A dramatic turn for Sterling K. Brown
Busy star of This is Us picks up an Emmy Award after years in supporting roles
Sterling K. Brown is having a moment. That’s how the 41-year-old actor describes the recognition he’s been receiving the past year or so as he fields questions from a slew of reporters in Los Angeles and his agent paces off to the side.
Lately, keeping the man on his up-to-the-minute schedule is a tough task, between filming the second season of last year’s hit new TV show This Is Us and four upcoming big screen films, including The Predator.
This moment comes years into the game for the Stanford graduate, mind you. Brown has hit the television circuit hard over the last decade and a half, guest-starring on everything from ER and NYPD Blue to Person of Interest and Criminal Minds.
But it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that he caught the eye of prolific producer-director Ryan Murphy and was cast in the life-changing role of Chris Darden in FX’s American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson that people took note.
It was that Emmy-winning role that eventually won Brown his current gig as Randall Pearson on NBC/ CTV’s This Is Us, which kicks off its second season Tuesday night. With the show’s 10 Emmy nominations; weekly US ratings that doubled the only other hit new series, Designated Survivor; and 30-second ad spots on NBC reportedly going for $750,000 apiece, expectations heading into the top-secret premiere are high, to say the least.
Brown, who took home a trophy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for the role at the Emmy Awards last week, is well aware of that pressure.
Playing the African American adoptive son of a white family, a successful, smart businessman and a husband and father-of-two, Randall has been shattering tired TV tropes of absentee Black fathers since he first appeared onscreen in the show’s pilot, preparing to confront his own absentee, biological father William (Ron Cephas Jones).
“Man I hope that’s the truth. If indeed that is the case that would be a source of tremendous pride,” Brown says of changing the conversation surrounding Black men in familial roles.
“We change as we become exposed to humanity, whether that’s through travel or our own personal engagement or through media and entertainment.
“To be a character who is an African American, a good father and a good husband, a good brother, sister, son, everything — for people to see this man come into their homes week in and week out, exposes it.
“So maybe the next time they come in contact with an African American they’ll be able to just recognize that individual’s humanity. Because that’s what we all are; we’re humans.”
It’s those types of relatable storylines that viewers seem to have responded to most of all, especially in a current TV landscape rife with highconcept superheroes, adrenaline-fueled cops, haughty doctors and law-bending lawyers.
The “Memphis” episode, in which William and Randall took a lifechanging road trip back to William’s hometown, continues to be one of the most talked-about TV episodes last season.
This year promises more of that heartfelt, family drama for Randall’s storyline in particular as he and his wife Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) embark on a quest to adopt a child of their own.
As an early preview for the series hinted, the decision to adopt won’t necessarily be a mutual one for the couple, leading to early strife as the storyline picks up on the leading characters’ 37th birthdays.
“He’s very conscious of wanting to pay homage to his parents and to William’s legacy and to do something for a young person that was done for him,” Brown hints.
“Maybe the next time (viewers) come in contact with an African American they’ll be able to just recognize that individual’s humanity. Because that’s what we all are; we’re humans.” STERLING K. BROWN
“The thing is he has a different wife and she has different ideas about how that’s supposed to self-actualize.”
Emotional storylines like this, or Randall dealing with anxiety, or deciding that life’s too short to waste on a company that doesn’t appreciate him, are all parts of the highs and lows the writers and creator Dan Fogelman hope to encapsulate in every episode of This Is Us.
By essentially showcasing good people who stumble as they try to do the right thing, they’re hoping to catch a slice of life that’s infinitely relatable.
For Brown, playing that type of rare character is what allowed him to become the first African American male to be nominated for a best dramatic Emmy since 2001, and the first to win the category since 1998, when Andre Braugher took home the trophy for Homicide: Life in the Street. More importantly, it’s a role that rings true for Brown in his home life, where he’s also concerned about fatherhood.
“Randall puts a brother through it sometimes because he has such incredible highs, but you don’t often see people wear their hearts on their sleeve the way in which this character does. It’s been a joy to play him,” Brown says.
“It’s also exhausting. So when I go home and my 6-year-old and my 2-year-old couldn’t care less about anything I’m doing at work and they just want a hug, and to jump on my back, or have a battle fight in bed where we pretend to be different Marvel characters, that immediately snaps me back to the lovely, wonderful nuance that is the totality of my reality.” This Is Us returns Tuesday at 9 p.m. on CTV.