Endless twists and turns! While This Is Us fans are still in shock after the dramatic mid-season finale that aired on Tuesday, December 6, Susan Kelechi Watson, who plays Beth Pearson, is looking forward to new revelations in 2017.
“There is some really great stuff about Beth coming up that gets to unfold, and that’s the beauty of her character,” the actress told Us exclusively at Vulture’s Awards Season Party. “I think we don’t get to know her all at once, but it’s the slow peeling away of the layers and little by little more about her history, her background, her family, her career will start to come out and that’s happening.”
Watson, whose character is married to Randall (Sterling K. Brown) on the NBC show, explains that she is discovering Beth more and more with every new episode.
“I have heard a lot that people find her to be strong, and I’m really happy about that,” she says “I think she’s just really trying to keep things OK. There is so much going on and she’s trying to roll with the punches and make sure everyone is OK at the same time. Maybe she’s putting a lot of people before herself at the moment, which a lot of us do, you put your loved ones first in those situations. But she’s also figuring it out as she goes. I mean, so much is so new to her, it’s new to all of them, so the only thing you can do is sort of stay with it, keep going and do the best you can.”
With heart-wrenching scripts (Chrissy Metz, who plays Kate Pearson, has told Us she tears up at table reads), Watson tries to get one step ahead by chatting with creator Dan Fogelman to find out what’s next for her character.
“The door is always open. The great thing about [Fogelman] is that he has an open-door policy where if ever I want to discuss the character, if ever I want to say how can we incorporate something, if I ever want to go, ‘Hey, what’s going to happen?’ the door is open,” she explains. But when it comes to giving away any hints about upcoming story lines, she laughs. “My lips are sealed!”
This Is Us airs on NBC Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.