How Jon Huertas' Own Past Led To This Randall & Kevin Moment On 'This Is Us'

Premium
- This Is Us -
How Jon Huertas' Own Past Led To This Randall & Kevin Moment On 'This Is Us'

After a year of build up, Kevin and Randall finally talked about race and how it affected their relationship growing up in "Brotherly Love." Their confrontation covered everything from Kevin's micro-aggressions, to Randall's guilt for wanting to know his biological parents, and got especially heated when revisiting a particular moment from their past, one that was actually inspired by This Is Us star Jon Huertas (Miguel).

In "Brotherly Love," Kevin and Randall reach a breaking point after Kevin attempted to apologize for not standing up for Randall in high school, when the father of his white prom date rejected him.

For Kevin, this was the moment, the one he kept coming back to when thinking about the racism Randall might have experienced in their youth. But for Randall, this was just one of the more overt racist experiences he had as a kid out of a whole childhood of instances both big and small, all leading up to this conversation. And realizing that forced Kevin to confront that he had to confront his own micro-aggressions towards Randall.

Miguel isn't mentioned in the moment, nor is he mentioned in the episode at all, but Huertas actually played a key role in getting this prom storyline into the show way back in the Season 3 episode, "Toby."

"They actually used a story from my past," Huertas recalls, speaking to The Dipp over the phone prior to "Brotherly Love" airing. "When Randall goes to the prom, and he's going with a white girl and her dad is definitely not accepting of Randall. That is a personal story that came from my past." According to Huertas, the writers were inspired to write that story after he shared his own experiences growing up in Virginia as an Afro-Latino.

Go For It
Sign up for free to our new, female-founded community and get full access to our community and conversations. Contact hi@thedipp.com for access

Discover More