What The Cast Of This Is Us Was Like Before The Fame

Justin Hartley first got a taste of acting in elementary school when he played Frosty the Snowman. Though, he was disappointed when he discovered that "the star" didn't even have any lines. Although Hartley participated in school plays, he didn't realize that he wanted to become an actor until he enrolled in Southern Illinois University. "When you grow up in a small town in central Illinois and someone asks you what you're gonna be when you grow up, you say a teacher or factory worker or farmer," he told Vulture. "Acting was not a practical job that you saw other people doing." But, after he tried it in college, he was hooked.

So, without much more than ambition, Justin Hartley moved to Los Angeles after graduating from Southern Illinois University. "I had nothing — I did not have a pot to piss in — and I'd stare at the Hollywood sign knowing that I was going to be this leading man," he told the publication. "I was gonna bring Hollywood to its knees," he laughed of his self-assurance. Of course, he is currently doing just that as Kevin Pearson in This Is Us.