‘This Is Us’ Actress Isabel Oliver Marcus Shares Her “Overnight Success” Story On Landing The Pivotal Role

Someone could look at Isabel Oliver Marcus‘ role as Allison on NBC’s award-winning series This Is Us as a role of the lifetime and when you hear about how quickly she landed the role you would want to use the phrase “overnight success,” but that life changing moment was something that was years in the making. Glambergirlblog had the opportunity to chat with Marcus in an exclusive interview about her role on This Is Us and rumors of her playing some iconic Disney characters.

*Note This Is Us spoilers ahead

Photo: LA Management

“My mom talks about how I’ve always been a performer,” Marcus said about getting the acting bug as a child growing up in San Antonio, Texas. “I would make up stories in my backyard and I was in dance classes, but I didn’t start acting until my middle school got a theater program in 5th grade and I was in ‘Alice and Wonderland.’ It basically changed my life. It made it really clear that this was a thing that I wanted to do.”

Her role on This Is Us is very much a coveted role. The heartwarming family drama centers about the Pearson family and the ups and downs that life throws at you. The series takes place in the past and present where Marcus plays red-haired beauty Allison, the girlfriend of teenage Randall. “It does sound like an overnight success story and it is incredible I’ve not been going at it so long that it seemed inevitable but I have been going back and forth between Los Angeles and my home town of San Antonio, Texas for 5 years before I got the role,” she shared.

While back in Texas Isabel went to a performing arts school and was doing school plays. Upon moving to Los Angeles in 2016 she got an agent, but didn’t get that crucial audition until a year later. “I was actually back in Texas visiting family, my new baby brother, when I got the audition, so that was kind of a weird thing. I’ve been in LA and then back in Texas that’s when I get one of the biggest auditions I had the opportunity for.” She sent in an audition tape and the momentum picked up from there. Wednesday she got the audition, Thursday she taped, Friday they pinned her, and Saturday she flew back out to LA. On Monday, she had a chemistry read, Tuesday she got the job and Wednesday she was on the Paramount lot. “It did feel overnight, but it had been building up for a while,” the actress added.

Photo: NBC

She said her character Allison on This Is Us is similar to herself. “My process for her was kind of easy because she’s a lot like me. She’s my age, we come from similar backgrounds, but she’s in a different time period and so a lot of the prep that I did for her was like I made a playlists with songs she would have been listening to at the time. She’s hip. She comes from a very loving family. This is information that the show may never, it’s funny how writing works, the show may never say any of this, but I have to decide it for myself.”

One thing Isabel didn’t have to decide for herself was the shooting schedule. “I shot the first episode where I’m at Miguel’s house comforting Randall and Kate and then a month goes by and I don’t hear from them and I freak out and then they call me to come re shoot.” The re shoots happened a few times and then Isabel shot more episodes including that tragic episode that fans of the show were equally anxiously waiting and dreading; Jack’s death.

Milo Ventimiglia’s character Jack Pearson had a fate that was sealed season 1, episode 1 in 2016. He died. No one knew how, there was a general idea of when, but this year in season 2, episode 14 everything was revealed. “It was really interesting because my first day on set that was the day that Niles [Fitch] and Hannnah [Zeile] who play Randall and Kate respectively found out how Jack died and I did not get to find out,” Marcus told GGB. “They had to know because they had to be able to conjure that emotion,so it was a jam-packed day of emotion. They had to be able to keep up the tears and the whole thing for hours.”

Photo: NBC

Isabel added, “I sat there and had a lot of respect for the work they were doing, but even through all of that everyone was so kind and welcoming as much as they could be through the tears. They were just really nice folks and they didn’t hesitate to bring me into the fold and it was a great feeling even though it was such a sad scene.”

If you are a true TIU fan then you are full aware that tissues are required when watching the series. Of course GGB had to know what was the moment that first got Isabel emotional. “So I hadn’t seen the show when I got the audition,then I went to my aunt’s house to watch a couple of episodes to know what I was getting into and I cried within the first 20 minutes, so I was like I get it #TissueTuesday totally makes sense to me now,” she stated, adding,”After I shot my first episode my mom and I watched the first season together and William’s episodes, you know the ‘Memphis’ episodes…heartbreaking. Ron Cephas Jones is good and so raw and Sterling [K. Brown] plays off of that so beautifully. My mom had seen them before I did so she was like ‘get ready this is going to be a lot’ and I’m like, ‘what, I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ but it [lets out heavy sigh] it killed me.”

Doctor Who is another show that gets Isabel all in her feels. “I love all TV and movies. I like to suck them in. My favorite show for the longest time has been Doctor Who which is out of the This Is Us realm. He [Doctor Who] sees beauty in humans and that’s always been really important. There’s also some sucky things about humans, but it’s been important to me to see that that show always touched on the good things. And I think that This Is Us does the same thing. It shows the flaws in people but in the end of the day there are good people and these are real stories.”

There’s no word if we will see Isabel in future episodes of This Is Us, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t staying busy. It’s pilot season, so she’s auditioning and in between that she’s building other muscles in Hollywood as an assistant director for a student musical and volunteering as a teacher’s assistant for a theater school; all while finishing high school. Oh and I’m hoping we’ll see her in a future Disney project. A little role as the live action Kim Possible.  “I know I tweeted it out once” Isabel happily exclaimed saying “Heck Yeah” to the opportunity of playing the cheerleading super girl. The live action Little Mermaid would also be a role Isabel would love to play. Any role Isabel goes out for Glambergirlblog will be watching and rooting!

Want to keep up with Isabel? “Just basically search Isabel Marcus and look for the red hair. That’s how people find me in the crowd and that’s how people can find me on the internet,” the starlet joked. Follow @IsabelOMarcus on Twitter, @IsabelOliverMarcus on Instagram, and be sure to check out IsabelMarcus.com.

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Photo: LA Management