The Rarely Known Details About Justin Hartley
Justin Hartley was a well-known actor in film and television for nearly a decade when he was cast in the role that would change everything: Kevin Pearson, one of the three main stars in the 2016 NBC drama, "This Is Us," alongside TV siblings Sterling K. Brown and Chrissy Metz. Thanks to the show's meteoric success, that role has catapulted him into bona fide television stardom.
Born in the small town of Knoxville, Illinois in 1977, his journey began in college, where he developed an interest in acting and studied history and theatre. He decided to pursue acting professionally, moving to LA. His career quickly took off, first in a cult-hit soap opera and then in a recurring role in The CW's superhero series "Smallville." That role, as Green Arrow, proved to be a springboard to more high-profile gigs, including the ABC shows "Revenge" and "Mistresses." In 2014, he returned to his soap roots by portraying Adam Newman on "The Young and the Restless," a character he continued to play until he was cast in "This Is Us" in 2016.
With his Hollywood career on the rise, viewers will be seeing even more of this talented actor; his TV series, "Tracker" — in which he's both the star and executive producer — was deemed to be such a potential hit that it was scheduled to premiere immediately following the 2024 Super Bowl. To find out more about the actor, here are the rarely known details about Hartley.
Justin Hartley took a big gamble on Hollywood
In "This is Us," Justin Hartley played Kevin Pearson, whose dreams of becoming a professional athlete were sidelined by an injury. Instead, Kevin decided to give acting a shot — and ultimately achieved stardom. In fact, Hartley's real-life journey actually wasn't all that different. As he told The Associated Press, he'd been involved in sports throughout his teenage years, but ultimately realized his skills weren't strong enough to compete at the professional level. "You realize there are too many people out there that are way better than you are," he said in the 2022 interview. "You have to find something else to do."
Having dipped his toe in theater during college, Hartley decided to give it a go in Hollywood. Looking back, he admitted it wasn't the most solid plan. "I know no one. I have no prospects ... I have no talent to speak of, and I don't know how to develop it," Hartley recalled to the publication. Obviously, the learning curve was steep. At first, he didn't know how to get an agent or book auditions, and had no idea how daunting it would be.
What he did have, however, was a naïve and unfounded confidence that he would somehow make it. "I had nothing — I did not have a pot to piss in — and I'd stare at the Hollywood sign knowing that I was going to be this leading man," he reminisced in a 2018 Vulture interview.
Justin Hartley got his start on TV's nuttiest soap opera
Aspiring actor Justin Hartley got his big break in 2002, when he was cast in a new soap opera being launched on NBC, called "Passions." As those who watched can attest, "Passions" was TV's weirdest daytime drama, featuring a 300-year-old witch, sojourns to the pits of hell, a doll who'd been brought to life, and a nurse played by an orangutan.
As bonkers as it all was, Hartley felt he'd hit the big time, particularly considering his dearth of acting experience. "I'll be honest with you: I developed a passion for [acting] before I developed a talent for it," he joked to Sharp in 2021. In his long-recurring role of Fox Crane, callow heir to the Crane fortune, Hartley came to realize that the lightning-fast-paced production of the soap opera meant he'd basically signed up for a fully salaried acting boot camp.
That said, "Passions" wasn't exactly a prestige project for the fledgling thespian. "No one watched it!" he recalled of the show's dismal ratings. "We were always dead last every week." Still, Hartley stuck around for several years, finally exiting "Passions" in 2006. Looking back, he came to realize just how important "Passions" was to his future success — and how lucky he was to land the role. "They gave me my first chance when I probably had absolutely no talent and for whatever reason, they agreed to hire me," he told Soap Opera Digest in 2020.
He played Aquaman — but not for long
When Justin Hartley walked away from "Passions," it was to pursue a new opportunity that he believed would catapult him into prime-time stardom: 2006's "Aquaman," a DC Comics-derived drama for The WB, in which he was cast as the titular sea-dwelling superhero. Don't remember Hartley playing Aquaman? That's probably because the pilot was never aired, with now-defunct network opting not to pick it up.
Subsequently interviewed by KryptonSite, Hartley reflected on the project's demise. "I would say that I was not disappointed, but I think that's lying, because I was really looking forward to doing it," he confessed. However, the experience wasn't a total bust; the "Aquaman" producers were also behind the same network's Superman-inspired hit, "Smallville," and cast him as Green Arrow. He ultimately appeared in 76 episodes of "Smallville" until the show's finale in 2011.
Playing two different superheroes would seemingly be enough for any actor, but those weren't Hartley's only roles within that genre. In 2021, he portrayed Superman when he lent his voice to the animated DC movie "Injustice." He followed that up in 2023 by playing an equally iconic crime fighter, voicing Batman and alter ego Bruce Wayne for the podcast series, "Harley Quinn and The Joker: Sound Mind." Asked why he's been cast as so many superheroes during an appearance on "Today with Hoda & Jenna," Hartley joked, "Blackmail? I have dirt on a lot of people."
He rejected the media fixation over his divorce from Chrishell Stause
Justin Hartley's first marriage to his "Passions" co-star, Lindsay Korman, lasted from 2004 until 2012. In 2017, he tied the knot with fellow soap opera actor Chrishell Stause, whom he'd been dating since 2013. In November 2019, they split up. A source told Life & Style that Stause — who had then become a cast member on the Netflix reality show, "Selling Sunset" – hadn't seen it coming when Hartley abruptly filed for divorce. "Chrishell felt completely blindsided," the source said.
While Hartley mostly kept mum about the divorce, that wasn't the case with Stause, who opened up to multiple media outlets about her post-marriage life and emotions. In fact, she revealed during a Season 3 episode of "Selling Sunset" that she discovered Hartley had filed for divorce via a text message from him.
In 2020, Hartley broke his silence about the breakup during an appearance on SiriusXM's "Bevelations." "This country and the world, especially this country, has an insatiable appetite for gossip, and for clickbait stuff, which is basically, you know, don't do any research, don't look anything up, just, if you read it, then it must be true," he explained. He further responded that, despite the "baloney" on the internet, he had no real intention of commenting any further. "I will have a public life," he told the radio show, "but I will be very private about my personal affairs."
He wasn't allowed to appear on his ex-wife's reality show
While Justin Hartley and Chrishell Stause were married, she was tapped to be part of Netflix's "Selling Sunset," a reality show following the exploits of high-end real estate agents in Los Angeles. Diversifying her career, Stause became a certified real estate agent in 2016. During her engagement to Hartley, in fact, she represented him in his purchase of a $1.67 million home.
Despite the reality show's aim to capture her life, Stause's then-husband was never seen on camera. Hartley's non-presence on "Selling Sunset" was not random and — according to series creator Adam DiVello — was not for his lack of trying. "I think it was just contractual," DiVello told Variety in 2020, pointing to the actor's employment on an NBC drama as the reason why he was prohibited from appearing on any other network, including Netflix. "We certainly asked many, many times," DiVello revealed. "I think it was just his contract with NBC."
Of course, Netflix has been able to get around this kind of contract before. When Tarek El Moussa — of "Flip or Flop" fame — was dating "Selling Sunset" star Heather Rae Young (they later married in 2021), the HGTV mainstay was eventually allowed to film for the Netflix show. Young explained to Buzzfeed in 2020 that HGTV and Netflix were able to broker a deal, in which El Moussa, in exchange for HGTV getting to film the couple's proposal, would be able to appear on "Selling Sunset."
He met this third wife before he married his second
Justin Hartley was already dating Chrishell Stause when he was cast in "The Young and the Restless" in 2014, playing the villainous Adam Newman. In 2015, actor Sofia Pernas joined the soap, in the role of Marisa. While she only appeared in 49 episodes, Pernas and Hartley became friends and must have made quite an impression on each other before he left the show in 2016 for his role in "This Is Us."
After marrying Stause in 2017 and then divorcing in 2019, Hartley reconnected with Pernas. The pair were spotted together in 2020 and made their red-carpet debut as a couple at the 2021 MTV Movie & TV Awards. The day after that award show appearance, People confirmed that the two had secretly married, pointing to the wedding rings they wore on the red carpet.
Speaking with Haute Living in 2021, Hartley recalled his feelings about Pernas when they first met on set. "I liked being around her," he said. "But I was in a different place in my life. I wasn't available." However, five years after they first became co-stars, things had changed considerably since they were both single. "Timing has a lot to do with that," he admitted. "I'm very lucky to not only have found 'the one,' but I found her when she was available and the timing was right."
He struggled with the new level of fame from This is Us
Justin Hartley's entry into a whole new echelon of fame came when he was cast in "This Is Us," the tear-jerking NBC drama series that made its debut in the fall of 2016. However, it's also safe to say that the out-of-the-box success of the show took everyone by surprise, including Hartley, catapulting him to a level of celebrity that he hadn't previously experienced.
Hartley's wide-spread fame was especially evident in the way fans tended to freak out if they happened to see him in public. "I don't mean to do that to anyone, to have, my presence means that you no longer know what to do with your body," he told BUILD Series in 2019 of the more extreme fan reactions he'd encountered.
He also became acquainted with the type of reactions from viewers who were touched by the show's heart-rending storylines and told him how much the show had meant to their own lives. "That's the incredible thing," he said in a 2019 interview with DuJour. "You work, in my case, almost two decades to get something like this, and when you do, you realize the impact it has on other people is just something I guess I didn't think about."
He was once rumored to be the next James Bond
After it became official that Daniel Craig's tenure as James Bond was coming to an end after 2021's "No Time to Die," the rumor mill went into overdrive with speculation about who would become the next 007. Many names have been bandied about, ranging from Idris Elba, to "Man of Steel" star Henry Cavill, to "Game of Thrones" alum Richard Madden.
Interestingly, at one point Justin Hartley's name was thrown into the mix – particularly odd, since Bond is quintessentially British, while Hartley is from Illinois. That rumor came up when Hartley paid a visit to "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," and host Ellen DeGeneres asked, "Is this true? I heard that your name is on a list after Daniel Craig ... when he's done you are one of the names that they're talking about being James Bond."
"Cool!" Hartley responded, indicating he would be up to donning the iconic tuxedo and saving the world from a megalomaniacal villain. To help get him into character, DeGeneres presented him with a martini — shaken, not stirred, one would hope — and instructed him to act like 007 would while reading the character's iconic introduction off a card. "My name is Bond, James Bond," Hartley said as he feigned shaking so much that he spilled his martini all over the set. "I have a new take on it," he joked of his trembling spy.
He loves a good hotel bar
As a working actor in film and television, Justin Hartley is often required to travel for his job. As a result, he has spent a lot of time in airports and hotels. When it comes to the former, he tends to get there extra early. "I'm not missing a flight," he ensured Conde Nast Traveler in 2021. And when he boards that flight, he enjoys reading a book — mainly because he has been on planes so frequently that he's probably already seen all the in-flight movies.
As for hotels, there are two places where he's almost certain to be found: in the gym, and in the bar, particularly a hotel bar that's also part of a restaurant. "Especially if you're traveling for business — sometimes you don't have time to go uptown, downtown, across town," he explained. "If you have some place with really good food inside the hotel, it's nice."
Meanwhile, while sitting at the bar, it's likely that Hartley would be sipping a glass of Avila; a unique liquor from Morelos, Mexico made purely from agave, akin to mezcal and tequila. Hartley is such a fan of the drink that he's a business partner of Revel Spirits, the only distiller of this distinct booze variety. In an interview with Travel and Leisure, Hartley noted that he's more hands-on in the business than just being a celebrity name. "Being an owner is a lot different than endorsing something ... you care about it more," he explained.
He launched his own production company
Liquor isn't the only business venture in which Justin Hartley has become involved. In 2019, he launched his own production company, ChangeUp Productions. That same year, Deadline reported the company entered into a development deal with 20th Century Fox — the same studio behind "This Is Us" — to produce television content.
After he completed filming of the final season of "This Is Us" in 2021, Hartley announced the first project from ChangeUp Productions: "The Never Game," a series based on Jeffrey Deaver's 2019 novel of the same name. Hartley wasn't just the project's producer, he was also set to star as Colter Shaw, a dyed-in-the-wool survivalist who drives throughout America in a vintage RV, using his expert abilities as a tracker to help solve cold cases. In September 2021, CBS picked up the "The Never Game," ordering a pilot, according to Deadline.
That pilot clearly pleased network execs because, in 2022, Variety reported that CBS agreed to make "The Never Game" into a full series. "I am overjoyed to give the first new show order for next season to this thrilling new series led by the incredibly talented Justin Hartley," CBS Entertainment president Amy Reisenbach gushed in a statement to the publication. The network eventually changed the series title to "Tracker," with the show slated to debut in the prime time slot following the 2024 Super Bowl.
He's gone behind the camera to direct — and wants to do more
In addition to being an actor and producer, Justin Hartley has also directed. Prior to creating his own show with his production company, Hartley stepped behind the camera to direct a few times: directing a 2011 episode of "Smallville," and two episodes of "This Is Us."
Contrasting the experience of acting versus directing, Hartley described the two jobs as one of those apples-and-oranges comparisons. "They're so different; it's almost hard to even compare them," he noted to NBC Insider in 2022. While he relishes the experience of directing, he wouldn't want to do it at the expense of acting. "So that would be my passion, my true love," he said of being an actor. "However, the joy that you get from giving a note to an actor, someone you admire and love, and then watching that actor take your note and take it to a completely different level. And as you're watching on the monitor you go, 'Oh, jeez, they didn't just take my note; they made me realize what my note even meant' ... I see myself as an actor first, but I enjoy all of it."
Meanwhile, Hartley has also dabbled in screenwriting, penning a 2010 episode of "Smallville." Having served as actor, writer, director, and producer, Hartley feels he's received an unparalleled education in how television is made, from a variety of perspectives. "It's like going to school," he told Awards Daily, "it's an education."
He wasn't too fond of being mistaken for his This Is Us character
It's an occupational hazard for actors — particularly those in a long-running television series — that viewers will come to the often-incorrect assumption that they're exactly like the characters they play. Interviewed by Esquire, Hartley recalled a particularly blunt encounter with a fan who called him out for something that Kevin Pearson had done on "This Is Us."
"Some guy walked up to me and goes, 'Hey, my wife thinks you're a good-looking guy. I think you're an a***ole,'" Hartley said to the publication. "I go, 'Oh. Okay.' And he just doubled down. 'Yeah. I think you're a real a***ole.'" Figuring there was nowhere else to take the conversation from there, Hartley offered a pithy response. "'Okay, well then, f*** you!'" Hartley told the guy. However, the whole thing ended far more amicably that their exchange would suggest. "I said it with a smile on my face," Hartley explained. "And we ended up cracking up together."
Of course, it's not difficult to find similarities between Hartley and the character he played, given that both are successful TV stars (Kevin memorably starred in the fictional kitschy sitcom, "The Manny"). The series finale of "This Is Us," though, indicated that Kevin's Hollywood success ended up skyrocketing to the ultimate heights of fame. Sharp-eyed viewers noticed, in one scene in future Kevin's home, the presence of an Oscar and multiple high-achieving awards on a bookcase.
He thought the This Is Us finale was 'perfect'
All good things must come to an end, and so it was for "This Is Us." When the series finished its run in 2022, viewers who had followed the lives of the Pearson family for all those seasons were presented with an emotional finale that left some fans wanting more. "I thought it was the perfect ending," star Justin Hartley told Access Hollywood. "It's a special show, and a special moment in my life that I'll never forget."
In a separate interview with Access Hollywood, he addressed the possibility of reviving the Kevin Pearson character and reuniting with the cast for a "This Is Us" movie. "I mean, yeah, sure," he said. "I know six other actors that would do the movie, probably," he added, jokingly gesturing to his "This Is Us" co-stars near him on the red carpet. "I'm down for a 'This Is Us' movie, sure, I love these cats ... I would do a trilogy movie ... I'd do a movie every year with these guys," he said.
Looking back on his six seasons on "This Is Us," Hartley was very cognizant of how important the show had been for him, on a range of levels. "It was the greatest job I've ever had," he told Newsweek in 2022. "The opportunities that it gave me, in the way it changed my life ... I mean, it changed everything about everything."
He has a close relationship with daughter Isabella
"Passions" not only launched Justin Hartley's career as a working actor, the show also holds a particularly dear place in his heart. After all, it was there that he met co-star Lindsay Korman, who would become his first wife. During their marriage, they welcomed a daughter, Isabella Hartley, who remains the apple of her dad's eye. "I have a 17-year-old daughter, that I'm madly in love with, who lives with me now because of that show," he told Sharp back in 2021.
Speaking with AskMen about his approach to being a parent, Hartley noted he had a particularly strong bond with his daughter. "My daughter is my best friend, but at the same time, I'm her dad first," he explained, admitting that navigating those dual aspects of their relationship could occasionally grow a little bit complicated. "There are times where it's like, we're not buddies. I'm your dad," he said.
After Isabella turned 18 and went off to college, Hartley became an empty nester. As he shared during a 2022 appearance on "The Jennifer Hudson Show," he was finding the situation to be a big adjustment. "You think you're ready for it ... When they're gone-gone, it really is a text or a phone call," he said.