TV Talk: ‘This Is Us’ star films Apple series locally, uses Pittsburgh dialect

Starring in the hit NBC drama “This Is Us,” actress Chrissy Metz got to know Pittsburgh vicariously through her character, Pittsburgh native Kate Pearson. But it doesn’t take long talking to Metz before you realize she picked up more than just her character’s backstory.

“If the Stillers are playing, I’m going to a game,” Metz said in a phone interview last week. “My boyfriend’s coming, and we’re going to a game.”

Filming Apple TV’s crime drama that’s currently known as “Parallax” marks Metz’s first time in Western Pennsylvania other than a brief stop at The Palace Theatre in Greensburg when touring with Jim Brickman’s Christmas show years ago.

“Back in the ‘This Is Us’ days, when I knew they were from Pittsburgh originally, there were just some things that, if I were ever to say it, maybe that local people would hear that. I’ve just always known that’s what they call (the Steelers),” Metz said.

“Parallax” is set in Western Pa., with Metz’s character, Ida Frost, living in Beaver. The show’s dialect coach asked Metz what she knew about the Pittsburgh accent. Metz mentioned “yinz” and “gumbands.”

“I just knew phrases or a few sounds, but actually putting (the dialect) into practice in a script, wow, it’s really challenging,” Metz said.

In “Parallax,” the children of Metz’s character have gone missing amid a cat-and-mouse game between a detective (Liev Schreiber, “Ray Donovan”) and a manipulative serial killer (Stephen Graham, “Adolescence”). The show is based on the Joona Linna book series by author Lars Kepler, a pseudonym for husband-and-wife Swedish writers Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril and Alexander Ahndoril.

“I feel like it’s really important not only to represent a woman who obviously is in her 40s who would have this accent, but also she’s working class, and we don’t get to see these characters portrayed always,” Metz said. “I certainly want to do an authentic job, so it was really my call to (figure out), how do we incorporate (the dialect) and make it as authentic as possible.”

One reason for attempting the accent in “Parallax,” Metz said, was the reaction she heard from a local woman to another current Pittsburgh-­set series, presumably the most popular one, “The Pitt.”

“She was talking about a medical drama — and I’m sure you know the name of it — and they were saying that for it to be set in Pittsburgh, a lot of the people who came into the hospital didn’t sound like they were from Pittsburgh,” Metz recalled. “And that really upset them. And I was like, ‘OK, that’s it, I’m doing it,’ so I better do it well. I sure hope it does everyone justice.”

Metz said she frequently consults with local crew members to see if she’s on the right track.

“There are two drivers on our production, Christy and Kathy — they’re my girls,” Metz said. “I love them. And both are from the North Side, so I’ll always go through my script in the morning and then, if there are any words I’m unsure of, I’m like, ‘OK, how do you guys say this? Just give it to me before I get out of the van.’ And they’re so sweet.

“I approached the script in the same way as I would any character,” Metz continued, “but I certainly have to be cognizant of the cadence, the rhythm. But also, with that accent, there are no rules to it. Just when you think your brain understands it, you’re like, ‘Nope, you wouldn’t say it there, but you’d say it there.’ So yeah, it’s pretty fascinating.”

Metz said “Parallax” will film until just before Christmas and has been shooting in Cranberry, Wexford, Warrendale, Beaver and New Kensington. She’s been traveling back and forth to her home in Nashville during production, but she’s had time to get out and visit some parts of the Western Pa. region.

“The fact that there’s a place called Moon and a place called Mars, that’s fascinating to me,” Metz said. “The city is cool, too. The bridges are amazing. I don’t want to tell people how much I love it because I don’t want everybody to flock to Pittsburgh.”

She’s made visits to Sarris Candies and Prantl’s Bakery.

“I wanted to try the burnt almond torte,” Metz said, explaining the bakery visit was also research because her “Parallax” character owns a bakery. “It’s always about food for me, so I was like, I’ll get a bite for me and then I had to bring the whole cake to the hair and makeup trailer because, otherwise, I would eat the whole cake by myself. It was so good.”

Prior to “Parallax,” Metz had a starring role in the first season of Netflix’s breakout hit “The Hunting Wives,” although her character, Starr, died at the hands of Jill (Katie Lowes) in the first-season finale. So far, Metz doesn’t know if her character will return in a flashback for Season 2.

“I know that there are people who would really, really, really like a flashback, and who would really like to know what happened between Starr and Jill in that moment before Jill opened the door and laid Starr out on the kitchen floor,” Metz said. “I do believe that Starr knew something that nobody else knew about Jill, so I would love to see a cute little flashback. But I don’t know where they’re going with the second season.”

And, yes, Metz does keep in touch with her “This Is Us” co-stars via phone and a text thread.

“I just spoke to Sterling (K. Brown, who played Randall) yesterday, we were talking about the World Series,” Metz said during an early November phone interview. “I talked to Mandy (Moore who played Rebecca) this morning. I think people don’t realize we all really had something special, because we were genuinely friends and care about each other, which is so, so nice and so rare.”

And how did they react knowing Metz is now filming a series where “This Is Us” was largely set?

“Everyone’s like, ‘No way!’ I’m like, ‘I know, I couldn’t have planned it,’ ” Metz said. “The book (that ‘Parallax’ is based on) was set in Stockholm, so they could have picked any city, but I’m glad they picked the ’Burgh.”