm like, 'Who are you?
And how do you know I should audition?'
It was so surreal because I never saw her again."
Even so, the mysterious woman's words were enough to convince her to give the audition
a shot, and she went for it, choosing to sing Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful."
The next day, her sister was presented with a modeling contract while Metz was offered
the opportunity to move to Los Angeles to meet with managers and agents.
Assistant life
There's a reason Metz was so skilled at playing an assistant on-screen in This Is Us' first
season.
While living in Los Angeles, Metz found that her manager slowly started asking her to do
more and more tasks that an assistant normally would.
As the oldest person in the group of teenage girls who the manager had brought down to
Los Angeles, Metz was entrusted with taking others on auditions.
A few years down the line, when her agent was looking to hire a real full-time assistant,
her manager encouraged her to take the job.
She told Marie Claire, "I was like, 'This isn't fair, I didn't come here for that.'"
Even so, she took the job because of the lack of roles readily available to her at the time.
Battling the blues
Before landing her role on This Is Us, Metz
admits to battling with depression, which stemmed from her inability to regularly land
roles and get her career to the level she'd wanted.
She told People, "I'd be getting maybe two auditions a year, and I'd always see the same
small group of girls."
While struggling to make it as an actress, Chrissy took on a day job and told the mag
that putting her dream on hold "was like watching your boyfriend take another woman out every
day."
That's when she started stress-eating and quickly gained more than 100 pounds.
Ultimately, it took a panic attack to get her back on track.
On her 30th birthday, Metz thought she was having a heart attack and rushed to the hospital.
But she soon discovered it was actually a panic attack.
Even still, the scare was enough to push Metz to reassess her priorities.
"I was like I have to do this and so I kept going and I have an amazing group of friends
who supported me."
Another wake-up call
For her role on American Horror Story: Freak Show, Metz actually had to wear a prosthetic
fat suit to make herself look much bigger than she actually was.
"They called it the couch.
That's what we ended up calling it on the shoot.
Like 'Oh, here's Chrissy's couch' because it's basically couch cushions."
That experience gave her a new outlook on life.
As she told People, "It was sobering.
I thought, 'What if I become that heavy and can't walk around or get stuck in the doorframe?
I was like, 'I don't want this for me.'"
Metz was sure that her stint on American Horror Story would serve as a platform for her to
jump into the big time.
But her phone didn't ring out of control the way she might've expected.
She briefly considered giving up and moving back to Florida with her family, but her mother
talked her out of it.
She told her, "'You can either be miserable here and not pursue your dreams, or you can
be miserable in L.A. and at least pursue what you want.'"
Metz has since revealed that she had 81 cents in her bank account the day she landed the
part on This Is Us.
That's right: she didn't give up despite her financial setbacks.
"I just had this understanding and this, um, this intuition that it was going to be OK.
And there's always, like, a calm after the storm."
Giving back
Landing the career-making role of Kate on This Is Us changed Metz's life dramatically.
As soon as she got her first paycheck, she began repaying those who'd helped her along
the way.
Looking to the future, she wants to give back even more to those who stuck by her all along.
With at least two more seasons ahead and the future wide open for Chrissy Metz, it looks
like she'll have plenty of time to fulfill that dream.
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