Mandy Moore Recalls Ron Cephas Jones' 'Intrinsic Connection' to His “This Is Us ”Character Dying: 'He Was Suffering'

Ron Cephas Jones died at age 66 in August 2023 due to "a long-standing pulmonary issue," his rep told PEOPLE at the time

Mandy Moore is remembering the "intrinsic connection" the late Ron Cephas Jones had to his This Is Us character.

On the latest episode of the That Was Us podcast, Moore, 40, and her co-hosts and former castmates, Sterling K. Brown and Chris Sullivan, looked back on the season 1 episode, Pilgrim Rick. The actress recalled a touching moment between Olivia (Janet Montgomery) and William Hill (Jones).

Moore read an excerpt from the script in which Olivia asked William how it feels to be dying. William told Olivia: “It feels like all these beautiful pieces of life are flying all around me and I’m trying to catch them…Catch the moments of your life, catch them while you’re young and quick because sooner than you know you’ll be old and slow and there will be no more of them to catch.”

The reading left Brown, 48, in tears following Jones’ death at age 66 in August 2023. At the time, a representative for the actor told PEOPLE he died “due to a long-standing pulmonary issue.”

Related: Mandy Moore, Sterling K. Brown and Chris Sullivan Dish on 'Gratifying' This Is Us Podcast and What Will 'Hit Hard' (Exclusive)

"You really get the sense that he had a profound understanding of what he was saying,” Brown shared on the podcast. “And because he's not with us anymore, beautiful human being that he is, it's just like, wow."

Moore also “viscerally” remembered filming a hiking scene, a Pearson family tradition on the NBC series, which she called “physically taxing exercise” for Jones.

"He was suffering and it was really hard for him to breathe and I remember him sitting was scripted,” she explained. “But also because he genuinely needed to do that, it really brought home knowing what was actually happening in real time in those moments while we were shooting this show and this season.”

She continued: “You’re right, Ron just had this intrinsic connection to what his character was going through and it makes it all the more poignant.”

Related: Sterling K. Brown, Mandy Moore, Chrissy Metz and More Pay Tribute to Ron Cephas Jones After His Death

On the debut episode of That Was Us in May, Brown recalled how Jones’ desire to be working was palpable, even when he was sick. Despite his health struggles, Brown recalled how the SAG Award winner maintained his “big smile” and “big laugh.”

“Just joy in every fiber of his being,” the American Fiction star said of “beautiful human” Jones, who portrayed the biological father of his character, Randall Pearson, in the series.

Brown also noted how “easy” it was for his character to forgive William’s abandonment because “Ron is who he is.”

“It could have been somebody else, and I’d be like, ‘I don’t know if I can make this work.’ But I was like, I want to be around this dude, and I just want him to be around these people,” Brown said.

Related: Mandy Moore Says 'This Is Us' Stars Shed 'Tears' Reuniting to Mourn Ron Cephas Jones: 'We Love You'

“You can’t play William if you haven’t figured a lot of this stuff out in your own life,” Sullivan, 43, added at the time, referring to William’s cancer diagnosis on the show and Jones’ real-life chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

In 2020, the two-time Emmy winner had a successful double lung transplant to treat the disease. When he was discharged from the hospital, he remained as spry as ever, according to Brown.

“He got a chance to go to Broadway, he got nominated for a Tony,” the Oscar nominee stated. “He’s not with us anymore, but he made the most out of his life.”

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That Was Us is available wherever you listen to podcasts. This Is Us is streaming in full on Hulu and Netflix. 

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