‘This Is Us’: Michael Angarano as Nick Pearson

Michael Angarano, Michael Angarano as Nick Pearson on This Is Us

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This season on This Is Us, actor Michael Angarano plays Nick Pearson, the brother of Jack Pearson.

There are still many questions surrounding Nick, and tonight, we expect to unravel the mystery a bit more. What do we know so far? What will we find out? Read on.

In the fall finale, we learned that Jack Pearson’s brother, whom we all thought was dead, is, in fact, alive and living in Pennsylvania.

The teaser for tonight’s episode shows the three siblings standing outside what we presume to be Nick’s trailer.

In a November interview with Vulture, Angarano discussed how he had to shield the secret of Nick being alive from his closest friends and family members.

“I haven’t been able to be honest with anybody in my life for about five months now,” Angarano told Vulture. “So this is nice. Finally, everyone knows the twist.” The twist he’s referring to is Nick being alive.

Asked by Vulture if he knew that Nicky wasn’t really dead the whole time he was filming, Angarano said, “I knew the broad strokes of the story, which was that Nicky was alive. I didn’t know the nuances and the details of the story so to speak, and was continually surprised by every script that I got and read. And I similarly don’t know too much about the future of it. They’re very close-lipped over there, as you would imagine.”

He went on to say that Nicky’s story “has a dark and sad ending,” some of which will likely surface in tonight’s episode.

Nicky tells Vulture that he didn’t audition for the role. He says he didn’t know he was being considered and it was “one of those great gifts” he was given. For his last interview question with Vulture, Angarano said that he expects the audience will be in tears when the show returns next year.

Another burning question on the list surrounding Nicky is whether or not Rebecca always knew that he was alive. FanSided points out that the chances Rebecca knew and was able to hide a (presumably) monthly postcard from her children is highly unlikely, but on this show, anything is possible. The outlet asks, “We saw how Rebecca secretly visited Randall’s biological father, William, for years without anyone knowing. Upon seeing one of the postcards (maybe the first?), and of course hiding her awareness, could she have done something similar to what she did with William and at minimum started separate communication with her brother-in-law? Could she still be communicating with Nick?”

And where may fans know Angarano from, to begin with? The 31-year-old actor played William Miller in Cameron Crowe’s 2000 film Almost Famous. Since then, he has acted in Cover Me: Based on the True Life of an FBI Family, Little Secrets, Sky High, Snow Angels, The Bondage, The Brass Teapot, and Red State. For a year, he also played Dr. Bertie Chickering on Cinemax’s period drama The Knick.

Last year, he acted opposite Emma Roberts, Dree Hemingway, and Patrick Gibson in the film In A Relationship.

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