Sterling K. Brown, Dan Fogelman return in Paradise – but it is not This Is Us

NEW YORK – Sterling K. Brown and Dan Fogelman realise that some viewers might want another This Is Us (2016 to 2022).

That tear-jerking NBC hit, created by American writer-producer Fogelman, was a sprawling, time-hopping family drama. American actor Brown played Randall Pearson, the adopted black son in a white family, who is grappling with his mental health.

Millions of weekly viewers fell in love with Randall, a man who, as Brown described him, was exceptionally forthcoming with his feelings.

But his character in the political series Paradise, also created by Fogelman, is not Randall. He is physically intimidating and stoic, a Secret Service agent who keeps his feelings closely guarded.

“I’m sure there’ll be about 12 per cent of people who are like, ‘This ain’t Randall, what’s going on?’” Brown, 48, said. “Then for that 12 per cent, hopefully, after the pilot, they’ll be like: ‘Oh, this ain’t Randall. Let’s see what they’re doing next.’”

What they have done is a sci-fi thriller, now available on Disney+, in which Brown’s character Xavier is assigned to protect the US president (James Marsden).

The job becomes more complicated when the president is found murdered early in the pilot. Augmenting the crisis is the seemingly idyllic but eerily nondescript setting, where the commander in chief lives in a white house that does not seem to be the White House.

Paradise is in many ways a return to familiarity for Brown and Fogelman, who worked together for six seasons on This Is Us, racking up nine Emmy nominations between them and one win, for best actor in a drama. They brought back many of the crew from This Is Us, from directors to hair and make-up artists.

“It is a homecoming on so many levels,” Brown said.

At the same time, Paradise represents an evolution. Brown is an executive producer of the series, bringing a new dimension to his and Fogelman’s creative partnership.

And there was no question as to whether they can trust each other – that was already established in all those years of giving life to Randall Pearson.

“Eight years into our relationship, I just know that whatever I give Sterling, he’s going to be able to do and do extraordinarily well,” Fogelman, 48, said in a separate video call.

Paradise was not conceived as a chance to reunite. Fogelman was already thinking through the story’s general contours before production began on This Is Us.

It was not until after This Is Us ended that he committed to writing a pilot about “a 40-something black Secret Service agent serving a slightly older white president”. But Xavier was not written with Brown in mind.

Then Fogelman began sharing the script. Perhaps unsurprisingly, readers immediately suggested that Brown would be perfect for the lead.

“I started realising, I can do this only with Sterling, and Sterling’s not going to want to do this again,” Fogelman said. “He just did six years with me.”

Brown’s participation was, indeed, no sure thing given how in-demand he had become. He was already a rising star when This Is Us premiered in September 2016. Only two days before, he had won an Emmy for his supporting role in true crime anthology series The People V O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016).

But This Is Us catapulted his career, bringing him into millions of homes every week. Roles in blockbusters such as Black Panther (2018) and Frozen II (2019) followed. In 2024, he received his first Oscar nomination for a supporting turn in comedy-drama American Fiction (2023).

Despite Fogelman’s fears, Brown quickly said yes to Paradise. Not only did he find the material “fantastic”, Brown said, but he was also thrilled that it was shooting in Los Angeles, where he could be near his two children, who are nine and 13.

With only eight episodes in a season – unlike the usual 18 of This Is Us – the job also allows him to pursue other roles in the potential off-seasons. Although the series has yet to be renewed, Fogelman said he has planned out a three-season arc.

Brown’s trust in Fogelman began on the set of This Is Us, where Fogelman had an open-door policy in the writers’ room. Actors were allowed to pitch ideas and tell stories about their lives that could be incorporated into the characters.

“Sometimes, showrunners can be a little more defensive and afraid of actors, like the actors are trying to get in the way,” Brown said. “Dan made everybody feel from the beginning as if they were a part of the process.”

Fogelman likened the sensation of watching Brown at work to that of watching Hollywood veterans Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington.

Brown became his muse as an action hero, he said, in the same way Brown had become his muse while writing Randall. He will keep writing parts for Brown for as long as the actor accepts the gigs.

“Sterling’s a black Christian dude from St Louis. I’m a white Jewish guy from New Jersey. On paper, we don’t have a lot in common,” Fogelman said. “But we seem to have found each other in this surprising moment for this decade.

“Will I do 18,000 shows with Sterling, like director Martin Scorsese with actor Leonardo DiCaprio? I don’t know. He may have had enough of me after this one.” NYTIMES