Viewers loved "This is Us," 2016's comedy-drama series that was written by Dan Fogelman. The show premiered on NBC, but not everything was always happy for everyone involved in the show.

In an interview with Glamour, Chrissy Metz, who portrays Mackenzie Hancsicsak in "This is Us," has revealed that in 2016, her bank account only contained 81 cents. The actress told Alex Morris from Glamour about her childhood, and how the show changed her life for the better.

Metz was born in Homestead, Florida, and her parents divorced when she was eight years old. Growing up was tough with her father out of the picture and her mother left to raise Metz and her brother and sister all by herself. There was always the danger that the electricity in their house could be cut off any minute, and Metz' mother sometimes lied about not being hungry so her children could eat.

She believes this is part of why food is equal to love in her family, and as she got older, she ate whenever she was sad or even when she was happy. The actress' mother remarried and they had two more daughters. Their mother and step-father worked hard, but life wasn't always east so Metz used comedy to deal with their hardships. She was the class clown, and she performed to receive the attention that she sometimes thought she wasn't "getting at home."

After high school, Metz realized that she wanted to act but she couldn't go to Juilliard and she had no connections. When her "skinny and tall and beautiful" sister heard about an "open-call model and talent search" at a Holiday Inn in Gainesville, Florida, she also asked Metz to come with her. When they arrived, a woman asked the actress if she could sing, so Metz sang Christina Aguillera's "Beautiful." The next day, the woman told her sister she received a modeling contract and Metz was told she'd be introduced to "managers and agents in Los Angeles.

Even though she was cast as Barbara Wiggles in "America Horror Story," it took a while until she landed the role of Kate in "This is Us." When she got the role, she shared that she only had 81 cents in her bank account.

Being a part of "This is Us" changed Metz's life, and she shares, "But mainly, I hope I can be successful enough to provide for those who supported me when I thought, I can't do this anymore. ... When you've been down on your luck, you can really see that [need] in other people. Now that I'm living more comfortably, how do I share with others? That's what I'm trying to figure out."

The actress is also happy that her portrayal of Kate has touched women of various ages who tell her that the character and the show changed their lives, Per US Magazine. "This is Us" will return to NBC on Tuesday, Feb. 7, at 9 p.m. EST.