Random Thought: the weirdness of seeing cast members together who never share a scene

Random thought: do you ever see cast members of This Is Us together who never share a scene on screen and wonder how they even know each other?

Every now and then, during an interview or in a group photo or on a red carpet, I’ll see cast members from the show together who never share a scene on screen and I have this moment where my suspension of disbelief just crashes to the ground. Milo Ventimiglia and Sterling K. Williams cannot do an interview together because they are not part of the same timeline. Jack Pearson never lives to know his adult son Randall Pearson, therefore they cannot exist in the same room at the same time.

It’s silly, I know. But sometimes I do watch and wonder how they even know each other if they’re never on screen together. The Katie Girls make sense because they were all together in Kate’s subconscious that one episode, but how is it that Sterling K. Brown has a close and fatherly relationship teenage Randall actor Niles Fitch if they don’t exist together at the same time? Its things like this that entertain me while I watch these interactions between cast members who don’t even work together. How are they so friendly and on such close terms?

Of course the secret to a multigenerational show like This Is Us is that the cast does all work together whether they ever appear on screen together or not. Sterling K. Brown must work closely with Niles Fitch to maintain the consistency of the character Randall from teen to adult. Randall Pearson is a collaborative character by nature, as are Kevin and Kate Pearson, and now Uncle Nicky. Milo Ventimiglia may not ever share a scene with the adult Pearsons – except for a few dreams or hallucinations – but they do work together.

It’s still a weird feeling to see Ventimiglia share space with any of the adult Big Three though.