On playing a simple and straight-forward guy...

Season 2 of This is Us on Star World and Star World HD has seen actor Milo Ventimiglia, who plays the character Jack Pearson, undergoing a huge transformation. The actor, in conversation with us, shares details about the show and more! Read on…

How does it feel like to be a part of this show?

To be honest, if you’re an actor and you have a job, consider yourself lucky. It’s tough. It is hard, but being a working actor is something you always shoot for. When you’re a working actor and you get an opportunity to be a part of a show that has meaning, magnitude, grace, then you just want it to go on for a long time and soak up every moment you can. So yeah, we’re very fortunate, grateful and a happy crew together.

Tell us about your attitude towards portraying fatherhood in a more positive and realistic light...

I was just going to say it’s nice to play a good man who loves his family and his wife. I sound like a broken record, but it’s a very simple, uncomplicated thing for a guy like Jack, and a lot of that I saw with my own father when I was younger. I don’t have kids either, but I like to imagine that I would give them my everything like I know my father gave me and Jack does for his family. 

How excited were you after reading the first script for Season 2? 

So, we have a system! At the 20th Century Fox, everything’s very protected; so, the e-mails go through a particular server, and apparently Sterling and I were the only ones who did not get the first script. We have this group where we’re all talking and communicating… and Chrissy was like: “Oh my God” and everybody’s chipping in while Sterling and I were like, “Wait, what? What? What?” Then, they finally sent us the script.

How did you manage to have such tear-jerking dialogues just between Mandy and you? 

Well, it’s two people who want to be heard, two people who have very valid standpoints and views on their experience in this relationship and marriage, and there was one thing that Ken Olin said to us at the very end, the kind of crescendo it was: “Try and hear what the other person is saying.” This opened up a new door to the scene. So, it was not just me or her spouting; we were ‘responding’—responding to words, emotions, and everything that was said. 

What do you love the most about your character?

Jack is a good man. He’s a very simple, straight-forward man who leads with his heart. He is a guy who loves his wife and his kids, and that is his whole existence. I think for any complication he’d had when he was a younger man, he’s gotten older with more years under his belt. Everything gets simplified down to ‘I’m going to keep myself in line for my family.’ Even the last episode, where I am going from 28 to 52, it’s like, wait, which version do I pick to talk about!