Mandy Moore nearly gave up acting before landing her role in ‘This Is Us’.
The 35-year-old actress stars as Rebecca Pearson on the NBC drama, but has said that before bagging the part, she had considered walking away from Hollywood as she was starting to hit a "wall" when it came to "rejection".
Speaking during a panel at Popsugar Play/Ground over the weekend, she said: "As an actor, so much of our job is rejection. I think I had started like, I kept smacking into that wall time and time again for quite a number of years and I think it also coincided with some tricky stuff in my personal life and the combination of those two just made me feel so stuck.
"I contemplated, I was like, ‘I think this is it. I think this is the universe giving me a sign that maybe this is not what I’m supposed to be doing … Maybe I’m not supposed to be an actor anymore like, I’ve been incredibly lucky, I’ve had this really fruitful time earlier in my life and maybe now I’m supposed to lean into something else.’"
But Mandy – who had a singing career before she was an actress, releasing her debut single ‘Candy’ in 1999 – realised there "was no plan B" for her if she didn’t continue acting, and eventually managed to "see the light again".
She added: "I think at the end of the day when I did dig deep I was like this [acting] is all, there was no plan B for me personally, this is just that period of building. It’s that period where I know I’m going to need this as fodder and fuel for … when I see the light again."
And the ‘Tangled’ star is pleased she stuck with it, as she landed her role in ‘This Is Us’, which she dubbed "the most incredibly fulfilling and satisfying job I’ve ever had in my life".
Mandy Moore almost quit acting
