Sofia Pernas Says She Was ‘Very Honest’ With Husband Justin Hartley About Not Watching “This Is Us ”(Exclusive)
‘The Young and the Restless’ alum will guest star on Hartley’s new CBS show ‘Tracker’ on Sunday
For Sofia Pernas, this is… the truth!
While speaking to PEOPLE about her upcoming guest appearance on husband Justin Hartley’s new CBS drama Tracker, Pernas, 34, admitted that his six-season stint on This Is Us was just too much for her to take in.
“I was very honest with him. I saw the first season, and I don’t know how people binge-watch that show,” she says. “I don’t really like to emote much, so I couldn’t do it.”
The Young and the Restless alum, who will play a rival of Hartley’s character on Tracker Sunday night, explained that she has more of a tendency to keep her feelings inside rather than “wear them” on her sleeve (or watch them on TV).
“It pulled too many heartstrings for me. [Creator] Dan Fogelman is too good and the cast is too good. I couldn’t,” she says. “I was just like, “I need something [else]… I can’t cry every day. I can’t!”
Hartley, 47, spent all six seasons on This Is Us playing Kevin Pearson, one of three siblings in a family touched by tragedy. The series was famous for its gut-wrenching plot twists — including the death of patriarch Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) in a house fire and the onset of Alzheimer’s disease in matriarch Rebecca (Mandy Moore).
Now, a year and a half after wrapping the beloved NBC series, Hartley is enjoying a new role as Colter Shaw on Tracker, where he plays a “rewardist” who traverses the country looking for people to help (and, as the job title begs, rewards to collect).
Pernas’ appearance on the show will see her character Billie go head-to-head with Shaw, but in reality, Pernas says working with her husband again (the two also co-starred on NBC’s Quantum Leap) is like “riding a bike.”
“We get asked all the time, like, ‘You guys don’t take a break from each other?’ I’m like, ‘I love him.’ Thankfully that’s reciprocated because how often do you get that?” she says. “I’m just really thankful that we both feel that way about each other and that we’re able to take that to work and not need extended breaks from each other because we’re so absorbed.”
The pair originally met while they were costars on The Young and the Restless after Pernas joined the soap opera in 2015 — though, she admits she doesn’t remember their first meeting.
“When Justin’s in work mode, and I think anyone who’s ever worked with him would say this, he is like a Terminator. He has one goal, he has one focus. Also, he’s a man, so he doesn’t multitask very well,” she quips of being on set with her now-husband. “I mean, we were strictly, strictly co-stars. I might have had one, two conversations with him in the middle of some scenes because he wasn’t really a big scene partner of mine.”
Related: Justin Hartley and Wife Sofia Pernas Kick Off the Golden Globes 2024 Red Carpet with a Steamy Kiss
Though, when the two eventually did begin to date before they wed in 2021, Pernas was surprised by how much they had in common.
“I always say it’s so cliche for everyone who’s with someone to obviously be obligated to say, ‘This is my best friend.’ But he truly, truly is,” she says. “We get along in so many ways, we’re so, so compatible, and even when we were dating early on, it was just, I was like, ‘Oh, you like that? Oh, that’s weird. I feel like I’m dating myself!”
Tracker airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.
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