What Sofia Pernas Shared About Being Honest With Her Husband, Justin Hartley, About Not Watching ‘This Is Us’?

For Sofia Pernas, it’s… the truth!

While speaking to PEOPLE about her upcoming guest-starring role on husband Justin Hartley’s new CBS drama Tracker, Pernas, 34, admitted that his six seasons on This Is Us were too much for her to handle.

“I was very honest with him. I watched the first season and I don’t know how people watch the whole show,” she said. “I don’t really like to show emotion a lot, so I couldn’t do it.”

The Young and the Restless alum, who will play Hartley’s character’s rival on Tracker on Sunday night, explained that she tends to keep her emotions inside rather than “let them out” (or watch them on TV).

“It touched too many emotional chords for me. [Creator] Dan Fogelman is so good and the cast is so good. I can’t,” she says. “I just thought, ‘I need something [else]… I can’t cry every day. I can’t!’ ”
Hartley, 47, spent all six seasons of This Is Us playing Kevin Pearson, one of three siblings in a family affected by tragedy. The show is known for its heartbreaking plotlines—including the death of father Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) in a house fire and the onset of Alzheimer’s in mother Rebecca (Mandy Moore).

Now, a year and a half after the NBC favorite wrapped, Hartley is enjoying a new role as Colter Shaw on Tracker, where he plays a “reward man” who travels 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 toe-to-toe with Shaw, but in reality, Pernas says working with her husband again (the two also co-star in NBC’s Quantum Leap) is like “riding a bike.”

“We always get asked, like, ‘Don’t you two take a break from each other?’ I’m like, ‘I love him.’ Luckily, it’s reciprocated because how often do you get that?” she says. “I’m really grateful that we both feel that way about each other and we can bring that into our work and not have to take too long of a break because we’re so busy.”

The couple originally met when they were co-stars on The Young and the Restless after Pernas joined the soap in 2015—although, she admits, she doesn’t remember their first meeting.

“When Justin is in work mode, and I think anyone who has worked with him would say this, he’s like a Terminator. He has a purpose, he has a focus. Also, he’s a guy, so he’s not good at multitasking,” she joked about being on set with her now-husband. “I mean, we were totally, totally co-stars. I might have had a conversation or two with him in between some of the scenes because he wasn’t really my main co-star.”

Even so, when the two finally started dating before tying the knot in 2021, Pernas was surprised by how much they had in common.

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“I always say it’s a cliché that when you’re with someone, you’re like, ‘This is my best friend.’ But he really, really is,” she says. “We’re compatible in so many ways, we’re so, so compatible, and even when we first started dating, I was just like, ‘Oh, you like that? Oh, that’s weird. I feel like I’m dating myself!’”