Justin Hartley's role in the emotional NBC series This Is Us hits close to home.
The actor sat down with E! News Thursday to discuss how the hit show has changed his relationship with 12-year-old daughter Isabella Hartley. "It has slowed me down a little bit," Justin said. "I think about the show sometimes and I'm like, 'I'm going to have that conversation with my daughter.'" Oftentimes, he admitted, "The show will inspire me to do something that I wouldn't normally have done."
Justin also admitted that his role has scored him some cool points with his tween daughter. "She watches it, her friends watch it, their parents watch it, so I'm like the cool dad now," he laughed. "[When I] take her to school, I get to walk her in now. We can hang out in front of her friends. It's cool."
A lot has changed since Justin joined the show, most notably "the amount of people that watch it," he said. "It's a big audience."
This Is Us was nominated for a Golden Globe, and it has remained one of the highest rated shows on television, attracting millions of viewers every week who tune in for the emotional story line.
Justin also said that when he goes home, his role as Kevin Pearson sometimes stays with him. "Usually, it's like, you have a rough day at work [so] you see movies and TV shows about this...You have a rough day at work, [so] you come home and you take it out on your wife and kids. You see that—it happens in real life. I get the benefit of it [being] the opposite. If I bring my work home, it's wonderful."
Speaking highly of the show, Justin added, "This is not just like a job. This is like a dream come true!"
This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on NBC.
(E! and NBC are both members of the NBCUniversal family.)