‘This Is Us’ Stars Justin Hartley and Alexandra Breckenridge Reflect on Sophie and Kevin’s ‘Full Circle’ Reunion and Future

SPOLER ALERT: Don’t read if you haven’t seen “The Night Before the Wedding,” the April 26 episode of “This Is Us.”

Another “This Is Us” mystery was solved during Tuesday’s episode. In previous flash-forwards, Kevin (Justin Hartley) is wearing a wedding ring, but his wife has yet to be identified, until now. At Kate’s (Chrissy Metz) wedding to Phillip (Chris Geere), Kevin is reunited with his ex-wife, Sophie (Alexandra Breckenridge), whom he has loved since they met in elementary school. Although he was hesitant at first because he had broken her heart so many times and they had too much history, Rebecca (Mandy Moore), who thought he was talking to young Sophie due to her dementia, told him that while Kevin might not be ready right now to she would be one day.

With that, Sophie agreed that now was the right time to give their romance another chance.

Breckenridge had a recurring role in the first season of “This Is Us” and a lead role in season 2. His role later transitioned to a guest role in the remaining seasons, mainly because he landed the lead in “Virgin River” from Netflix. ”

Here, Hartley and Breckenridge speak with Variety about Sophie and Kevin’s long-awaited reunion, why now was the right time for creator Dan Fogelman to bring them together, and the future of the characters.

First things first: we didn’t get the main flash-forward in this episode. Is it safe to assume that Sophie will be Kevin’s wife in the future?

Justin Hartley: I think you can safely assume that. God, that would be a tragedy of epic proportions. No. 1, how many times is this guy going to be wrong? And what’s worse, how many times is this woman going to let him back? So I think it’s safe to assume that they found peace and they found a match for her and she was always the same person all along, and through a lot of missteps and immaturity that played a huge role. Just being insecure and self-centered and all that, as far as Kevin is concerned, Sophie got there way before Kevin did and I think Kevin was able to catch up with her and find her exactly where she is.

Alexandra Breckenridge: I think it would be too short a time to associate him with someone else at the end of the show. We only have four more episodes! I think they really do a good job of saying they’ve come together at the end of the episode.

When did the discussion about bringing you back start?

Breckenridge: A couple of years ago, I was trying to come back, but I was filming the second season of “Virgin River”. They came back and wanted me to come on the show. She was very excited, but I couldn’t do it because of the shooting schedule. This time, we were supposed to start filming “Virgin River” season 5 in March, but we were pushed back to July. So if I was filming right now, I don’t know if I would have been able to do “This Is Us.” I think that was always the plan for them. We had been talking about Kevin and Sophie getting back together for a while, and it just didn’t happen due to the filming schedule with COVID. He couldn’t go back and forth to Canada due to quarantine restrictions.

Did you think that in the end it always had to be Sophie?

Hartley: I didn’t think it always had to be Sophie. The reason the show is so successful is that I think people relate to all the characters, whether you’re male or female, whether you’re old or young, whether you’re black or white, whether you’re gay or straight, whether you’re either very religious or you don’t really care, whatever it is, I think people identify with all the characters. You have a guy on the show who is, for all intents and purposes, a famous rich man who seemingly has it all. And yet, there are moments on the show, quite a few times, where I think he’s the most relatable of all the characters and that’s so weird. It is a testimony of writing. That’s part of the problem with writing Superman, right? It’s hard to relate to him. But imagine writing a script where you have this guy who is rich and famous and you have everything you can imagine. And then make it in some relatable way. That is just great writing.

Far from your question, I didn’t always think it had to be Sophie. She had enough faith in writers, and she knew they had this one. And if she was someone else, they were going to build a story around this guy’s life that made sense to that character. I knew that whatever it was going to be was going to be the right decision. You’d have to ask Dan! Maybe Dan knew it all along, but building all those things, all those relationships that you saw Kevin deal with, Cassidy and Madison and everyone in between, even the condom girl, all those relationships, they count. a story and it’s actually adds to the wealth and gives Kevin the right to get back together with Sophie and gives Sophie the right to trust Kevin again. It’s a really beautiful story, full circle.

Breckenridge: Ultimately, even though the characters didn’t end up together before, what I like and think is quite satisfying is that you have two people who were able to develop into full humans on their own. It’s so much better when people can be fully formed when they get back into a relationship, especially given their history and given the number of times Kevin has broken Sophie’s heart. He really needed that time to find himself. So ultimately I think it’s still very satisfying when they come together.

Jennifer Maas contributed to this interview, which has been edited and condensed.