Sterling K. Brown on his journey in “Paradise”, why he thought about his wife for one scene, “This Is Us” fans, and more

Sterling K. Brown has found himself on top

Interview by Gerrad Hall
Illustration by Andrew Bastow

Sterling K. Brown is used to keeping secrets from his days on This Is Us...and he's about to divulge too much about the movie he's currently filming in Australia, the live-action version of the '80s anime, Voltron.

"I can't talk too much," he says after giving a very short description of the original cartoon, on the new episode of The Awardist podcast. When pressed about whether he can say if he's playing a protagonist or an antagonist, he replies with a devilish smile, "I could."

The three-time Emmy winner is charming and full of personality as he chats about everything from that big-budget movie to his first Emmy win and how he almost broke while hosting Saturday Night Live. When the conversation turns to the more serious aspects of his latest series, Hulu's Paradise, or the episodes of This Is Us that fans still want to talk to him about, it's his deep care and honest reflection on characters and story that are just as engaging.

In the case of Paradise, created by This Is Us mastermind Dan Fogelman, it's his first time properly leading a series — playing secret service agent Xavier Collins, who's still mourning the loss of his wife a few years earlier, and now he's trying to figure out who killed the president (James Marsden). Oh, and all of the action is taking place in a manufactured community...an enormous bunker inside a Colorado mountain used to protect thousands from an apocalyptic natural disaster made worse by nuclear panic. Julianne Nicholson's Sinatra is running the show...until Xavier figures out her nefarious plans.

Below, Brown discusses finally being number one on the call sheet, Xavier's deep emotional turmoil, working with Nicholson and Marsden, This Is Us, and more.

THE AWARDIST: Aside from this really incredible character that you're playing here, and we'll dive more into that in just a second, I have to mention that this is your first producing role on a series. How'd you get to flex those producing muscles? What did that entail for you?

STERLING K. BROWN: Dan and I are in communication a lot about the casting process. I go into the writers' room ... This doesn't feel much different than This Is Us, though, because I would go into the writers' room all the time just to hear them pitch out the whole season — not for my approval, just because I was curious as to how the sausage is made. And so what I find is, when the writers are familiar with who you are and your voice, it's easier for them to incorporate things that may be personal from your own life experience that they can sort of incorporate into the character, etc. So I'm always fascinated by that process.

Then in terms of the casting, that was probably the most exciting part for me, just watching everybody come together. Julianne being available and excited, wanting to come and play in the sandbox; James, similarly. So that's a lot of fun.

I just really value people showing up to work, wanting to be there. So if there's anything that I can do to make sure that the environment is one that people not just have to be there, but are excited to be there, then I consider that to be a welcome responsibility of being [number] one on the call sheet and being a producer.

Speaking of being number one on the call sheet, is this the first time for you?

First time ever. There are other times in the past in which I've been offered one on the call sheet and I asked to be two or below. It's weird, right? Let me explain it. I was on Army Wives for a number of years and it was the number one show on Lifetime, like the whole time that it was on. And I was number six or five on the call sheet, something like that. And I was like, "Okay, we've had success on five or six." On [The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story], I was number six on the call sheet and that led to an Emmy, and I was like, "Six isn't so bad." For This Is Us, I think I was number four on the call sheet, and I was like, "Oh, this seems to work out." So I developed this superstition that I don't need to be one in order for things to go well, right? I've been offered a couple of films and the financing fell through when I was number one on the call sheet, and they never actually got a chance to come to fruition. And then when Mark Duplass and I did Biosphere, he put me as number one on the call sheet and I said, "Don't do it. You wrote this movie, you're producing this movie, put me number two on the call sheet and it will be fine." He's like, "Are you sure?" I was like, "Yes," So when this came up and I read the pilot, I was like, "You know what? I'm number one on the call sheet." There's no way I could justify not being number one. So I was like, all right, let me just embrace it and see how it goes.

Did you feel anything different?

I feel like people were looking to me for leadership and I was okay with it, where other times in the past, I'd been like, "We're doing this together." And I still feel as if we do do it together. If I'm a leader, I don't think I lead from out front — I lead side by side. Because I've been in an experience in the past where I felt a very clear hierarchy on set and that people did not treat everybody with equal respect. So I wanted to make sure that if I ever got the chance to be number one, that everybody felt respected and appreciated to be there. So I felt that people were looking to me for that, but I felt like because of what I had experienced in the past, I knew what the environment was that I wanted to create, which is, "We're all in this together."

Let's get into this Xavier Collins. What were your initial perceptions of him in that first script you got, and how did that change as you got into more of Dan's scripts?

He is a man in the middle of the grieving process, not through it by any stretch of the imagination, even though it's been three years without his wife. And so [he's] just trying to keep one foot in front of another and put all of his energy into his occupation. He values his occupation, and being good at what he does is important to him. That is something that we have in common. I think that, emotionally — not Randall Pearson in that Randall allows his emotions to be very much on the forefront of his being, very much on the surface — I think Xavier tries to keep things a little closer. As a single dad, wanting to have a certain appearance of strength for his daughter and his son. Doesn't allow himself to feel things as readily. Maybe when he's by himself and he touches the pillow — he misses her when he's by himself, but in front of everybody else, he tries to keep it tight, right? But things unravel a little bit. He allows himself the potential of romance, which I think was pretty—

Did that surprise you?

It didn't surprise me, because when Dan pitched it, he talked about how he wanted to try to get me naked in front of people and I was like, "All right." I think it's a thing he likes to do with his number ones — Milo [Ventimiglia] was naked [on the first episode of This Is Us], so he tried to give me a full moon rising in episode 3. But it was one of those things where it was three years and it was like, "Am I allowed to feel good?" ... He says in episode 3, "I don't know if I deserve to be here because you don't realize the cost of everybody. The world ended. What is it that allows me to be here and my wife's not here, and all these other people?" ... There's a survivor's remorse that's there. So is he entitled to happiness at all? He has that conversation with his daughter at the carnival right before Billy comes to visit and says, "Are we allowed to be happy? We've been practicing not doing it for so long. I thought that's what we do now." And she's finding a little bit of romance, I'm finding a little romance at the same time. When you get to 7, which is like the magnum opus of the season, you see him trying to balance three balls in the air at the same time: He's trying to take care of the president; he's trying to make sure his wife is able to get to the plane; [and] make sure that his children are taken care of, etc., and it all just collapses on itself, as the president decides that he needs to be forthright with the public and let them know what's going to happen so that they can make a decision on how to use their last time. And Xavier knows immediately s--- is about to hit the fan. There's no way around it. You cannot control what people do with the information once they have it. Some people will be cool, some people will not.

What I love about him, especially once he gets on Air Force One and he's saying goodbye to his wife and you see the loss, that's the loss that he's been carrying with him this whole time. And then the possibility of his wife being alive in the future ... He's been trying to figure out how to live without it for three years and now the potential of getting it back exists. It's like, "I got to go do that." So I don't know. I love the arc that we were able to create for him during the first season and then propel him into season 2.

You mentioned episode 7 ... holy cow. When you and Julianna Nicholson have that showdown — you're holding the gun, she's on the other end of it. Even though the scene was broken up throughout the episode, that was filmed as one continuous scene in one day?

All one day. That's all one scene because it's the end of episode 6, into the top of 7, and then bookending 7.

Is there a lot of extra mental prep for a scene like that?

Yeah, that one felt big and we knew so much was riding on it, the new information about life existing outside of the bunker and my wife possibly being alive outside of the bunker. There was a lot riding on it, and this is the first time we're acknowledging the protagonist and antagonist coming face to face with one another with fuller knowledge of what each other is capable of. I've already sparked off the sky. I f---ed with the system. She knows that I can f--- with the system and I know that she's nefarious and has taken out what I believe to be two people. So there was a lot. Even at the beginning of the day, well, Julianne is the most lovely person. I think this is important for the record. It's okay to love Julianne and hate Sinatra. It's okay. Please don't roll up on her on the streets being like, "I can't stand you. How dare you try to hurt Presley!" But at the beginning of the day, I said, "You know, Julianne, today's going to be a tough one." She's like, "Yup, I know." And so you do your initial greetings and then you leave each other alone because we both need that space. She's coming from a perspective of like, "This is my world. You don't get to f--- with my world." And he's coming from the perspective of like, "You've destroyed everything that's mine and you're not going to destroy anymore." It was intense. ... There's a certain level of focus that you maintain on days like that that just requires a little bit more quiet than normal, a little less conversation. It's such a strange profession, Gerrad. In your mind, you're like, "If she does anything that I don't like, I will end her," and that's the level of tension that you're riding with as she's parsing out this new information. And the last bit of information that she gives you is that, "Your daughter is not where you think she is," and you are like, "Ah, man." And it's funny, online, I saw people say like, "You should have at least shot her in the knee. You could have done something." And like there's a part of me that's like, I should have shot her in the knee.

We also have to talk about your relationship with James Marsden. In that episode in particular, he has quite a moment. But tell me about about building this camaraderie, which then crumbles because he has contributed to that grief that you talked about.

First of all, man, he kills this ... He kills Cal Bradford. I knew he was good — I've been watching James my whole life. And then just recently getting the chance to see Jury Duty and whatnot and how freaking hysterical this guy is, and then he comes and he plays the president of the United States, and he's all charm. And of course, he's handsome, but has such pathos and such warmth and such a desire to do the right thing.

You see two people struggling, someone from a position of power to make the right decision for everybody — as if that's an easy thing to do — and someone just trying to figure out what's the right thing to do for himself and his family. I was just delighted being in any and every scene with him. He's a good dude. I consider us to be very kindred. He's very open, very honest. You ask him a question, he gives you an answer. So he was easy to know as a person. And I think that translates on screen when people share themselves so readily. There's a camaraderie that just happened. And it's not like we knew each other a long time beforehand, but anytime on set, we're sitting next to each other, we're talking, we're singing songs. I hum a lot and then I'll start to sing and then he'll be like, "What are you singing?" And then he leans in and he starts to harmonize. It was like I felt like I met a brother. It was like hanging out with Justin Hartley. And so it just translated really easily and naturally to a wonderful relationship on screen.

It's interesting because I have such empathy for Cal Bradford and I think the audience, by the time you get to 7, does as well because they're like, "Come on, Xavier. You can't be blaming him. He told you, 'Don't let her go.'"

But how could Xavier know what he meant?

Yeah, you couldn't know. And I think once you see 7, everything happened way faster than the president anticipated. I thought we were going to have days. Now it's all of a sudden it's here.

He has such a real and human moment when he speaks to the country. The other scene that got me was you on the phone with your wife knowing that a nuclear missile is headed toward her in Atlanta. I can't imagine where one goes with a thought like that.

It's exactly how you describe it. It's such a strange profession, because you have to imagine, if the world was about to end and my wife was in a city where a direct nuclear hit was about to transpire, what would that do to you? And it just so happens, this is — shout out to Ryan Michelle Bathe, who is my wife, who today, sir, has been married to her husband for 19 years — and I think the two greatest things that an actor has to draw on are their life experience and their imagination. So I have the wonderful life experience of sharing my life with someone whom I adore for 19 years. And I have the facility of imagination to wonder what life would be like without her. And that's the job, right? And it's such a ... And in order for it to land, in order for it to have any real relevance, you just have to sit in that place. And I love my crew because they'd see it on This Is Us and they'd see it now — and I'm a gregarious guy; I love to connect and be with people — but they'll see the moment that Brown goes in, you see everybody just walk around me and give a little bit wider berth and just give me the space and the time necessary to live in that place. And that's what makes them professionals.

Is there still a moment or an episode of This Is Us that people want to talk to you about when they see you out and about?

Yeah, "Memphis," which is episode 116, when William (Ron Cephas Jones) passes away. That one hits hard right, in the feels. It's funny, we do a podcast, Mandy [Moore], myself, and Chris [Sullivan], and we're about to discuss episode 214, which is the fire and we discover how Jack passes away.

Which has a whole different meaning now in L.A., especially what Mandy and Milo personally experienced.

it's really insane, right? But that one has a deep level of resonance. But what I find is that a lot of them have deep levels of resonance. Different episodes hit different people in different ways. And you have people come up to you all the time and really what I get asked for more than anything else from This Is Us people, specifically, "Can I have a hug?" And it's the most lovely thing. I think that was the gift of the show: We felt connected, especially in a world that feels so divisive and a country that feels incredibly divided right now, that we had a show that allowed people to connect.

Last thing: Would you mind sharing with folks here as you did at the Q&A I moderated with you how you obtained that great full moon rising?

You're talking about the posterior chain? [Laughs] I give mad credit to Peloton. Shout out to Jess Sims, one of my favorite instructors, because she really likes to put the incline on the treadmill on high and it just does something. Gravity, it fights against gravity. It lifts. My wife is blessed in the posterior chain as well and I just don't want her to think that she's the only person that's blessed. We're nearing 50 now, so the fight is real, but Brown's here for a good fight. I'm here.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Listen to the full interview with Brown, where he also reveals his secret to getting those tears to sit on the edge of his eyes, what he thought of his wife's TikToks reacting to Paradise, the sketch that nearly made him break when he hosted SNL, what he remembers about his first Emmy win, and more on The Awardist podcast, below.

Emmy nomination predictions: Drama and Comedy Series

Sure, Emmy nominations aren't for another three-and-a-half months, and sure, there are still new shows and season premieres to come, but it's not too soon to start making predictions. These are the shows that EW critic Kristen Baldwin thinks will make the cut when nominations are announced on July 15.

DRAMA SERIES

1. Severance (Apple TV+)

2. The White Lotus (HBO)

3. The Last of Us (HBO)

4. The Diplomat (Netflix)

5. The Pitt (Max)

6. The Day of the Jackal (Peacock)

7. House of the Dragon (HBO)

8. Squid Game (Netflix)

Check out more from EW's The Awardist, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year's best in TV.

COMEDY SERIES

1. Hacks (Max)

2. The Bear (Hulu)

3. Abbott Elementary (ABC)

4. Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)

5. Shrinking (Apple TV+)

6. Nobody Wants This (Netflix)

7. Somebody Somewhere (HBO)

8. What We Do in the Shadows (FX)
   

Oughta Get a Nod: Harrison Ford for Shrinking

It’s not controversial to call Harrison Ford a national treasure — the man is Han Solo, Indiana Jones, and the President of the United States. But he’s also a damn good actor, a fact that has gone largely unrecognized (he’s never won a competitive major award, scarcely even been nominated). That alone is reason to nominate him for an Emmy. The fact that he’s giving the performance of his career as curmudgeonly but lovable Paul on Shrinking is just icing on top. In season 2, he elevated his work to a new level, bringing us to tears with his emotional, vulnerable monologue (above) about aging and community in the season finale. —Maureen Lee Lenker, Sr. Writer

2025 Awards Season Calendar

MAY 1 — Tony Awards nominations
JUNE 1 — Peabody Awards
JUNE 8 — Tony Awards
JUNE 12-23 — Emmy nomination voting
JULY 15 — Emmy nominations
AUG. 18-27 — Final Emmy voting
SEPT. 6, 7 — Creative Arts Emmys
SEPT. 14 — 77th Primetime Emmys

Emmys Flashback

"Today, it's my birthday, so thank you all very much. This morning, I got three shirts and a dozen golf balls, and tonight...it's a good country. You know, to get one of these things at any age is nice, but when you hit 41, it's..."
—PETER FALK | LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES, 1990 | COLUMBO
"

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly