00:00Randall and Beth, if you remember from 118, the season finale, he's contemplating adoption.
00:06He wants to sort of fulfill the legacy of his parents, Jack and Rebecca, honor William's
00:13memory by adopting.
00:19You think that This Is Us has had any kind of impact on people raising a child of a different
00:29race of their own, specifically white parents raising black children?
00:33I've had a couple people who have transracially adopted come up to me and say thank you.
00:40Like they'll just be, they'll see me in an unexpected place, whatever it is, and they'll
00:45just be like, we have a black child and thank you.
00:51And we have asked the questions about suntan lotion and haircuts and, you know, what's
00:59proper about all these different things.
01:01Black hair is always a huge conversation if you have a daughter in particular.
01:06I think folks just enjoy seeing their story told in a way that's highlighted for a national
01:13audience.
01:14Because oftentimes you feel like you're just doing this in isolation and people can't
01:17understand what you're going through.
01:19But then you see someone telling your story and you're like, they get it.
01:24You know, and we had this woman, she's a young black woman who wrote a book about being a
01:29transracial adoptee.
01:31And she came and talked to our writers before we even started writing so that they could
01:35really get inside the ideas and the problems and just concerns that parents have with children
01:43of a different race.
01:45And I think that we're getting at least something right because the response has been overwhelmingly
01:50positive and just happy to see their story told.
01:54When you hear those kinds of anecdotes, do you bring them back to the show?
01:58I do.
01:59I do.
02:00Has it had an impact on different scenes or plot lines?
02:04Possibly.
02:06Dan has like four seasons of this show sort of charted out in his head already.
02:11But there's always wiggle room within the train tracks to explore different colors.
02:16Right?
02:17There was an instance for me personally where somebody came up to me and it was about Justin
02:26and I.
02:27And they said like I hadn't talked to my brother in years.
02:31And I saw episode 115, Jack Pearson's son, where he leaves his play to come and find me
02:37at the office.
02:38And he's like I called my brother just to tell him that I loved him and that I missed him.
02:45You know what I mean like those sorts of things when you're in isolation sometimes you're not
02:59necessarily aware of the impact that you're having on your audience and then when they
03:03reflect the show back to you like it's like oh it's not to sound like hyperbolic or whatnot
03:10but it's more than a show like it is entertainment right but it cracks open people's hearts and
03:19makes you feel demands that you feel something in the most wonderful way.
Comments