Milo Ventimiglia Talks Jack's Impending Death on 'This Is Us'

You may know Milo Ventimiglia from his three-season stint as Jess on Gilmore Girls (Team Jess, don't @ us). But most recently, you've probably heard about his role on the tear-jerking, rip-your-heart-out, emotional-rollercoaster-of-a-series that is This Is Us— where Ventimiglia plays Jack Pearson, the patriarch of the Pearson family.

While promoting his partnership with Kelley Blue Book and their Best Buy Awards, MarieClaire.com caught up with Ventimiglia to get the scoop on all-things This Is Us following the Season Two mid-season finale. Spoiler: Jack's death *may* come sooner than we think.

On the very anticipated moment that we'll finally find out the story behind Jack's death (FYI there's a fan theory that Jack didn't actually die in a fire at all):

"I’m excited for people to understand his death, and understand the chapter that will close answering that question. I still go back to the fact that I want people to focus on his life. The only reason we care so much about his death is because we care so much about him as a man. We care about the impact he’s had on his kids, on his wife, on all of that. We’re interested in his journey and what that final chapter is. I just tell people to wait. Soon enough."

Mandy Moore makes him laugh the most on-set (you know, in-between all of the emotional scenes):

"Mandy and I always have a good laugh. With the way everything is we’re constantly cracking ourselves up, making sure that the team that we’re with day in and day out, the crew, they’re enjoying themselves as much as we are. There is no prankster of the group, but man Chris Sullivan, Justin Hartley—those dudes are funny. Super funny. Chrissy? Crazy funny. You guys think we’re crying all day long? We’re really just laughing the whole time."

He doesn't always see eye-to-eye with his character, Jack:

"There are moments where I’m just kind of in awe of how he responds or reacts—both negative and positive. Jack is human, he’s of his own. There are moments when I don’t see eye-to-eye with him, and there are moments where I see very much in line with how he’s viewing experiences."

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On what he's hoping for Jack the rest of the season:

"I get as excited as the audience when I read something about Jack or any of the other characters. It’s something that I look forward to when the scripts come out. I don’t know if there’s anything I’m hoping for or looking forward to more than just understanding who this man is, and how his 50 some-odd years on this planet impacted the people that he loves the most."

On his love for cars (fun fact, he used his own car in This Is Us):

"I don’t know if I’m Jay Leno, but I appreciate a car. When I was younger I would think to myself 'I gotta have the coolest car with the coolest wheels, the dopest stereo,' and now I’m like 'Hey man, what’s going to get to points A and B safely, maybe there efficiently, and what’s going to be comfortable to drive.'"

Total Jack move.

New episodes of This Is Us return to NBC on Tuesday, January 2 at 9 p.m EST.

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(Image credit: Marie Claire)

Rachel Epstein is a writer, editor, and content strategist based in New York City. Most recently, she was the Managing Editor at Coveteur, where she oversaw the site’s day-to-day editorial operations. Previously, she was an editor at Marie Claire, where she wrote and edited culture, politics, and lifestyle stories ranging from op-eds to profiles to ambitious packages. She also launched and managed the site’s virtual book club, #ReadWithMC. Offline, she’s likely watching a Heat game or finding a new coffee shop.