This Is Us star Chrissy Metz reveals real reason she fled Hollywood after the show

This Is Us star Chrissy Metz has opened up about the real reason why she fled Hollywood after the show.

The 44-year-old actress starred as Kate Pearson on the hit NBC drama series from 2016 to 2022 and decided to ditch La La Land in favour of a more private life in Nashville.

Last week (4 April), Metz - who previously got candid about her childhood - opened up about what her life looks like now three years after leaving the spotlight and the career change she's since embarked upon.

Metz spoke to PEOPLE about her decisions to change things up, saying: "I moved to Nashville.

"I was in LA for 21 years, but my family is in Florida, where I'm from, and during the pandemic, I could drive to them from here. It's just a better quality of life here. Everything is 15 minutes away, and it's just so much less stress."

This Is Us star Chrissy Metz has opened up about her departure from Hollywood (Steve Granitz / Contributor / Getty Images)

The American Horror Story star also admitted that she was definitely swayed by the Southern hospitality vibe.

"There's a lot going on," she continued. "There's obviously great music, great food. I grew up in the South, so I'm used to sort of that hospitality - it feels more communal here.

"In LA it was always like, 'Oh, you have an audition? What's it for? Oh, you have an audition? What for?' It was all very dog eat dog!"

While Metz still loves acting, she's put her mind to writing a children's book titled When I Talk to God, I Talk About Feelings which comes out later this week (8 April)

Metz received nominations for both a Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards for her role as Kate Pearson in the series (NBC / Contributor / Getty Images)

Discussing her reasoning behind writing the book, the Golden Globe nominee explained: "I taught preschool for five years, and ultimately kids always want to talk about their feelings.

"They want to feel seen and heard."

She added: "I think we're coming into this age of mental health awareness and just talking about our feelings in real ways.

"And so I wondered, could we preemptively strike and get the kids to name their feelings and then express their feelings and have the confidence to even do that?"

"It's complex," Metz admitted. "And so we had to simplify it for the book in a way that kids would understand and compute and then be able to sort of say, 'Hey, Bobby hurt my feelings when he accidentally kicked me,' or whatever it is.

"So it was just something I felt was really necessary. It also helped me work through a lot of my own childhood stuff."