Why star of hit show fled Hollywood after finale aired

This Is Us star Chrissy Metz has revealed the reason she left the entertainment capital after the finale aired.

This is her new life.

Chrissy Metz, best known for playing Kate Pearson on the drama This Is Us, recently ditched Hollywood after 21 years.

“I moved to Nashville,” the actress, 44, revealed to People in an interview published on Friday.

“I was in LA for 21 years, but my family is in Florida, where I’m from, and during the pandemic, I could drive to them from here. It’s just a better quality of life here,” Metz explained. “Everything is 15 minutes away, and it’s just so much less stress.”

“There’s a lot going on,” she continued. “There’s obviously great music, great food. I grew up in the South, so I’m used to sort of that hospitality — it feels more communal here. In LA it was always like, ‘Oh, you have an audition? What’s it for? Oh, you have an audition? What for?’ It was all very dog eat dog!”

Sterling K. Brown as Randall, Chrissy Metz as Kate, Justin Hartley as Kevin in This Is Us. Picture: Ron Batzdorff/NBC

Metz has been keeping busy since starring on the hit drama This Is Us for six seasons from 2016 to 2022, reports the New York Post. When not acting, she also has dabbled in music. In July 2021, she even performed at Nashville’s famed Bluebird Cafe. Her debut country album, Prayed for This Day, was released in 2023.

Even more, the American Horror Story alum recently wrote a new children’s book, When I Talk to God, I Talk About Feelings. It hits bookstores on April 8.

The new story is a follow-up to Metz’s 2023 book, When I Talk to God, I Talk About You.

Metz at the 2020 Oscars. Picture: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Despite leaving Hollywood, the star would love to reunite with her This Is Us cast. The ensemble also included her TV parents Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia, on-screen siblings Sterling K. Brown and Justin Hartley and love interest Chris Sullivan.

“I would [be down],” Metz told Entertainment Tonight in 2023. “I’m like, where would it be set?”

“I mean, anything’s possible,” she went on. “I think everybody wants to see it. Every single time I see someone they’re like, ‘We wish the show was still on.’ I’m like, ‘Me too.’ You know, job security. But I do love the show and everybody involved.”

“I think, like, in 10 years and we’re all, like, 50-ish, I think that will be cute, a little reunion,” she said. “Fingers crossed. It takes a while to make art, y’all! One can only dream!”

Metz is pushing for the Pearson’s reunion to take place in Nashville.

“There’s so much talent,” she gushed about the city. “In the airport, literally every single person is talented, whether they’re playing an instrument or they’re singing their face off at [Blake Shelton’s] Ole Red. Everybody’s talented here. And everybody’s a songwriter. It’s everywhere. It’s all the time. It’s so exciting. You’re around it all the time. And I feel like it’s a very communal city, which is nice. People like working together.”

In the meantime, fans of the Dan Fogelman-created series can tune into the This Was Us rewatch podcast hosted by Moore, 40, Brown, 48, and Sullivan, 44.

These days, Ventimiglia, 47, is headed to Netflix to star opposite Sam Worthington in the limited series I Will Find You.

The drama is based on Harlan Coben’s novel of the same name and will also feature Britt Lower, Erin Richards and Logan Browning.

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and was reproduced with permission.

Originally published as Why star of hit show fled Hollywood after finale aired