In addition to being an actor and producer, Justin Hartley has also directed. Prior to creating his own show with his production company, Hartley stepped behind the camera to direct a few times: directing a 2011 episode of “Smallville,” and two episodes of “This Is Us.”
Contrasting the experience of acting versus directing, Hartley described the two jobs as one of those apples-and-oranges comparisons. “They’re so different; it’s almost hard to even compare them,” he noted to NBC Insider in 2022. While he relishes the experience of directing, he wouldn’t want to do it at the expense of acting. “So that would be my passion, my true love,” he said of being an actor. “However, the joy that you get from giving a note to an actor, someone you admire and love, and then watching that actor take your note and take it to a completely different level. And as you’re watching on the monitor you go, ‘Oh, jeez, they didn’t just take my note; they made me realize what my note even meant’ … I see myself as an actor first, but I enjoy all of it.”
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Meanwhile, Hartley has also dabbled in screenwriting, penning a 2010 episode of “Smallville.” Having served as actor, writer, director, and producer, Hartley feels he’s received an unparalleled education in how television is made, from a variety of perspectives. “It’s like going to school,” he told Awards Daily, “it’s an education.”
