‘This Is Us’ Used Mandy Moore’s First-Take Reaction To Jack’s Death

“This Is Us” had a particularly emotional episode after the Super Bowl. The NBC drama finally showed Jack’s death, and Rebecca’s reaction to it was heartbreaking. The actors have revealed that the hospital scene was actually Mandy Moore’s first take.

“No one told me that Milo [Ventimiglia, who plays Jack] had stuck around,” Moore explained on the “This Is Us” Aftershow. “We had shot all of our other scenes there at the hospital together, but no one had told me that he’d stuck around so I had no idea. Apparently that was the first take that they used when I see him — when I see his body. I didn’t know he was going to be there, so it was all the more jarring and upsetting and just indescribably sad.”

Ventimiglia added that Moore’s surprise made the scene more impactful. “I think she thought she was walking into a blank room, and walking in on me, not knowing that the shot was also picking up my reflection, dead-still. So that was — it was a moment,” he told Entertainment Weekly.

The death was surprisingly anticlimactic to some fans. While “This Is Us” had spent most of Season 2 dropping hints about the big fire, many were surprised that Jack didn’t die in the blaze. Instead, he made it to the hospital where doctors said he’d likely be alright. Rebecca went to get some candy from the vending machine and call the kids, and that’s when Jack suffered a deadly heart attack.

Rebecca thought the doctor was confusing her with another patient’s wife when she heard about the death. She went to Jack’s room, fully expecting him to be alive and well, but she broke down when she saw his lifeless body on the bed.

Filming Jack’s death was an emotional experience for Moore. “All of it felt so otherworldly to shoot…because we’ve built the lives of these characters together for two years,” Moore explained. “When it came down to really doing it, it was hard to let go.”

Ventimiglia added that hearing Moore break down like that wasn’t easy, but he did his best to stay still and keep Moore in the moment. “I’m laying there and I can hear Mandy breaking down and just crumbling, take after take after take,” the Jack actor said. “I wanted to give her the space and lay there, still, not moving. We even filmed bits where she would walk up to me, and I’m just laying there staring at a point on the wall, barely breathing, but having to feel her over me or near me — just losing Jack.”

Though Jack’s death has been revealed, it sounds like the tearjerker moments will just keep coming. Moore did an interview on “Today” Monday morning and teased that Tuesday’s episode will be another emotional one. “We have another episode on Tuesday, and I dare say, it’s even more heartbreaking,” she said.

“This Is Us” Season 2 continues Tuesday, Feb. 6 at 9 p.m. EST on NBC.