This Is Us will soon give viewers a look at Beth Pearson's past — and her future. Fans last saw the character, played by Susan Kelechi Watson, in a future-set scene that showed her running a dance studio. In the present day-set scenes, Beth ordered her husband Randall (Sterling K. Brown) to the couch after he backpedaled on his promise to back out of his city council election to focus on their family.
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Susan Kelechi Watson teased her character's future as well as a flashback showcase episode that will give fans all of the answers about her past. Kelechi Watson told EW that she was thrilled when producers told her about the flash-forward scenes set at a mysterious dance studio, mostly because it meant her character will be alive in 20 years.
"My mom said, 'Yes! She lived!' I get to see myself 20 years from now, which was very cool… And also the fact that Beth is now fully immersed back into her ballet and dance culture, which is where she belongs."
"One of our inspirations for Beth — and even her dress and the way she looked — was Judith Jamison. Judith Jamison is, like, supreme. But it was just this little glimpse. I didn't realize that it was going to be on such a large scale, but it really looks some grand ballet studio.,..A lot of people are like, 'Well, wait? Is she Debbie Allen in the future? And how funny that Phylicia [Rashad, who is Allen's sister] is now her mom on the show…. Now people will know why, and it won't feel like something so far removed from what she was doing when we learned it. That's what she always wanted to do."
