'This Is Us' star Hannah Zeile says advice from Sterling K. Brown helped her realize how 'spoiled' she is by her time on the NBC drama

• Sterling K. Brown told Hannah Zeile to "really cherish" her time on the "This Is Us" set.
• "Everyone just actually gets along, actually loves each other," Zeile told Insider.

"This Is Us" star Hannah Zeile was working as a cashier at Chipotle when she auditioned for the role of teenage Kate Pearson. She was 18 and had decided to get back into acting after doing some when she was younger. Her first audition back was for the NBC drama — and the rest, of course, is history.

"I've been too spoiled having this be my first experience," Zeile said during an interview with Insider in late February.

"I remember Sterling talking to me and saying, 'Really cherish this because it is rare that you find such a family,'" she continued, referring to Sterling K. Brown, who plays adult Randall Pearson on the family drama.

"Everyone just actually gets along, actually loves each other. We're all working towards the same goal and we all love what we do," she continued. Zeile called the "This Is Us" cast "a well-oiled machine" of actors who just want "to create something beautiful."

"I remember him telling me, 'This is rare, remember this feeling,'" the 24-year-old said. "And so I've really just been broadening my perspective and realizing how cool it is that I got to be a part of this."

Zeile says she's created a 'forever relationship' with Milo Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore

Zeile doesn't often get the chance to act with Brown or Chrissy Metz — who plays Zeile's character Kate in her 30s and older — since the structure of "This Is Us" follows the same characters through different decades. But she hit the jackpot when it comes to on-screen parents with Milo Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore — and she knows it.

"They're just very, very good people," Zeile told Insider. She said Ventimiglia and Moore have "so much wisdom to offer" because of how long they've been working in the entertainment industry. (Ventimiglia rose to fame as Jess on the WB hit "Gilmore Girls," and Moore's song "Candy" thrust her into the spotlight at age 15.)

"But they never ever make it feel like they're trying to talk down to me," Zeile continued.

"I really just learn from being around them, and from watching them and the way they carry themselves," she said. "Once it's all over if I ever needed anything, they make it very clear that this is a forever relationship that we've created and that they're always going to be there."

Zeile says Ventimiglia and Moore have also given her invaluable acting tips

Though she said she learns the most just by watching them, Zeile does recall a very important acting lesson she got from Ventimiglia during a pivotal scene between Jack and Kate on the second episode of season two called "A Manny-Splendored Thing."

In the scene, Jack tells Kate he's an alcoholic. "Obviously, I actually didn't have much dialogue in that scene," Zeile said. But she still remembers Ventimiglia giving her "such a simple piece of advice."

"He just said, 'Really just hear what Jack is saying. Really just listen,'" she explained, noting that even in scenes where actors don't have many lines they can sometimes think too far ahead because they know what's coming in the script.

Zeile said Ventimiglia's advice helped her relay exactly what Kate was thinking and feeling in those moments through her facial expressions alone.

As for what she's learned from Moore, Zeile said they've rarely had specific conversations about their craft, though they sometimes do small exercises like have conversations in character right before the cameras start to roll.

"I just watch her and I'm so in awe and inspired by her process and how amazing she is," she said. "I just appreciate how much she really, really cares. She knows Rebecca very well and cares about the work that she's doing so passionately."

The final season of "This Is Us" airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.