March 13 (UPI) -- Mandy Moore said she nearly quit acting prior to being cast on the NBC series This is Us.
The 35-year-old singer and actress said on Thursday's episode of The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon that she was "reconsidering everything" in her career before landing the role of Rebecca Pearson on This is Us.
Moore came to fame as a pop singer, and appeared in such films as The Princess Diaries, A Walk to Remember and Saved! in her early career. She later appeared in four failed TV pilots, which led her to audition for a show she didn't feel a connection to.
"This business is tricky," Moore said. "There's a real ebb and flow, to everything in life.
"I remember going in and feeling pretty good about the audition, and then coming out and finding I didn't get it. I was like, 'What? I didn't get the thing I didn't even really want? This is the universe telling me this is done for me,'" she recalled.
Moore considered returning to her home state of Florida or going back to school before deciding to stick it out in Los Angeles a little while longer.
"I was like, 'Maybe it's time to go back to Florida, where I'm from. Maybe it's time to go back to school.' I really was reconsidering everything," she said. "I had some patience, and six months later, This is Us came into my world."
This is Us was a success and is now in its fourth season on NBC. In February, Moore revisited her audition tape for the show, which shows her chemistry read with co-star Milo Ventimiglia.
In addition to This is Us, Moore released Silver Landings, her first album in over 10 years, last week. She co-wrote the album with her husband, musician Taylor Goldsmith, and said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show this week that her musical household is "pretty dreamy."
