Jon Huertas on ‘This Is Us’ and When We Could Learn More About Miguel [Video]

Jon Huertas was as surprised as everyone else when he found out what Miguel’s role on This Is Us would entail. 

The drama series is known for surprising its audience in heartfelt ways. The reveal that Miguel winds up being married to Rebecca later in life (and that Jack had died) was among the first of those surprises.

I recently spoke with Huertas about the moment he learned his character would eventually marry Rebecca, when we might learn more of Miguel’s story, and what it was like directing This Is Us Season 5 Episode 9, “The Ride.”

“I thought, originally, that it was just supposed to be like a couple of episodes with Jack because I play his best friend,” Huertas said. Then shortly after he got the job on This Is Us, he was called into a special effects makeup house and learned about how his character would be aged. He couldn’t believe it when he found out why.

“I was like, ‘Rebecca is Jack’s wife. No, I play Jack’s best friend.’ And they were like, ‘We know. And you’re going to be married to her when you’re older.’ I was confused. I didn’t know what was going on,” he recalled. 

One thing Huertas appreciates about his work on the show is the input he’s been able to have on his character. 

“They kind of allow me to weigh in and help develop the character’s background and story, and use me and my real background in some of the storytelling. It’s very collaborative,” Huertas said.

An example he gave of this is his character’s last name. Rivas is the last name of a friend who served with him in the air force.

Watch the full interview with Jon Huertas:

We will get a chance to learn more about Miguel, and it sounds like that will happen fairly soon. In addition to hinting that one of his favorite scenes to film so far is one we’ve yet to see on the screen, he spoke a bit about a change we’ll see for Miguel.

That change is reflected in his appearance. When we see Miguel in the early years, as we did on This Is Us Season 5 Episode 10, his hair is long and straight. 

“He blow-dries his hair to make is straight so he feels more included in the middle age white male kind of world,” Huertas explained.

“When he’s elder, he’s got more curly hair. We’ll see what happens. I can’t tell you too much, but he goes through a change. In the early years, in the ’70s and ’80s, it was important to people to fit in in order to get ahead. To change their identity, or kind of erase their real identity to create another identity so that they could get ahead. And I think that’s something we’re exploring with the hair.”

Huertas also noted that the audience should learn more about Miguel and Rebecca’s love story next season.

As I mentioned above, Huertas directed one of this season’s episodes, “The Ride.” That was his first time directing an episode of the series. 

“It was amazing, but it was also challenging, which I love. That’s what made it amazing,” he said. “It was Mandy Moore being nine months pregnant. It was, because of COVID, episodes 7 and 8 were behind. So we were filming episodes 7, 8, and 9 kind of congruently.”

“It was challenging, but that’s what made it so much fun. For them to give me my first episode of the show during this time might seem mean, but it was probably the best gift I could have received.”

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This is Us airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on NBC.

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