Sterling K. Brown and his wife Ryan Michelle Bathe hit the red carpet at the 2017 Emmy Awards on Sunday. And though the couple have been married for 10 years, there’s one thing they don’t do together: rehearse.
“We don’t rehearse together,” Brown told E! News on the red carpet at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, joking with Bathe how they’ve learned over the years what works and what doesn’t work for their relationship.
Brown — who won an Emmy for his portrayal of prosecutor Chris Darden in The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story last year and is currently nominated for his work on This Is Us — said that he’s excited for the big night.
“I feel fantastic,” Brown said. “I’ve had the chance to come two years in a row for two different projects. I get to be here with my beautiful wife and my amazing casts. What do I not have to like?”
WATCH: Sterling K. Brown on the Painful ‘This Is Us’ Scene He Was ‘Dreading’
While the actor hasn’t prepared a speech, he does have “ideas” and is prepared to thank his wife and This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman if he doesn’t.
“We quit thinking about us vs. them and we keep thinking about This Is Us,” Brown said of the power of the show.
The couple also gushed about their two children — Andrew, 6, and Amaré, 2. “The 6-year-old is in first grade, and he’s got a lot of personality,” Brown said. “Any time you turn the camera on to this child, he shows up.”
“He wants to be a scientist, so we’re really hoping the scientist thing happens,” Bathe added. “Because he wants to be better than Einstein. But then he goes, ‘Sexy dance, sexy dance, sexy dance.’ ”
Joked Brown: “He’s going to be a weird scientist.”
In August, Brown told PEOPLE’s Editor-in-Chief Jess Cagle that fans will not be disappointed by the season 2 premiere of This Is Us — which airs on NBC Sept. 26.
“It’s a full episode,” Brown said in an episode of The Jess Cagle Interview (streaming now on People TV) of the Sept. 26 return of his hit NBC drama.
Brown said his character Randall will begin the show’s sophomore season pushing his wife Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) to adopt a child like Randall was adopted.
“He wants to sort of fulfill the legacy of his parents Jack and Rebecca, honor William’s [Randall’s birth father (Ron Cephas Jones)] memory, by adopting,” said Brown. “Beth doesn’t quite see it exactly the same way as Randall does, so they’re having a conversation, if you will, around this whole adoption issue.”
Unsure of how to proceed, Randall goes to seek the counsel of his mother (Mandy Moore).
“She tells him that it wasn’t automatic for her. When she first saw me as a baby she had to be convinced by Jack (Milo Ventimiglia), and Jack was just insistent, and he pushed, and sometimes there has to be that person in the marriage who pushes, who sort of guides the other person in the direction that they need to be,” Brown revealed. “She talks about how this stranger became her child, this child became her life, and that’s … Randall.”
“The adoption storyline is big and the way that we go about it transforms from Randall’s original perception of how he thinks it should be,” Brown continued. “So Beth and Randall come up with a compromise together for what works for them as a couple, similar to how Rebecca and Jack did — but it looks a little bit different.”
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Dozens of A-listers have descended on Hollywood for TV’s biggest night, the 2017 Emmy Awards. Some of the biggest TV shows will be battling it out for the night’s top awards, including The Crown, Better Call Saul, The Handmaid’s Tale, House of Cards, Stranger Things, This Is Us and Westworld for outstanding drama series and Atlanta, black-ish, Master of None, Modern Family, Silicon Valley, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Veep for outstanding comedy series.
Other big awards to watch include outstanding limited series (which pits Big Little Lies, The Night Of, Feud: Bette and Joan, Genius and Fargo against one another) and the major acting categories like outstanding lead actress in a limited series or TV movie and lead actor in a drama series.
The 69th Primetime Emmy Awards, hosted by Stephen Colbert, are airing live on CBS from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles at 8 p.m. ET.
