Milo Ventimiglia didn’t need to look far when it came to inspiration for his character Jack on This is Us
Milo Ventimiglia, otherwise known as everyone’s favorite husband and father, opened up to the ladies of the view this week—and the man got very teary-eyed. It seems his dad was his acting inspiration for the character he played on This is Us, Jack Pearson. Just thinking about why he drew from his father to create the essence of Jack made Milo weepy on TV.
“My dad is wonderful. My mom and dad—I get emotional,” he said, as tears welled up in his eyes. “My mom and dad are wonderful people. My father and Jack Pearson were of the same era, both born in the 40s, both Vietnam vets.
“And I saw in Jack the way that I…,” Ventimiglia had to stop a little and compose himself. “It always happens.” He continued, “I see in Jack the way my father was with my sisters… So thank you.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtRTcOppTsM
There are a lot of fans out there who are probably thanking Milo’s dad, too. He was able to bring a character to life that made the viewing public love a ’70s-era mustache—and hate a Crock-Pot. There is no fan out there who has gotten over that hospital scene. Damn you, slow cooker!
Milo went a little deeper into what inspired him to model Jack after his father. “What I also saw though was an opportunity with the way he was to just kind of be a version of my dad and the big three were actually me,” he said. “So I think anything that I was doing was just looking up to my dad.” He shared that he kept a photo of him and his dad in his trailer, and it said, Be a good husband. Be a good father. “And I was like, just look at that every day and you’re there.”
Jack may have been one of the most beloved TV dads of all time. Milo describes him as “an attainable superhero” and “a great example of a man, great example of a husband, of a father who was flawed, absolutely had his flaws but he was someone, anyone, man, woman, child, old, young, any background from anywhere, you could aspire to be like him.”
