Jon Huertas on the 'Curveball' He Faced While Directing “Tracker” with Justin Hartley: 'Froze My Butt Off!' (Exclusive)
"You didn't plan for this. What am I going to do?" Huertas recalls thinking after a snowstorm derailed his directing plans for 'Tracker'
JC Olivera/FilmMagic; Ethan Miller/Getty
Jon Huertas (left) and Justin HartleyJon Huertas turned a hitch into a blessing while filming Tracker with Justin Hartley.
While shooting the CBS show starring Hartley in Vancouver, Canada, Huertas, 54, and the crew found themselves stuck in the winter snow.
The director, who starred on This Is Us with Hartley, recalls studying on his iPad in the car on the way to set before looking up to see “snow everywhere.”
“You didn't plan for this. What am I going to do? And I also didn't plan for it with what I was wearing. So I was freezing. Hand warmers in my hands. I put hand warmers in my boots. I was just trying to stay warm,” he tells PEOPLE.
Viewing the situation from a director’s perspective, Huertas says, “It was something new I had to adjust to.”
Michael Courtney/CBS via Getty
From left to right: Justin Hartley, Gavin Russo and director Jon Huertas on set of 'Tracker'With no other choice, Huertas said he started to frame the sudden snow as a “happy accident” rather than a setback.
“This is great,” he remembers thinking. “I'm going to be able to really sell the fact this is three years before what the rest of our story is going to take place. So it ends up being an opportunity for us to take a curveball and knock it out of the park.”
Instead of worrying, Huertas chose to transform the unexpected obstacle into an advantage. The quick thinking and problem-solving is where he says he found the most joy in directing.
“That’s what I did with the snow. I made it a part of the story,” he explains. “And I froze my butt off doing it.”
Michael Courtney/CBS
Director Jon Huertas and Justin HartleyHuertas directed the ninth episode of Tracker, “Aurora,” giving him the chance to reunite with Hartley, 47, for the first time onscreen since their days starring on This Is Us. (Huertas played Miguel Rivas on the NBC series while Hartley played Kevin Pearson.)
Speaking about his costar, Huertas reveals that, for the most part, Hartley is an “open book,” but what might surprise people is that “his fashion sensibility is on point.”
“Justin's style is amazing, but it's all him. He really is his own stylist. So I think that's kind of surprising for someone who always looks as good as he does in his clothes,” he says. “I've asked for advice from him. ‘Where's you get that jacket, man? It's dope.’ And he'll tell me and say, ‘Yeah, go get one.’”
In Tracker, "Aurora" will see Hartley's character Colter Shaw searching to find the missing daughter of a widower. The exploration, however, “leads him into the world of ghost hunting and paranornal activity,” per the episode description from CBS.
When PEOPLE caught up with Hartley prior to the Tracker series premiere in February, the actor was more than excited to tease his reunion with Huertas.
“I'll be with him every day on set,” Hartley said. “We'll be spending a ton of time together.”
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Tracker airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
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