‘Faith in the Flames: The Nichole Jolly Story’ Star Chrissy Metz on Tackling Real-Life Survival Story

Chrissy Metz was at rock bottom financially; to be precise, she had just 81 cents left in her savings account when she got the role that would forever change her life: Kate Pearson in This Is Us.

“I had to borrow gas money to get to the audition,” Metz tells us. “I vividly remember that after [I got the role] I called my friend to tell her that I was going to be able to pay her back for the rent and thanked her for believing in me before I believed in myself.”

Metz’s story, as she openly shares and has wittingly detailed in her memoir This Is Me: Loving the Person You Are Today, is one of compassion, empathy, resilience and faith, and one she could lean into in her newest role — eagerly learning about the real-life heroine she plays in Faith in the Flames: The Nichole Jolly Story.

Jolly was one of many heroes in the November 2018 Camp Fire, which claimed the lives of 85 and destroyed the entire town of Paradise, California, making it the deadliest and most costly fire in the state’s history. Her story is depicted in this adrenaline-fueled survival film.

“Our first conversation, I just asked her so many questions — mainly ‘How in the world did you do this? How did you go through everything you went through and still have the courage to keep going?’ When she was sort of stacked against all odds,” Metz shares. “I feel very, very lucky and very grateful to be able to be just a conduit of a part of this story. I hope people will feel inspired, but also encouraged to keep pushing when you don’t think you can anymore.”

Here, Metz shares more on her faith, her music, writing, and more.

Playing real-life good people like Joyce Smith in 2019’s Breakthrough and Nichole in Faith in the Flames are roles she enjoys.

“I get to pull from them what they were like, what they hope and want to share, and how they want to be portrayed, but also how important the story is of just courage and bravery and tenacity, your beliefs and your faith.”

It wasn’t until her parents divorced when she was a child and her family moved back from Japan that she realized she was really searching for something greater than herself and found her answer at church.

“I just was searching for some peace and some serenity in why I was dealing with what I was dealing with [throughout her tumultuous childhood]. There’s not many 13-year-old kids who are going to church by themselves, but I certainly needed to. And I’m so grateful because it plays the biggest role in my life.”

Some simple lessons to live by.

“I try to live in a way that I could feel proud about how I treat people. … I just try to treat people well, and I try to do the right thing. I try to treat people the way I would want to be treated and just have a lot of compassion and empathy, and understanding. And it’s not easy all the time because I’m a human being, but it certainly helps to have a firm foundation in my faith. I don’t know where I would be if I didn’t have it, to be honest.”

In addition to penning her aforementioned memoir that was released in 2018, earlier this year Metz was on a book tour with her new children’s book When I Talk to God, I Talk About Feelings.

“Even though I don’t have children, I can understand in a different way. Teaching preschool, having 10 nieces and nephews, being the middle child of five kids, you really understand how important it is to validate feelings and to talk about them and to name them. … I think that if we can have kids understand their feelings and then feel validated and then feel seen and heard, we can make a difference in the world.”

While she’s in regular contact with her This Is Us costars, it’s a show she fully realizes was lightning in a bottle and something she misses wholeheartedly.

“I miss just going to set every day and seeing all my friends and being able to play on set and just explore and challenge ourselves and challenge myself. And just being a part of something that was so impactful is what anybody dreams about. … It’s just one of those dream jobs. I know that nothing will ever come close to what we experienced.”

The one memento she’ll always cherish from the set of This Is Us.

“I was able to have the piano that was in Kate and Toby’s house, that was the piano that she played with her mom, and Kate played with Jack. So that was really, really special. And it’s in my house in Los Angeles.” [She splits her time between Los Angeles and Nashville these days.]

In addition to her children’s album Big Feelings, she’s also got a new song that will be featured in this film.

“The song’s called ‘Last Day in Paradise.’ I’m pretty excited. Definitely a bucket list to star in a movie and then write a song for it.”

Faith in the Flames: The Nichole Jolly Story, Movie Premiere, Saturday, July 19, 8/7c, Lifetime