Milo Ventimigilia opens up about the real-life inspiration for his “This Is Us” character and it’s giving us all the feels
Need another reason to love the patriarch of This Is Us? Well, we’ve got one.
Gilmore Girls alum, Milo Ventimiglia opened up about his real-life inspiration for his This Is Us character and it is giving us so many warm feelings. Seriously, prepare yourself to love the 39-year-old actor even more after reading this.
Even though Ventimiglia will always be Jess Mariano to us, he has captured the hearts of so many — ours included — for his latest role as Jack Pearson on NBC’s hit drama, This Is Us. Week after week, his role pulls at our heartstrings and now that we know the actor used his father has his inspiration, we know more tears are bound to come.
"I feel like Jack has the same heart as my father," Ventimiglia told Interview magazine. "My father was a very fun dad; he was always coaching our soccer sports teams, he made sure that we had activities to do. He was kind of goofy and fun. But at the same time, he had a lot of lessons to teach us."
Throughout the process of getting into character as one of TV’s most adored fathers, the California native turned to his childhood for guidance on how to play Jack.
"I try and reflect a lot of how I was raised by my father in the character that I'm playing now in being a dad," he explained. "You gotta be strong for these kids. You also have to be fun and teach them all the lessons, not just one, or two, or three."
In order to remain in character and keep his father close to him on set, Ventimiglia has a picture from when he was growing up, with his dad that continually inspires him. Yes this is real life, and yes we know you want to marry him even more now.
"I'm in my trailer right now, and in it I have a photograph of my dad and I when I was about 3 years old, and above it, it says 'Be a good father' and below it, it says 'Be a good husband,'" Ventimiglia revealed to the publication. "It's really simple — really simple, easy things to look at right before I walk out of my trailer."
While we’ve all fallen in love with Jack and continue to tune in week after week to see what sort of wisdom he imparts on his three kids, Ventimiglia explains that he tries not to get intimidated by how powerful his character has become.
"I don't feel the pressure to deliver this unrealistically great man to the screen; I just want to be honest to who he is on the page," he said. "If I can reflect that and put some heart into him and make him real, then I think I've done my job, and I think that people will like who he is."
With all the love and support from his father, and how well he portrays Jack on the series, we really can’t wait to see what Ventimiglia will be like as a father some day.
Until then, we will keep laughing and crying alongside the rest of America every Tuesday night on NBC when This Is Us airs.
