‘There’s a million things happening at once’: ‘This Is Us’ star Mandy Moore finds a special joy during SAG-AFTRA strike

The SAG-AFTRA strike has been ongoing since July 13 but This Is Us star Mandy Moore is seeing the silver lining in the situation. The actress and singer, who shares two young sons with her husband Taylor Goldsmith, revealed in an interview with People that the extra time with her family was “so special.”

“I recognize that the time is fleeting, and so I’m really trying to be present and appreciate it,” she shared with the publication. “There’s a million things happening at once. It’s still a really, really special time.”

Moore explained that the family time she’s now getting with her husband and children is all the more precious because she returned to work just a month after giving birth to her first child, August “Gus” Harrison, in February 2021, and six weeks after welcoming her second son, Oscar “Ozzie” Bennett, in October 2022.

Swimming is one of the family’s preferred activities, Moore shared, and nearly every day finds them in their family pool. “Gus is getting more comfortable in the pool,” she spilled. “And Ozzie really loves it — he’s always kind of been a ‘water baby.’ He loves the bath, and so he’s equally entranced by the pool and just mesmerized watching his brother swim.”

The timing for this unplanned family staycation couldn’t be more perfect for Moore, who also revealed that her eldest will be starting preschool in the fall. “I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s all happening so fast,’” she shared.

While afternoons are often spent poolside at home, Moore is often spotted on the picket line and reunited with her This Is Us co-stars for the first day of the strike. She posted a photo alongside Chrissy Metz and Jon Huertas on July 14, writing that it was “Day 1” on the SAG-AFTRA picket line and she was “proud” to be making a stand.

Since then, Moore has been candid about her earnings from NBC’s This Is Us. On July 18, she told The Hollywood Reporter that she’d received “very tiny, like 81-cent checks” for residuals of the hit NBC show, which signed a streaming deal with Hulu. In an Instagram post highlighting her interview comments, she admitted that there was a period of time when she struggled to get a job and would have benefited from getting residuals from her past work.

While Moore admitted that striking wasn’t “fun” and she was hoping for a return to work, it’s nice to see the actress take advantage of the situation to soak in extra time at home with her sons.