Sterling K. Brown and Dan Fogelman realize that some viewers might want another “This Is Us.” That tear-jerking NBC hit, which Fogelman created, was a sprawling, time-hopping family drama in which Brown played Randall Pearson, the adopted Black son in a white family who is grappling with his mental health.
Millions of weekly viewers fell in love with Randall, a man who, as Brown described him, was exceptionally forthcoming with his feelings. But his character in the Hulu series “Paradise,” which Fogelman also created, isn’t Randall. He is physically intimidating, stoic — a Secret Service agent who keeps his feelings closely guarded.
“I’m sure there’ll be about 12 percent of people who are like, ‘This ain’t Randall, what’s going on?’” Brown said in a call earlier this month. “Then for that 12 percent, hopefully, after the pilot, they’ll be like: ‘Oh, this ain’t Randall. Let’s see what they’re doing next.’”
What they’re doing next is a sci-fi thriller, which debuted on Sunday, in which Brown’s character, Xavier, is assigned to protect the U.S. president (James Marsden). The job becomes more complicated when the president is found murdered early in the pilot. Augmenting the crisis is the seemingly idyllic but eerily nondescript setting, where the commander in chief lives in a white house that doesn’t seem to be the White House.
“Paradise” is in many ways a return to familiarity for Brown and Fogelman, who worked together for six seasons on “This Is Us,” racking up nine Emmy nominations between them and one win, for best drama actor. They brought back many crew members from “This Is Us,” from directors to hair and makeup artists.
“It is a homecoming on so many levels,” Brown said.
At the same time, “Paradise” represents an evolution. Brown is an executive producer of the series, bringing a new dimension to his and Fogelman’s creative partnership. And there was no question as to whether they could trust each other — that was already established amid all those years of giving life to Randall Pearson.
“Eight years into our relationship, I just know that whatever I give Sterling, he’s going to be able to do and do extraordinarily well,” Fogelman said in a separate video call.
“Paradise” wasn’t first conceived as a chance to re-team; Fogelman was already thinking through the story’s general contours before production on “This Is Us” began. It wasn’t until after “This Is Us” ended, in 2022, Fogelman said, that he committed to writing a pilot about “a 40-something Black Secret Service agent serving a slightly older white president.” But Xavier wasn’t written with Brown specifically in mind.
Then Fogelman began sharing the script; perhaps unsurprisingly, readers immediately suggested that Brown would be perfect for the lead.
“I started realizing, I can only do this with Sterling, and Sterling’s not going to want to do this again,” Fogelman said. “He just did six years with me.”
Brown’s participation was indeed no sure thing given how in-demand he had become. (He was on location in Paris for a film called “The Gallerist,” starring Natalie Portman, when we spoke.) He was already a rising star when “This Is Us” premiered in September 2016 — only two days before, he had won an Emmy for his supporting role in the “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.”
But “This Is Us” catapulted his career, bringing him into millions of homes every week. Roles in blockbusters like “Black Panther” (2018) and “Frozen II” (2019) followed, and last year he received his first Oscar nomination for a supporting turn in “American Fiction.”
Despite Fogelman’s fears, Brown quickly said yes to “Paradise.” Not only did he find the material “fantastic,” Brown said; he was also thrilled that it was shooting in Los Angeles, where he could be near his two children, ages 9 and 13. With only eight episodes in a season — unlike the usual 18 of “This Is Us” — the job also allows him to pursue other roles in the potential off-seasons. (Although the series has yet to be renewed, Fogelman said he had already planned out a three season arc.)
“It’s an opportunity to work with somebody who I have a profound amount of trust in, who I know is going to do something that I find artistically exhilarating,” Brown said. “I get to be compensated, and I get to be at home.”
Tiffany Little Canfield, a casting director who has worked on both shows, recognized the potential for a fruitful collaboration between Brown and Fogelman starting with Brown’s first audition for “This Is Us.”
“It was a meeting of the minds,” she said. “Creatively, Sterling seemed to have an innate understanding of Randall based on what materials he had been given, so the conversation got deep really quick.”
Brown’s sense of trust toward Fogelman began on the set of “This Is Us” where Fogelman had an open-door policy in the writers room. Actors were allowed to pitch ideas and share stories about their lives that could be incorporated into the characters.
“Sometimes showrunners can be a little more defensive and afraid of actors, like the actors are trying to get in the way,” Brown said. “Dan made everybody feel from the beginning as if they were a part of the process.”
Fogelman and Brown kept the exchange of ideas open for “Paradise”; Brown said he had leeway to help shape the dialogue, for example, in matters of Black cultural authenticity. (Racial themes are less overt in “Paradise” than in “This Is Us” but nonetheless important; the show is, after all, about a white political figure and the Black man expected to take a bullet for him.)
“He gives me latitude if there’s something that needs to be massaged ever so slightly or whatnot,” Brown said, “especially with regard to race or ethnicity. There’s never been a moment where he’s like, ‘Why did you say it that way?’”
At the same time, Fogelman’s close relationship with Brown has helped him write to the actor’s strengths. (Fogelman has been inspired, for example, by watching the way Brown interacts with his own children.) Brown, who by his own admission is highly competitive, sees his own intensity reflected in Xavier, who takes matters into his own hands against the people he believes are covering up the truth about the president’s death.
(Even Brown’s son has called out his competitiveness, Brown said. His response? “Some people talk to me about, ‘Don’t you ever just play to have fun?’ I say: ‘Absolutely. Winning is so much fun.’”)
With his fellow actors on set, however, Brown prioritizes camaraderie. His co-star Julianne Nicholson, who plays a mysteriously powerful government official, said that Brown goes out of his way to make colleagues feel comfortable.
“He’s very positive even though he has many deep dark places to go in this show,” Nicholson said. “When not filming it was, in my experience, only ever hilarity and joy and chill.”
Still, Fogelman said, it is Brown’s ability to lock into a role that makes him compelling, even when he’s just rifling through drawers looking for clues.
“That’s where he really knocked my socks off,” Fogelman said. “I know Sterling’s going to crush a monologue, and I know you’re going to put him in back story scenes with his wife and he’s going to make your heart ache.”
Fogelman likened the sensation of watching Brown at work to that of watching Tom Cruise or Denzel Washington. Brown became his muse as an action hero, he said, in the same way Brown had become his muse while writing Randall Pearson. He’ll keep writing parts for Brown for as long as Brown accepts the gigs.
“Sterling’s a Black Christian dude from St. Louis; I’m a white Jewish guy from New Jersey — on paper we don’t have a lot in common,” Fogelman said. “But we seem to have found each other in this surprising moment for this decade. Will I do 18,000 shows with Sterling like Scorsese with Leonardo DiCaprio? I don’t know. He may have had enough of me after this one.”