Mandy Moore: Unlocking Her Path

Mandy Moore is ready for new roads. For the famed artist who rose to popularity in the late ’90s at 15 years old with the bubblegum hit “Candy,” music has long been the key that unlocks the best sides of her life. Moore, who has enjoyed a parallel career in acting throughout her professional days, crescendoing in her role on the immensely beloved television show This Is Us, has benefited from the confluence of her two careers and found ways to appreciate them individually.  

Now, though, Moore is set to embark on the newest chapter. With her time taping This Is Us now behind her, she is set to hit the road and tour this summer on the back of her latest LP, In Real Life, which dropped on May 13. For someone who has been in the public eye over varying stages in her career, to be on the highway and supported by her family (and accomplished musician husband, Taylor Goldsmith) is the cherry on the sundae of the past few decades. 

“I’m ending this really big chapter of my life with This Is Us,” Moore says of the show which aired its final season this year. “That is very bittersweet, and I don’t know what I’m going to do next in terms of acting. In the meantime, I’m going to go on the road, and I get to be with my family, my husband. I’m open and excited.” 

While her fellow cast members are looking for their next television show or film, Moore wants to find the stage again. It was her first love, and now she will thrive on it, renewed.  

Moore didn’t grow up in a musical household, but her parents—her airline pilot dad and stay-at-home mom—supported her remarkable drive. As a kid, Moore loved musical theater. She would hunt through newspapers in Orlando, Florida, where she looked for gigs. She’d call a local hotline that listed them, too. She took music and drama classes in high school. She was all in. 

“I just felt compelled,” she says. “There was no replacing that adrenaline rush and feeling of being on stage and challenging yourself in that way. It was electric.” 

Back then, Moore had no hang-ups when it came to being in the studio or on stage. She was young and ready. And while she looks back on those days with a bit of embarrassment regarding some song or fashion choices, she knows it was what helped get her foot in the door and embark on a lifelong career. Since then, she says, she’s gotten wiser.  

“It’s strange,” says Moore. “It almost feels like it happened to a different person.” 

Moore, who began her freshman year of high school only to leave on Christmas break to record her debut album and later tour with NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys, has worked hard to grow out of the teeny-bopper label. And she’s become a force. She released her album Silver Landings in 2020. It was her first since the late 2000s. But, of course, it dropped some days before the world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the time since, she has continued to write—often with her husband, Taylor Goldsmith of the accomplished band Dawes—and those early songs have become her latest LP. But while she excels—especially on the tracks “In Real Life” and “Heartlands”—there was some trepidation about releasing more music.  

“Fear of failure,” she says. “Fear of do I really love this as much as I used to? Am I any good at this? Do I know what I’m doing? Do people care? It was a million things wrapped up in one.” 

But it was her role on This Is Us that sparked her reentry. Her character, Rebecca Pearson,  sings throughout the show and that got her back in the studio. That, combined with her supportive husband, lit the flame. She’s thrilled to share the connection with Goldsmith, calling it “such a gift.” In fact, he and several of his bandmates are set to hit the road with the 38-year-old Moore on her summer tour. She hasn’t hit the road for some 15 years, and she’s excited to get her feet wet and remember what it’s like going from venue to venue.  

“For me,” she says, “the whole idea of making this record and the last record was the opportunity to go on the road with it. To perform live. That’s the part I love, that’s the part in my other day job that I don’t get to experience so much.” 

As an actor, Moore is rarely “herself” in the work—instead, she played a character on a show that has hundreds of people working to bring it to life. But on stage, she is herself in full. She gets to be Mandy completely, she says. And her foray on the road will help her process the very emotional ending of the impactful show. For Moore, who came of professional age amidst big pop stars like Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, and Christina Aguilera—people, she says, she never knew all that well—her career has shaped up much differently than theirs. Thanks to that different journey, she’s been able to maintain her path. And that’s made all the difference.  

“I love that music unlocks and gives you permission,” Moore says. “To give you unfettered access into every color and every emotion and every experience and every memory. It’s the key to everything.”  

Photo by Jenna Jones