-My first guest tonight is an Emmy-nominated actor.
Man, he hits it out of the park.
You can see him on "This Is Us,"
which airs Tuesdays at 9:00 P.M. on NBC.
Here is Milo Ventimiglia, everybody.
Yo! -What's up, Jimmy?
What's up, man?
-Milo, it is great to see you, pal.
Thank you so much for coming on the show.
-I know, through all the ones and zeros, man.
That's how we do it these days. -It's unbelievable, right?
Are you on set right now? -Yeah.
No, I'm in my office in Los Angeles.
-Okay. -But the studio, Paramount,
where we film, is like a block away.
-Do you film at Paramount? I did not know that.
-Yeah, we're at Paramount. We are, man.
-That's where Lorne hired me for "Saturday Night Live."
-No, really? -Out in the lot, in his -- yeah,
he had an office on the lot. -By the way,
that was such an incredible audition tape.
I watched it. It popped up, you know, in my thought.
I watched not like three weeks ago.
-No. -Yeah.
-Oh, my God. It's so embarrassing.
-It was incredible. -No.
-It's not -- it's not embarrassing.
That's like -- that's like early days.
That's salad days, man. That's good stuff.
-I mean, that was like -- I wore the tightest clothes
I've ever seen in my -- I don't know.
I think I was like auditioning for Cirque du Soleil
or something. I was something --
I was like -- -Yeah, but it was also --
it was the '90s, right? -Yeah. Yeah, like 2000.
-Yeah. -Yeah, late '90s, '98.
-Late '90s, yeah. So that was the transition
going out of the grunge into -- -Yes.
-Yeah. I remember. -And you know, weirdly enough,
I based my haircut on a photoshoot I saw
in a magazine of Kate Beckinsale.
She had -- she cut her spikey and short for some movie
and I thought she looked so cool, and I was like,
"I'm gonna do that haircut." It's so dumb,
but it's the truth. -That's incredible.
-Isn't that weird? -That's amazing.
-I had so many fads -- -Yeah.
-...of hairstyles and ridiculousness.
But I love Paramount so much. -Yeah.
-Milo, I got to talk to you about this 'cause you did
something that -- I love that you do what you say.
You said, "Dude, I'm gonna get an Airstream.
I'm gonna like travel," and I go, "Love it, man.
I can't wait." But you did.
You bought an Airstream. -Yeah.
-And you drove it around the U.S.
I want to know every single detail.
I want to know everything. Look at this thing.
I love Airstreams. -Yeah.
I mean, listen man, Airstreams are sexy.
-Yeah. -You know?
But I also realize it's kind of luxury premier item.
So I call it my camper. -Yeah, okay.
-I call it my camper. -Yeah.
-'Cause it feels like it brings me down to Earth a little bit.
-You -- it is. -But, yeah, so --
Yeah, I think so. I mean, you know, you're driving
around and you got this big silver bullet behind you,
and it's sexy and it's cool and, you know,
you can stop on a hillside and you take a photo
and it's just incredible.
You know, vistas and everything.
But like the real truth is, you're driving hours and hours
and hours and hours, and when you're done driving 13 hours,
you got to hook up and line and pump your own crap.
-[ Laughing ]
That's the part they don't advertise.
-That's what's -- that's not in the brochure.
-[ Laughs ] But I mean, isn't it great
like when it rains on an Airstream
and the tap of the rain on the tin of the --
You can't -- -Oh, yeah.
I mean, it's -- listen, it is -- it is a travel like none other.
-I'd love to do it. -And I'd always wanted to do it.
I know we talked about it. -Me too.
-And so I did it. Like, you know, quarantine
happened, and what was going on in the world
was going on in the world, and I wanted to go see my sisters.
One was in Utah and another one is up in Oregon.
And as I was going through, I was like
really researching this, and I was trying to find a spot
where I could pick one up along the way.
You know, I had my truck, so I was good.
And then when I -- I brokered a deal
with a dealer up in Oregon.
So I bought it in Oregon,
and then I drove it back down to L.A.
and then I drove across to Georgia,
and then all the way back. -Oh, my gosh.
That's the dream. That's the dream, dude.
-Yeah. -That's something
I think about doing, and I don't know if I'll ever,
I mean, have the chance to do it, really.
Just awesome. -Well, you know what you
ought to do is, you fly out somewhere where I'm gonna be.
We'll hang out, we'll drive around the block,
and I'll drop you off at the airport
so you get the experience of it,
but you don't have to worry about pumping your own stuff.
-That's my man.
See, that's what friends are for, bud.
-Yeah. -I want to get to "This Is Us,"
and I want to talk to you about the new season.
But during the pandemic, people have been binge-watching
every show they can, and you've been on TV for many years.
And my first debut with you was "Gilmore Girls" and, you know.
-Mm-hmm. -But can you tell
when people are binge-watching one of your shows?
-Oh, yeah. I mean, usually, you know,
social media will kind of light up and you can tell
where the show was being released and at what moment.
Like, toward the end of quarantine it became evident
that we had a new season down in Argentina, in Brazil.
So, you know, you see the messages and people popping up.
-That's great. -And then recently, I think now
they're cycling back through it in Italy.
-Wow.
-And like seeing what's going on.
Back in Europe, you're like, oh, you guys are back indoors.
You're not out, you know, having a pizza and coffee anymore.
-Yeah. -I get it. I get it.
-Yeah, but I love that you get to entertain.
It's global now. You know, it used to be
just an American thing -- -Yeah.
-...American TV, and now it's worldwide.
That's pretty cool. -Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, you know, and the Pearsons are absolutely kind of,
you know, America's family in a way.
But really what I see most still -- still --
is people going back and watching "Gilmore Girls."
It always goes back to Jess.
Always goes back to Jess. -I'm Team Jess.
Day one, Team Jess. -I know you are.
-Yeah, have to be. -I know.
-Absolutely, buddy. -Yeah.
-Oh, I love that. I love that.
-Yeah. -It's interesting that you play,
like, the bad boy and then you play Jack who is the --
probably the best dude on Earth.
He's the nice -- -He's one of them, man.
-He's one of the good guys.
-Yeah, he's one of the good guys.
But I mean, I'll tell you what,
those are hard shoes to fill at times.
-[ Laughs ] Exactly. -You know?
I've had moments in life where people expect me to be Jack.
And like, you know, I'll be honest, I mean, I think Jack
borrows from Milo and Milo borrows from Jack.
Or Milo gets the benefit of
wearing the Jack face all the time.
But man, it's tough living up to it sometimes.
It really is. If you notice like sometimes
when I do a lot of press, I'll talk about Jack's flaws
just to humanize myself a little bit.
To kind of let myself off the hook a little.
-Yeah. No, yeah, but if you are any way in a bad mood,
you should be like -- [ Deep breathing ]
"You got to be Jack right now." -[ Laughs ]
-"Hey, Dad, you mind --" blah blah blah.
You can't have a freak out. -Yeah, yeah.
-'Cause like, "Jack doesn't do that."
-You're like, listen, I just -- I just pumped
my own crap from an Airstream, sure, but yeah, hi. Hi.
-Behind the scenes over at "This Is Us," you guys have
a reason to celebrate because your co-star, one of our favs,
Mandy Moore is pregnant. -Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah, she is. -Were you all back at work
when you found out? Where were you?
-No, no, we weren't.
So over the course of quarantine, we had, as a cast,
as a group, FaceTimed with one --
or had a big Zoom together and we kept up,
made sure everyone was okay.
But then, as we were getting ready to film, we had a Zoom
with Fogelman, where Fogelman was actually kind of giving us
the lay of the land, what the protocols were looking like,
and if anybody was going to be uncomfortable with them,
like speak up or hold your peace.
And then he hopped off and we were all going around, like,
"Hey, Sterling, you good? Hey, Chrissy, Justin,
like everyone feels good? Yeah, I feel good about it.
Mandy?" And Mandy wasn't talking.
She wasn't talking. And then she just kind of goes,
"Well, guys, I am pregnant."
And I mean, then, you know, we're --
-Crying. -Exactly.
Exactly, man. Crying, excited.
You know. And -- I mean, she's the loveliest,
she's great, she's amazing, and, like, to know that
a human being like Mandy Moore is going to be a mom
influencing a child in this Earth
just gives me hope for Earth.
-[ Laughs and applauds ]
I want to talk about this part of "This Is Us."
This season that was hinted how Rebecca and Miguel
got together after Jack died. -Yeah.
-Now we might find out a little more to that relationship.
But as Jack, how do you feel about that relationship?
-Jack's dead.
So it doesn't really matter what Jack thinks.
I mean, let's be glaringly honest.
-Yes. -You know, I think -- listen,
Jack -- Jack loves his wife.
He loves his kids like no other. -Yep.
-But at the same time, you know, Jack wouldn't want
his wife or kids to be unhappy without him.
And, you know, I mean, look,
death is a pretty great equalizer.
When someone dies, like, yeah, I guess that's kind of over.
So it's not like Miguel got in the way of Jack and Rebecca.
It was just, hey, Rebecca was available.
-Yeah. -And they had a history
of being close and friends,
and everything should start with the friendship.
-Yeah, I agree with that, by the way.
-Yeah.
-My wife and I started, best friends.
We were just friends. Loved hanging out.
It was awesome. I agree with that.
-And then before we did the interview,
you gave me your wife's phone number.
So, oh boy. [ Laughter ]
-Dude, I'm so embarrassed about that.
We'll have to talk about that next time you're on.
But I -- -We have to, man.
That's incredible. It's incredible.
[ Laughter ] -I can't believe it.
-For anybody -- -Did she text you back?
-Yeah, long story short, I was -- hold on, let me see.
I was trying to text Jimmy something --
Hey, there it is.
She wrote, "This is incredible.
I will send to him immediately."
-[ Laughs ]
I'm sorry, dude. I thought I was giving you my number.
I don't know my number. That's insane.
-That's great. That's great. -That's totally real and insane.
Dude, you're the best. -I love it.
-Milo -- I gave Milo Ventimiglia my wife's phone number.
What am I thinking? Milo, I love you, buddy.
Stay safe. Thank you for coming on
and talking to me. -Yeah.