Justin Hartley: "The Daytime Guy"

 

Justin Hartley On His THIS IS US Success: “I Didn’t Know I Was Known As The ‘Daytime Guy’. But This Show Has Certainly Changed The Trajectory Of Things.” 

 

 With only two more emotional episodes left of season one of the hit NBC series, This Is Us, Justin Hartley (Kevin Pearson) has certainly become a household name – with interviews and appearances on many top-notch entertainment outlets and talk shows.  Justin has shown just what soap opera fans have known for decades, that this guy is not only mighty-fine looking, but he can act, too!

Y&R fans were disappointed when Hartley departed the number-one soap where he played Adam Newman to the hilt to play one of the leading roles in the Dan Fogelman drama, but were thrilled for his primetime success. The fact that he can still be seen each week on their TV screens is fantastic for his longtime and new fans.

 

“I didn’t know I was known as the ‘daytime guy. But this show certainly has changed the trajectory of things.” In fact,  he related that recently a fan approached him who knew of his work on the now defunct Passions as Fox Crane and asked, “So, what happened after that? Did you quit?”  Far from it!  Hartley kept busy appearing on many primetime dramas, and going back to daytime, before nabbing the role on This Is Us.

 

As to just how good the scripts are each week on This Is Us, Justin could not be more happy and motivated: “There’s also something very daunting about reading a script and being like, ‘Oh my God, I hope I’m good enough to make this work,’ which is where I’m at right now.”

 

His role and that of the other leading male characters on This Is Us, played by Sterling K. Brown and Milo Ventimiglia, has given Justin a new view on fatherhood ( he is the dad to 12-year-old daughter Isabella) and masculinity: “It’s reinforced a lot of things I thought before. One of the things I constantly do is try to show my daughter what that is, what that means, what a man does. I try to show her that by example. I want her to find somebody that obviously measures up — she’s wonderful — and that deserves her. And there obviously isn’t anyone that does, but we’ll get close, hopefully.” 

 

Justin added, ”There’s a time and a place where (being) a father is important, or a brother, or a relationship with a buddy,” he says of what it is to be a man as it is portrayed on This Is Us.
On Monday, Hartley was over the moon, and rightfully so, after the Hollywood new-source that is an institution, Variety featured him and the cast of This Is Us on the cover. Justin tweeted “Thanks @ Variety for the time and the space of your much coveted cover. Honored! I’m gonna get a copy, or 10, or 10 hundred.”