This Is Us: Milo Ventimiglia Shares the Highlight of His Career and More at the ATX Television Festival

One of the highlights of Milo Ventimiglia’s career is filming a scene from This Is Us Season 1.

On Friday at the ATX Television Festival in Austin, TX., Milo Ventimiglia joined Executive Producer Ken Olin and NBC President Jennifer Salke for a panel on the hit series.

Immediately, Ventimiglia recalled the first time he read the script for This Is Us. “My first reaction from the script, honestly, was thank god that there was still material out there that is so simple and tells the story of us,” he said.

“I’ve been doing this a long time, and I’ve seen a lot of great scripts and I’ve seen a lot of bad scripts, but it was one of those things that I thought, how wonderful at this time … to have a story that is so simply familiar — and as Dan Fogleman likes to say and remind us — inherently good.”

Ventimiglia’s ability to identify with Jack felt somewhat similar. “At first I was like, wait, should I be Kevin?” he laughed. “When I dove into Jack, I found this instant connection to a man that felt incredibly familiar even though I don’t have kids, and it just felt right.”

When asked which scene has been his favorite to film, Ventimiglia remembered a powerful scene from the Season 1 finale. “One of the highlights of my 22 years as an actor … was working on that very last episode with Ken [Olin], and getting to film this fight that I feel like we’ve all had with our partners.”

Ken Olin talked a bit about the process of preparing for that difficult scene.

“Dan Fogleman wanted to do a scene without edits. His feeling was to capture that rawness of a fight — especially a domestic fight between two people that really love each other. He wanted to do it without cutting,” Olin explained.

“With Mandy and Milo, you have two actors that come prepared to work and can sustain their performance over that much time. You know, often you find actors who are used to doing film or television, and to do to a sustained take like that is really difficult, but they were both ready.”

It was announced last month that This Is Us would be moving to Thursday nights next season, but that decision was quickly reversed. Jennifer Salke discussed why the network decided to keep the series on its original night.

She said that with show on Thursdays, it would have meant only six episodes would air before having a break for about two months because of both the NFL and the holiday break.

“We all just looked at each other and said, this is not in the best interest of this show. And so we moved it back, and I think we’re all thrilled for the decision. You know, I think we have to do what’s right for a show that’s groundbreaking and incredible in every way, and it would be a disservice to it to not treat it that way,” Salke stated.

If you’re a fan of the show, you’ve probably come up with some of your own theories about how Jack dies on This Is Us. Milo Ventimiglia shared his favorite fan theory about how it happens.

“Miguel killed him. I enjoy that one because it feels so far-fetched and a bit ridiculous, only because like, Miguel is Jack’s best friend,” Ventimiglia laughed. “I think that it’s great the audience is engaging in that way,” he added.

Jennifer Salke noted that no fan theories have come close to being correct, which makes it even more interesting to hear what people can come up with.

Ventimiglia also recalled a memorable experience of meeting of fan. “There was one gal that walked up to me and just quietly said to me, ‘I just wanted to thank you my husband and I adopted a boy and my husband had a really hard time with him. And we watch your show, and we see the relationship between father and adopted son, and I just wanna thank you for your portrayal of [this character].'”

“The nicest thing that I’ve been able to experience is when this show and all its makings has managed to impact people in their lives, and it’s given them an opportunity to have a conversation,” he continued.

The questions fans ask Milo Ventimiglia these days are also quite different from the ones they asked when he starred on other shows like Gilmore Girls and Heroes. “Nowadays its like, hey, how does Jack die? Before it was like, is it Jess’s baby? And then people are like, ‘What happened to Heroes?'” he joked.

“I think Jack, much like every character on this show has been able to break through the wish-fulfillment experience and make these people feel like you’re accessible and real, and you know them,” Ventimiglia continued. “I guess in a way I’m not too dissimilar from Jack. It’s humbling, and it’s exciting, and I know we all can’t wait to get back to work to tell more stories.

This is Us returns this fall to NBC.

Be sure to check out all of our coverage of the ATX Television Festival right here (there is still more to come)

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