“I’m not going to worry about who she necessarily was in the last episode, but I’ll let it inform me in the next episode.” – Susan Kelechi Watson
With This Is Us becoming one of the biggest hits of the television season, the actors from the series are receiving acclaim for their performances. One of them is Susan Kelechi Watson, who plays Beth on the show. In an interview with Vulture, Watson speaks about approaching her character episode-by-episode and working with her on-screen husband.
Though Watson sees her character’s progression over the season, she also approaches her character from a fresh standpoint in each episode. She says, “The way she’s written is to slowly unfold. So, for me, it was more every episode, where is she now? I’m not going to worry about who she necessarily was in the last episode, but I’ll let it inform me in the next episode. But it’s always about ‘where are they now?’ What does she need to do in this moment? Because everything that’s happened to them as a family is all so new. So I have to allow it to be new for her.”
The interviewer also notes her on-screen chemistry with Sterling K. Brown, who portrays her husband. Watson answers, “That’s funny because I used to describe being in a scene together like that: ‘I’m gonna fall back and trust you’re gonna catch me!’ I believe it’s something we trusted in each other from the beginning. I said this before and I’ll say it again: I wouldn’t recognize the chemistry if people didn’t point it out, as odd as that may sound. For me it’s about us really finding the truth of the scene, and he does that so beautifully, to play off of each other in that way. It just feels like two people who understand the truth of what’s happening in the scene and are committed to playing that with each other — wherever he goes I’ll go, and wherever I’ll go he’ll go.”
