SXSW Magic Moment: Running Into the Cast of This is Us

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As I said in an earlier post, one of the biggest things we were taught was to be open to just go with the flow at SXSW. Plan a schedule but be prepared for changes. Some of the best moments happen when you aren’t planning. And that is exactly what happened during Day 5. By this point, we are almost halfway through the festival, musicians are starting to show up and the techies are making their descent home. While the Interactive track still has additional panels and sessions happening throughout the week, you can definitely see the change over start to take place. It’s almost like we are changing of the guards and passing the SX baton on.

Image by Comcast

Day 5 brought about some key panels I wanted to hit, I started my day with the panel: Driving Audience: If You Build It, They Will Not Come and was fairly pumped to begin writing my blog post about this. I felt inspired and also justified in some of my thinking with content creation and how it relates to what we are learning at Texas State. Since I had some time to kill and my exhaustion was creeping in, I figured going over to the Comcast Lounge for a coffee break and get some writing done would be the perfect boost before heading to the This is Us panel. The Comcast Lounge has a great set up with a coffee bar, long family style tables with outlets (a SX necessity) and a little stage at the far end of the room with a three camera set up for shooting various interviews throughout the week. It’s fun to hear the interviews happening for Comcast’s social media network but also the space is great to just get some work done.

I arrived in the lounge, grabbed my coffee, ran into a fellow grad student, and was ready to sit down and work. All of a sudden, as if on cue, I heard some slight cheers happen when I looked up and saw Mandy Moore, Milo Ventimiglia, and Justin Hartley walk in front of the cameras to be interviewed by Shira Lazar. In case you don’t know, those three star in the number one television series right now: This is Us. A show all about the interweaving stories of the Pearson family as we follow them throughout time. And an hour later they were on the panel I was planning to go see in a ballroom full of 2500 other SX fans. But here I was, in a small space seeing an interview happen with them live on camera. Without hesitation, I grabbed my phone and went live on Facebook to capture some of the interview for all my friends. This moment truly defines the magic that is SXSW. Sometimes the best experiences happen when you don’t plan them. The cast was also a little surprised by us since they figured they were just going into a room to do an interview.

The interview was lighthearted and touched all the major points you want to hear: favorite moments, what’s next for season 3, stories among the cast, etc. Going to see the This is Us panel was something I was looking forward to but getting this extra interview in a more intimate space was more than I could have imagined. The cast are all truly kind people and represent the positive message the show produces. A show touching on so many different issues and also capturing what real life is like. If you haven’t watched the show, grab some tissues, and please give yourself the liberty to be engrossed by the Pearson family. Catch my Facebook live video here and you can see the official panel write up here.

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