Jennifer Morrison and Us | Cassidy Sharp

About this episode

Jennifer Morrison discusses her journey from acting to directing and her experiences on This Is Us.

This week on That Was Us, we’re thrilled to be joined in studio by actor and director Jennifer Morrison, who brought Cassidy to life on This Is Us. Jennifer reflects on her journey from acting to directing, the challenges of transitioning from fantasy to grounded drama, and how This Is Us unexpectedly changed her life in a very real way. In this episode, Jennifer chats about: * Playing Cassidy across Seasons 4–6 and navigating her place within the Pearson family * The love quadrangle between Cassidy, Kevin, Zoe, and Nicky * Transitioning from Once Upon a Time to the grounded realism of This Is Us * Why she still had to audition for the role—and what that experience taught her * Her evolution from actor to director and why she feels she has more to contribute behind the camera * The intensity of shooting 100 scenes in 12 days * The challenges of proving herself as a director after years of acting * Her early experiences directing short films and her first feature, which sold to Netflix * Her time on House and the demanding pace of network television * Growing up in a marching band–focused household and how it shaped her work ethic * The surreal story of buying Dan Fogelman’s house…

People in this episode

Hosts: Mandy Moore, Chris Sullivan, Sterling K. Brown

Guest: Jennifer Morrison

Topics covered

• acting
• directing
• This Is Us
• character development
• transitioning careers
• audition experiences
• writing impact

Keywords

• Jennifer Morrison
• This Is Us
• acting
• directing
• audition
• character Cassidy
• Dan Fogelman
• Once Upon a Time
• House
• writing

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: This Is Us, Once Upon a Time, House

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