Mandy Moore Said ‘This Is Us’ Co-Star Ron Cephas Jones Had An “Intrinsic Connection” To His Character: “He Was Suffering”

Mandy Moore is remembering his This Is Us co-star Ron Cephas Jones and the “intrinsic connection” he had to his role on the television series.

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On the latest episode of the rewatch podcast That Was Us , which Moore co-hosts with Sterling K. Brown and Chris Sullivan, the trio recapped the episode titled “Pilgrim Rick” from Season 1.

In the episode, William Hill (Jones) has a moment with Janet Montgomery’s Olivia, during which she asks him how it feels to die.

“It feels like all these beautiful pieces of life are flying all around me and I’m trying to catch them,” Moore read the line from the script of what William told Olivia. “Catch the moments of your life, catch them while you’re young and quick because sooner than you know you’ll be old and slow and there will be no more of them to catch.”

Brown got emotional and said on the podcast, “You really get the sense that he had a profound understanding of what he was saying. And because he’s not with us anymore, beautiful human being that he is, it’s just like, wow.”

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Jones died at the age of 66 in August 2023 following “a long-standing pulmonary issue.”

Moore recalled filming a hiking scene with Jones and added, “He was suffering and it was really hard for him to breathe and I remember him sitting was scripted. But also because he genuinely needed to do that, it really brought home knowing what was actually happening in real time in those moments while we were shooting this show and this season.”

“You’re right, Ron just had this intrinsic connection to what his character was going through and it makes it all the more poignant,” Moore said.

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