In 1999, blonde,
billboard-size pop stars Britney, Christina and Jessica stormed the
Earth. Pink was considered revolutionary for having a pink pixie cut.
Clipping at their heels was the coltish Mandy Moore, who, like the
Skipper to their Barbies, was more wholesome, more relatable, more
brunette (even when she went blonde, she was still brunette at
heart)—and thus receded into the new millennium’s flock of songbirds,
despite having real moxie and a rare, charming sweetness. She toured with Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC before trying acting, most memorably in the Nicholas Sparks weeper A Walk to Remember in 2002 and as a terrific villain in the sharp comedy Saved! in 2004. (Around the same time, cornball romcoms like How to Deal and Chasing Liberty
tanked.) Her pivot to a singer-songwriter sound was hailed by critics
yet ignored by fans. She wed singer Ryan Adams at age 24 in 2009 and
filed for divorce in January 2015. The marriage officially ended this
June. But all it takes is one complex, heart-gulping part to turn it all
around. Generation Y is overjoyed to see their girl, sidelined for so
many years, straight killing it on CTV’s breakout smash This Is Us. The trailer
was viewed eight million times pre-air, and the show is now Canada’s
number one new series with millennials. Moore plays Rebecca, a new mom
who endures the gaping distance between herself and her hard-drinking
husband—and that’s just in the first two episodes. After an emotional
day filming the series’ Thanksgiving ep, Moore called to talk about how
her own struggles in life have prepared her for the role of her career. You haven’t had a big hit in many years. How did it feel to book This Is Us? Is every day on the show emotionally exhausting? What are your coping mechanisms when you have this heavy emotional load to carry at work? How do you feel about this role coming to you now, as opposed to five years ago, now that you’ve lived so much more life? What was it like to be a teenager and be on tour with Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC? At the time you emerged, there was this media witch hunt over
which pop stars were virgins. How did you handle adult journalists
prying into your personal life that way? You’re in a great relationship right now, living with Dawes singer Taylor Goldsmith. Is playing music together part of your lives? What is it like to wear those ’80s and ’90s clothes on This Is Us? Did you save anything from your early-2000s pop-star era?
I had been so crushed by pilot season and things not moving forward for a
couple of years; I had done three pilots, and they hadn’t been picked
up. To be emotionally invested in these projects and for them to not go
past those initial episodes was really heartbreaking. With each
progressive project, I lost a little more faith. Like, Ugh! Maybe this isn’t for me. I need to find a new job.
I was just so keen on breaking into TV—it’s the medium I enjoy the
most, and there are so many exciting projects, specifically for women.
It got increasingly more disappointing. Finding out This Is Us
had been picked up for a full season was total elation. I’d never played
a mother or a wife before. When I was making the pilot, I thought, You know what? It is a risk. I could be heartbroken again. But I am going to invest everything I have into this.
It’s definitely… [exhales] It’s a lot.
I haven’t quite figured that out yet. I’m trying to use all the feelings
of being overwhelmed and funnel that into the work. I have enough from
my life to channel into the character, and it is cathartic in many ways.
I’m happy to use my own life as fuel.
There’s no way I would, for any amount of money, go back five, 10 years.
I am really grateful for the life I have lived and the miles I have
tread.
It was pretty trippy. I went from watching them on MTV before school to
six months later being on tour with *NSYNC, then six months after that, I
was on the road with Backstreet Boys. Being a typical teenage girl, I
had my own silly, harmless crushes on all of those guys. It complicated
my friends’ feelings for me: I went from being in school with them to
half a year later being in close proximity to these guys. That didn’t go
over too well with some of my friends.
It’s nobody’s business, and it felt incredibly invasive. Because I was
on the younger side of the crop of girls out there and I didn’t have the
same degree of success, people let me off the hook more, which I was
very appreciative of.
There’s music being played around the house all the time. I definitely
think sooner rather than later there will be collaborations. If you’re
under the same roof, that creativity flourishes.
[laughs] I don’t think it was the most fashionable era. I’m rocking some
mom jeans pretty hard. Some of the ’90s stuff I get to wear is very in
sync with where fashion is at this point. But the stuff I wore in the
late ’90s—I hope it never comes back.
I think I have some great suede Gucci pants, but FYI, there is no way I
would fit into them nowadays. Maybe if I have a daughter one day, I can
pass them on to her.