“Those wide wale pants were so comfortable!” the actor notes of his character’s wardrobe on This Is Us
There are many things Milo Ventimiglia will miss about playing Jack Pearson on This Is Us — but according to the actor, his character’s fashion sense tops the list.
While speaking to PEOPLE at the series finale screening and panel on Sunday, Ventimiglia, 44, opened up about saying goodbye to the character he’s portrayed for the last six years.
“Oh god, his king fashion sense, especially when he’s in his 50s,” the actor said of what he’ll miss most. “Those wide wale pants were so comfortable!”
Since the very beginning of This Is Us, Jack Pearson has been universally beloved by fans. Because of that, Ventimiglia acknowledged that he would also miss playing a character who many men felt they could relate to and hoped to emulate in their own lives.
“I like that Jack felt like an attainable superhero,” he explained. “I like that he was someone any man could be. In his flaws, in his shortcomings, he still did his best to show the ones that he loved how much they meant to him and give them everything they need to go forward and have happy lives.”
“I think he was [an] inspiration to a bunch of great fathers and great husbands, and something we needed to see out of men,” he added.
During Sunday’s event, Ventimiglia also opened up to PEOPLE about how he reacted to Tuesday’s series finale.
“[Creator] Dan Fogelman has always given us what we need to perform and make these characters so full for the experience of the audience,” he explained. “When I read that last episode, it was no different from when I read the first or read the 22nd, or read the 40th or 60th or 80th — they’re all the same.”
“He and the writers always deliver on the promise of great stories, and knowing where he was gonna go with this, knowing that we shot a lot of this years ago, and then being able to tie it all together, it was just wonderful and complete,” he said.
After fans watch the finale, Ventimiglia hopes they will “continue the conversation of what the show represents.”
“Finding common ground with people that are different, and understanding that we have our own experiences to live, but other people have their experiences to live too, and we should give people love and show people lovem and hopefully, it’ll be showered back on us,” he explained. “And that hope of what happens when we move on in life and where we go and the appreciation of life. It’s so fragile and it moves so quick. It can be gone in a heartbeat or take a lot of time, but I think really living a full complete life.”
The actor shared similar sentiments later that day while sitting on a panel beside his costars. After revealing that his favorite line from the series was “when the world puts something this obvious in front of you, you don’t just walk away from it,” he explained its meaning further.
“Pay attention. Pay attention when life is happening in front of you,” he urged to the audience. “That was a big moment for me to be like, pay attention to life happening in front of you as it’s happening, don’t let it pass.”
“Be there, be present, recognize those good things that come into your life,” he continued. “Recognize when you can be that good thing in someone else’s life because the moment will pass and it’ll be gone, so just recognize it.”
This Is Us premiered on NBC in September 2016. In addition to Ventimiglia, the series also starred Mandy Moore, Sterling K. Brown, Justin Hartley, Chrissy Metz, Susan Kelechi Watson, Chris Sullivan and Jon Huertas. Over its six-season run, the show earned hundreds of accolades — including more than 30 Emmy Award nominations — before its conclusion on Tuesday evening.
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