Actress, singer, author; Chrissy Metz is a triple threat. An Emmy and two-time Golden Globe nominee, Metz captured hearts across the country starring as Kate Pearson in the smash-hit NBC series, This Is Us. She recently released a new children’s album, Big Feelings, celebrating the release with a Grand Ole Opry performance. She penned a New York Times bestseller with her 2018 memoir, This Is Me: Loving the Person You Are Today, and this spring, she released her second children’s book, When I Talk to God, I Talk About Feelings, a heartwarming follow-up to her 2023 release, When I Talk to God, I Talk About You.
But Metz has even more to add to her list of accomplishments this year. She stars in a new film, Faith in the Flames, which aired on Lifetime July 19. And just two days later, July 21, marked the premiere of a new Netflix series starring Metz, The Hunting Wives, based on the bestselling novel by May Cobb. We chatted with Metz about building her career, the excitement surrounding her new projects, and navigating all of life’s big feelings.
Nashville Lifestyles: How did you first discover your passions, and when did you realize you could turn them into a career?
Chrissy Metz: I never thought I could make it a career. Music was my first love; it's something that was cultivated in middle school. My mom couldn't afford a band instrument, so I had to join choir, and I was like, “Oh, my gosh, we can all sing one song, and it sounds like one voice,” and I thought that was so special. I was sort of the entertaining diplomat of my family. I was always the moderator, the mediator, trying to see both sides of everybody's perspective. If there was a fight, even with my friends, it became a thing where I would make jokes and do impressions to break the tension. I was always a big fan of movies and actors, but it wasn't something I thought I was going to pursue because I was a big girl in a small town; that doesn't happen. My sister had me take her to an open call because I was watching her that weekend, and I ended up auditioning for the woman who was holding the open call. I was like, “This is such a scam. This is so ridiculous.” But a woman sat across from me, and she was like, “Oh, I taught at your high school.” I was like, “Oh, OK.” She's like, “Were you in the drama department?” I was like, “No.” I wanted to be, but I was afraid of my own shadow. I wasn’t sure what to say to this woman who said she knew me, and I never met her. She was like, “Well, I think you should audition.” I never saw that woman again. No one I asked knew who I was talking about. I want to think that it was like a guardian angel or a little encouragement of, ‘I think you're here for a reason, you should audition.’
NL: Speaking of music, you recently released a new children’s album, Big Feelings. What can you share about that project?
CM: Music has always been so healing. We did a first children's album, so I had to follow it up with the second one. Since this is all about feelings, as a child, I didn't really feel seen and heard. And if I was, my parents couldn't hold space for me because space wasn't held for them. I was like, if we could talk about these feelings, name them, we can validate them, and then we can learn how to express them, who knows what kind of adults these kids could be. Those things affect the way that we walk into every single room. I just wanted to write about the feelings — disappointed, scared, excited, happy — those are big feelings that kids can relate to. I wasn't picked for that team, or I didn't make the grade I thought I was going to make, even though I really studied hard. Whatever it is, I wanted it to be relatable. And hopefully the kids can move through the feeling with the song. We really wanted it to be for kids, and it's really helped a lot of my inner child stuff that I'm still working on.
NL: You have even more new projects for fans to look forward to this summer, including a new Lifetime movie, Faith in the Flames. What can you tell us about that?
CM: [Faith in the Flames] tells this true story of the Paradise Fires in 2018 in Northern California, and this woman, Nichole Jolly, who is a nurse, and decided it was more important for her to evacuate her patients at the hospital than to consider her own safety. She's evading death the whole movie — true story — and trying to be reunited with her husband and her two sons. What’s so shocking to me is that she still wants to be a nurse. I'm like, “How did you get through everything you got through?” She’s like, “I just kept going.” I'm so in awe of people who can do that, and she's so humble about it. I think it's so important for those stories to be told, and I'm really glad that her story in particular is going to be told. I think a lot of people can relate to it. Whether you're literally evading death through a fire and trying to find your family, or you're going through hardships, it's just sort of one step in front of the other. Hopefully, that will inspire people; we all are literally going through our own fires and our own issues. It was incredible to shoot. The producer, Danielle, was so sweet and asked if I had any interest in writing a song for the movie. I was like, "Of course, I would love to do that.” The town is called Paradise, so we titled it “Last Day in Paradise.” You see so many images online of the town completely decimated, and what it must feel like knowing you've survived, but now you have this whole new life-changing event, how do you move through that now? Phil Barton and I wrote the song, and I got to debut it at the Opry, which was really cool, and there were people who were near the fires in Paradise, and they were so moved by the song. It’s one of those things that you don't take lightly. I was very honored to have written it with Phil.
NL: You also have a new Netflix series premiering July 21. What can fans expect from that?
CM: The Hunting Wives is based on a novel by May Cobb that is very different from any project I've ever done. It's a little more salacious than a very popular TV show I was on for a long time. I'm grateful that I get to play the woman who is sort of the sounding board in the conscience of every single person we might meet along the season. It was really great to work with all the actors, Brittany Snow, Malin Akerman, Dylan McDermott, Katie Lowes - I loved working with them. It's one of those guilty pleasure [shows], but there's also some heavy through-line narratives in there as well. It really was a lot of fun, and challenging to shoot, too.
NL: Speaking of that very popular TV show you were on for a long time, when you started filming This Is Us did you have any idea how huge the show would be?
CM: Absolutely not. I was just grateful I had a job because I was about to quit and move back home to Florida. I had been in LA for 12 years, and I was like, “OK, I don't think this is going to happen for me. Am I delusional? I'll go back to teaching preschool.” I was broke, like, 81 cents in my bank account, and legitimately had to borrow money to go to the audition. Reading the script, I was like, “This is really cool,” and it's a Dan Fogelman project, and he's so in touch with the human condition, but you don't imagine it would do what it did, and is still doing years later. That show changed my life and is changing so many people's lives. It still changes my life, and I get to talk to people who share some of their deepest experiences and heartaches with me, and I'm like, this is so much more than a TV show.
NL: It’s crazy to think you were that close to quitting when you went on to achieve so much. Out of everything you’ve done, what do you consider your greatest accomplishment?
CM: I think my biggest accomplishment is that I haven't given up. When it gets hard, when it gets difficult, when there are lulls in the career, when your ego was really loud and you expected to be in a certain place, look a certain way, or have opportunities provided. It's hard to know that not everything is for you, and that’s OK; I'm not going to give up. I still love this. I still want to do this. When I was in LA for 12 years, it was like, “Am I crazy? Am I delusional?” And then, after This Is Us, it's like, “Am I ever going to get another job? Will it always be compared to This Is Us?” Yes and no, and all those things can be true at the same time. The biggest accomplishment is continuing to move through it and work through the difficulties and doing the work of all the human stuff that comes up with it.
NL: Throughout every facet of your career, whether it’s singing, acting, or writing books, what is your favorite part about what you do?
CM: Connecting with people. I love people. I think the whole reason why we're here is for each other. To learn, to evolve, to teach, to grow. So, it’s certainly the people and the interaction, connection, and hopefully inspiration or hope that I bring to them.
NL: What advice would you give to young women who aspire to have a career like yours?
CM: Make sure you know why you want to do it. What is your intention and what's your why? I think sometimes we feel like it could be overnight success, or all your dreams fulfilled, and not to say that it can't happen, but it's really about why you want to do it. And that will sustain the really deep valleys and how to navigate the really high peaks. Also, if I can do it, anyone can do it. It's not that I'm more special than anybody else. We all have gifts, and we all have things we get to contribute, and we are all important and special in the grand scheme of this beautiful tapestry. I would never do the compare and despair thing; it doesn't help. So, your intentions, your why, and know that if you want something and something's placed in your heart, you are deserving of it.
"We all have gifts, and we all have things we get to contribute, and we are all important and special in the grand scheme of this beautiful tapestry"