The ‘This Is Us’ star lost his friends’ dog.
A plot twist big enough for This Is Us!
NBC star Justin Hartley has had his fair share of drama off screen. The 41-year-old actor appeared on Wednesday’s Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where he shared a story about dog sitting for his friends back in Illinois during his college years.
The couple had gone on their honeymoon and asked Hartley to watch their dog, whom he described as their “child.” While watching the dog, Hartley had left the window open and the dog jumped out.
"i spent two days tracking this dog down. I lost like 15 pounds, I was running around,” he said. "They called me like three or four times a day to check on their dog, and I always had an excuse.”
Hartley even tried out his acting chops, in one of his most challenging roles yet.
"I was pretending to be the dog. I was making noises,” he said. "They were like, ‘He sounds weird.’ I was like, ‘He went on a long walk. He’s exhausted.’”
But the story had a happy, albeit scary, ending.
"I found him on the other side of Carbondale in this woman’s backyard. I went into her backyard, and I cornered the dog. The dog was kind of spooked,” Hartley explained. "She comes out with a cordless phone with an antenna and a gun. I was like, ‘Ma’am,’ and I explained.”
Thankfully, she let him go and he was able to get the dog back to his friends' house, only to discover that he’d locked himself out. Hartley noted that he ironically had to "break into the window” the dog had jumped out of in the first place.
Earlier this month, Hartley opened up to ET about the hopes he has for his This Is Us character, Kevin Pearson. For more from the exclusive interview, watch the clip below:
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