Would you believe us if we said Chris Sullivan had no idea he was nominated for a 2019 Emmy when announcements were first made? It’s surprisingly true.
The 39-year-old actor actually heard the exciting news from his This Is Us co-star, Chrissy Metz. Sitting down and speaking to E! News, Sullivan recalled the moment he found out about his first-ever Emmy nomination.
“I was at home in Sacramento, visiting my parents, and I got a text from Chrissy Metz, saying, ‘Congratulations’ with all these emojis and exclamation points,” he shared. “I thought, ‘That’s weird, I wonder what that’s for.’ And then I got another one from my publicist. So I was like, ‘Wait. Chrissy, congrats for what?'”
He further explained their text exchange. “She’s like, ‘You’ve been nominated for an Emmy,'” he remembered, still not processing what she meant. “I was like, ‘Oh, the show’s been nominated for an Emmy, that’s great.'”
However, according to Sullivan, the 38-year-old actress responded perfectly to his text, replying, “‘No, you, dummy! You’ve been nominated for an Emmy.'”
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The 39-year-old actor joked that someone in his “industry might be aware of what’s going on around them.” But for him, he was “blissfully unaware.”
Chris revealed that he shared the news his fellow co-star, Mandy Moore, who also nabbed her first Emmy nomination this year.
“Mandy and her husband Taylor [Goldsmith] were the first people that I spoke with,” he said. “Her nominations is one of my favorites. She’s been doing, in my opinion, one of the best work on television. Three seasons of this show, and this being her first nomination, in my opinion, is long overdue. Not only is the nomination well-deserved but she deserves to win.”
He added, “The ensemble nature of our show is one of our favorite things about our jobs. So to be nominated among such an amazing group of people is very special.”
This Is Us has nine Emmy nominations total this year, which means, Chris and his cast will definitely have a ball if any one earns that famous golden statue.
“As proud as we are of the work that we’re doing and of the nominations for everybody, we’re in a constant state of celebration,” he shared. “We are a very fortunate group of people to find ourselves in this particular job, but yeah, if we pull down some awards on Emmy night, there’ll be a party.”
Come Sunday, we’ll all find out who will go home a winner.
Watch E!’s Live From the Red Carpet: The 2019 Emmy Awards special Sunday, Sept. 22 at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT!