September 23, 2021 • 12 mins
Actor Milo Ventimiglia joins us to talk 'This Is Us' and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fun with Mario a little bit. Come on with Mario
Lopez joining me now on zoom from This is Us, actor,
my guy, my little and Amilia. Welcome to the show Man.
How youve Ma, I'm good brother. How about your I'm
doing well? Thank you for asking. Uh A lot I
want to talk about, but of course let's start with
This is Us. The final season is coming up. I'm
(00:21):
fascinated Milo, how they've been able to being a fan
of the show and watching it. Um continue to go
back and forth. And I thought, once we discovered how
your character and I don't think I'm spoiling anything. It's
been a while. Now how your character? Yeah, exactly, I
need to watch at what exactly? Once he went, we
discovered he died and with the fire, and I thought, okay,
(00:43):
where can they go from that's it, that's the peak, right,
But no, they kept and it was like wow, So
kudos to to the riding staff there. But with that said,
what's in store for the family? Oh man? I mean
you knowing knowing that. I feel like when the show
first started, we were kind of um driving things forward
(01:05):
from the past. Now I think we're kind of reversing it.
We're going from the future back toward the present and understanding.
You know, in the beginning, I think the big mystery
was all about uh, Jack's death and of course how
it impacted his family, his children, his wife. But now
(01:26):
what we started to see are kind of the the
breadcrumb trail of Rebecca's legacy and Rebecca's impact on her
children and Rebecca's life post her marriage to Jack and
you know, remarrying to Miguel and all of that. So
I think we're kind of going the swinging in the
(01:47):
other direction of the pendulum of parents. You know, one
direction was Jack towards the beginning the first season, second season,
third season, and now it's kind of swung the other
way where it's it's about Rebecca and this kind of
the back half of Rebecca's life, so you know, understanding
that she's going through UM, some Alzheimer's UM and some dementia,
(02:12):
and knowing that we've jumped kind of around in the future,
played in the future a little bit and kind of
understand well, maybe this is coming. I think what we're
gonna see this season is more reflecting on Rebecca's life
and Rebecca, on Rebecca's impact to her kids, UM and
(02:32):
of course, you know Jack will still be there because
Jack will be around in memories. Just you know, his
kids are growing up, so you know, we might have
to find different sets of children. And we've already dealt
with alcoholism, so we gotta wrap that one up. We
dealt with war, wrapped that one up. UM a lot
of layers to Jack, a lot of layers of Jack.
(02:52):
But there's always something to do with so much great
content on television right now, it's it truly is the
golden age with quality TV, and this is us seems
to break from the network pack. Congratulations on the Emmy
because I believe you guys are like one of the
only guys from UM right, from a network show to
(03:14):
be nominated. That's got to feel even existential if I mean, listen,
if it always feels good to be in the conversation.
You know, I don't know that there's the goal of
wanting to be recognized, but I think there's just a
lot of hard working people who are talented and I'm
telling the stories that we want to tell the way
we want to tell them. So being recognized just it's nice.
(03:37):
I know it's not something we're aiming for, but it
is always nice and that happens then you know, on
top of it's nice when when some of U's individually
get nominated. So absolutely good for you. I know you've
directed a couple episodes of the show, correct, Yeah, are
you looking for for more opportunities to do that outside
of the show and what have you? I mean, listen,
I started directing at twenty five do an interstitial campaign
(04:00):
WB Network remember the w before we all remember the
Wye the Frog. Yeah, I was doing interstitials and commercial
campaigns and digital stuff kind of low hanging fruit. Um,
so it's been nice that Vogelman and Ken Olwen have
brought me on board to direct a little bit more. Also, again,
(04:22):
you know where that pendulum swings and things are focusing
more on Rebecca, that kind of slims down Jack's storylines
a little bit, And putting me behind the camera to
direct gives me an opportunity just to spend more time
with the crew creatively. So I think it's a smart
pivot on productions and to just hey, we like having
(04:45):
that Intamlia around, so let's just throw behind the camera
because maybe he also likes shoot pretty pictures too, and
everybody knows him he likes everybody. So it's been fun
and I think I'm I think I'm already on the
boards to direct one possibly another one by the end
of the He's nice man. Good for you. You're you're
also part of this podcast Strawberry spring Now, uh, this
(05:07):
is a fictional drama. I picture something like old time
radio or what's it about? Am I off? Exactly man, exactly.
So when I was a kid growing up, my dad
on these long uh car road trips we go on,
he listened to these old radio plays, like kind of
old talkies. You know, you're hearing the folly like we're
gonna go see what's going on behind this door, you know,
(05:30):
let's talk to him. Hey, what do you say? You know,
all these different things. But the new scripted podcast radio shows,
radio plays, Um, it's kind of taking a note from
all those old time creative storytelling uh ideas from the past.
And this one is based on Strawberry Springs, based on
(05:52):
a Stephen King short story and Lee Metzker took that
eleven page story and re crap did it. And it's
about a journalist, um who in this town of of Uh,
oh my god, I why'm my blanket on the name
I recorded this thing, and I'm blanking on the name.
We've got so many things running in my head. You know.
(06:15):
The town where this takes place a New Sharon, UM
in the north Northeast, because of course Steven King things
kind of take place in the northeast. UM. And it's
about a guy investigating a serial killer, Jack the Ripper
esque kind of character. And it's the discovery that these
murders keep happening, and it's and it's a recurring thing. Um.
(06:36):
It happens, you know, once or twice, then eight years
later it happens again in a similar fashion. And so
over the course of the eight episodes you're discovering things
about the killer through the point of view of this journalist.
And the journalist is played by Garrett Headland. Uh, and
I play a friend of his who's also a radio
disc jockey who is at the same time kind of
(07:00):
trying to make sense of these killings and investigate this
as well. There's a newspaper gall played by Sydney Sydney Sweeney. UM.
Just like a really wonderful cast too. And it's you
know the way play that's cool man. You had another
credit platform right there. I dig it yeah, totally, totally. Milo.
Reboots of course are big right now. Nostalgia always seems
(07:22):
to be a hit, and Superheroes even bigger. Do you
think the cast of Heroes could ever reunite? I think
they tried that once, Like what was that about? Five
years ago they brought it back or two years ago
they brought it back? They did. It was called Heroes
Reboot Revival with something, um I don't remember the name
(07:43):
of it, but it it kind of I'll be honest.
It came in my direction. Um I was asked to
be a part of it, but it didn't feel right.
It felt like they weren't you know what it felt like. Honestly,
it felt like the powers that be believed that the
(08:03):
creative was bigger than the characters. And what I find
is TV audiences connect with characters because they see themselves
in that character. And what it felt like was they
were wanting to use Peter Petrelli in the beginning to
pull everybody in and be like, hey, look we got
the crew back. And then Peter patrell was going to
(08:25):
go away for a long time and then pop back
up at the yet and I was like, yeah, but
what happened to Peter. If you want to tell a
story about Peter or Claire or Hero or you know
hendres Esh or Nathan Petrelli or um, you know anybody else,
Like that's great, But Matt Parkman, Um, I don't know.
(08:49):
I mean, there are so many characters, so many different things,
but it felt it just didn't feel right to me.
It felt like personally, it felt like a bait and switch.
And I wouldn't want to to see the audience or
the fan base of heroes just by being a part
of it in like the tiniest of ways, not the
creative direction you wanted to go in respect. No, no,
(09:09):
before I let you go, Mile wanna put you on
the spot with some quick questions. Quick answers are what
TV show are you watching right now that you recommend?
Aside from your round of course, this is horrible, man,
I'm not watching anything right now, you know. Like last
night I got I got home, I needed to like
unplug my brain and I turned on the Robert Redford
film A River Runs Through It really just to see
(09:32):
these beautiful visits here like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's
not the answer you're going for Flash, He's not sexy,
but it was like river runs through with that. Okay,
Oh yeah, what was the first concert you ever attended?
No effects banned, no FX. Yeah. I was a big
punk rock kid as a kid and down in Orange County,
(09:55):
down Words County, and I was under aged actually was
allowed to be there, but somehow I got in and
that was like that was I think one of the
first shows I got to. Yeah. Who was your celebrity
crush growing up? Oh? Man? Um, I remember as a
kid having a Cindy Crawford calendar. Yeah? Did I when
(10:20):
the black and the black bathing suit? She you know what,
it's not funny because I asked her too. She goes,
I only made one, made one. So she goes, I
don't we all had it? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, I all
had it. We're about to say that it Actually it
was pretty crazy. We we had a moment where Kate
on This is Us was flipping through magazine and she
(10:40):
asked a question about Cindy Crawford and it was a
conversation with me. So I'm talking to her about Cindy
Crawford and Cindy Crawford Instagram did or something, and I
was like, oh my god, Crawford, that was who we
are That's surreal. That's awesome. Yeah, all time favorite Stephen
King movie. I mean, uh, we're gonna say Coo is
(11:03):
about to say I love Coojoe too, especially we were kids.
I don't know if it holds up, but when we
were kids it was awesome. You're terri fine right with that.
St Bernard. It doesn't hold up. You saw it recently,
one of our producers. As it does, it's not like
two years ago. Doesn't really. Oh you're breaking my heart?
Yeah yeah, man, dude, Coo I was. It was so funny.
I was just my mom and dad the other day
(11:25):
and I was just like, I'm like, what's your guys
favorite book? My dad? Without missing the beatsa coudro. That
was a terrifying movie. Wow, I forgot yeah. Um. And
last question, who plays you in the My Little Intamlia biopic? Lopez?
Wonderful casting, you know what, I will nail it and
make you proud of In the meanwhile, listen to Strawberry
(11:48):
Spring on I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcast,
My little nice catching up with you, man, Thanks for
checking in. Yeah always Mare. I appreciate your brother. Take
care of you too, all right, man, you Guys with
Mario Lopez
Fun with Mario a little bit. Come on with Mario
Lopez joining me now on zoom from This is Us, actor,
my guy, my little and Amilia. Welcome to the show Man.
How youve Ma, I'm good brother. How about your I'm
doing well? Thank you for asking. Uh A lot I
want to talk about, but of course let's start with
This is Us. The final season is coming up. I'm
(00:21):
fascinated Milo, how they've been able to being a fan
of the show and watching it. Um continue to go
back and forth. And I thought, once we discovered how
your character and I don't think I'm spoiling anything. It's
been a while. Now how your character? Yeah, exactly, I
need to watch at what exactly? Once he went, we
discovered he died and with the fire, and I thought, okay,
(00:43):
where can they go from that's it, that's the peak, right,
But no, they kept and it was like wow, So
kudos to to the riding staff there. But with that said,
what's in store for the family? Oh man? I mean
you knowing knowing that. I feel like when the show
first started, we were kind of um driving things forward
(01:05):
from the past. Now I think we're kind of reversing it.
We're going from the future back toward the present and understanding.
You know, in the beginning, I think the big mystery
was all about uh, Jack's death and of course how
it impacted his family, his children, his wife. But now
(01:26):
what we started to see are kind of the the
breadcrumb trail of Rebecca's legacy and Rebecca's impact on her
children and Rebecca's life post her marriage to Jack and
you know, remarrying to Miguel and all of that. So
I think we're kind of going the swinging in the
(01:47):
other direction of the pendulum of parents. You know, one
direction was Jack towards the beginning the first season, second season,
third season, and now it's kind of swung the other
way where it's it's about Rebecca and this kind of
the back half of Rebecca's life, so you know, understanding
that she's going through UM, some Alzheimer's UM and some dementia,
(02:12):
and knowing that we've jumped kind of around in the future,
played in the future a little bit and kind of
understand well, maybe this is coming. I think what we're
gonna see this season is more reflecting on Rebecca's life
and Rebecca, on Rebecca's impact to her kids, UM and
(02:32):
of course, you know Jack will still be there because
Jack will be around in memories. Just you know, his
kids are growing up, so you know, we might have
to find different sets of children. And we've already dealt
with alcoholism, so we gotta wrap that one up. We
dealt with war, wrapped that one up. UM a lot
of layers to Jack, a lot of layers of Jack.
(02:52):
But there's always something to do with so much great
content on television right now, it's it truly is the
golden age with quality TV, and this is us seems
to break from the network pack. Congratulations on the Emmy
because I believe you guys are like one of the
only guys from UM right, from a network show to
(03:14):
be nominated. That's got to feel even existential if I mean, listen,
if it always feels good to be in the conversation.
You know, I don't know that there's the goal of
wanting to be recognized, but I think there's just a
lot of hard working people who are talented and I'm
telling the stories that we want to tell the way
we want to tell them. So being recognized just it's nice.
(03:37):
I know it's not something we're aiming for, but it
is always nice and that happens then you know, on
top of it's nice when when some of U's individually
get nominated. So absolutely good for you. I know you've
directed a couple episodes of the show, correct, Yeah, are
you looking for for more opportunities to do that outside
of the show and what have you? I mean, listen,
I started directing at twenty five do an interstitial campaign
(04:00):
WB Network remember the w before we all remember the
Wye the Frog. Yeah, I was doing interstitials and commercial
campaigns and digital stuff kind of low hanging fruit. Um,
so it's been nice that Vogelman and Ken Olwen have
brought me on board to direct a little bit more. Also, again,
(04:22):
you know where that pendulum swings and things are focusing
more on Rebecca, that kind of slims down Jack's storylines
a little bit, And putting me behind the camera to
direct gives me an opportunity just to spend more time
with the crew creatively. So I think it's a smart
pivot on productions and to just hey, we like having
(04:45):
that Intamlia around, so let's just throw behind the camera
because maybe he also likes shoot pretty pictures too, and
everybody knows him he likes everybody. So it's been fun
and I think I'm I think I'm already on the
boards to direct one possibly another one by the end
of the He's nice man. Good for you. You're you're
also part of this podcast Strawberry spring Now, uh, this
(05:07):
is a fictional drama. I picture something like old time
radio or what's it about? Am I off? Exactly man, exactly.
So when I was a kid growing up, my dad
on these long uh car road trips we go on,
he listened to these old radio plays, like kind of
old talkies. You know, you're hearing the folly like we're
gonna go see what's going on behind this door, you know,
(05:30):
let's talk to him. Hey, what do you say? You know,
all these different things. But the new scripted podcast radio shows,
radio plays, Um, it's kind of taking a note from
all those old time creative storytelling uh ideas from the past.
And this one is based on Strawberry Springs, based on
(05:52):
a Stephen King short story and Lee Metzker took that
eleven page story and re crap did it. And it's
about a journalist, um who in this town of of Uh,
oh my god, I why'm my blanket on the name
I recorded this thing, and I'm blanking on the name.
We've got so many things running in my head. You know.
(06:15):
The town where this takes place a New Sharon, UM
in the north Northeast, because of course Steven King things
kind of take place in the northeast. UM. And it's
about a guy investigating a serial killer, Jack the Ripper
esque kind of character. And it's the discovery that these
murders keep happening, and it's and it's a recurring thing. Um.
(06:36):
It happens, you know, once or twice, then eight years
later it happens again in a similar fashion. And so
over the course of the eight episodes you're discovering things
about the killer through the point of view of this journalist.
And the journalist is played by Garrett Headland. Uh, and
I play a friend of his who's also a radio
disc jockey who is at the same time kind of
(07:00):
trying to make sense of these killings and investigate this
as well. There's a newspaper gall played by Sydney Sydney Sweeney. UM.
Just like a really wonderful cast too. And it's you
know the way play that's cool man. You had another
credit platform right there. I dig it yeah, totally, totally. Milo.
Reboots of course are big right now. Nostalgia always seems
(07:22):
to be a hit, and Superheroes even bigger. Do you
think the cast of Heroes could ever reunite? I think
they tried that once, Like what was that about? Five
years ago they brought it back or two years ago
they brought it back? They did. It was called Heroes
Reboot Revival with something, um I don't remember the name
(07:43):
of it, but it it kind of I'll be honest.
It came in my direction. Um I was asked to
be a part of it, but it didn't feel right.
It felt like they weren't you know what it felt like. Honestly,
it felt like the powers that be believed that the
(08:03):
creative was bigger than the characters. And what I find
is TV audiences connect with characters because they see themselves
in that character. And what it felt like was they
were wanting to use Peter Petrelli in the beginning to
pull everybody in and be like, hey, look we got
the crew back. And then Peter patrell was going to
(08:25):
go away for a long time and then pop back
up at the yet and I was like, yeah, but
what happened to Peter. If you want to tell a
story about Peter or Claire or Hero or you know
hendres Esh or Nathan Petrelli or um, you know anybody else,
Like that's great, But Matt Parkman, Um, I don't know.
(08:49):
I mean, there are so many characters, so many different things,
but it felt it just didn't feel right to me.
It felt like personally, it felt like a bait and switch.
And I wouldn't want to to see the audience or
the fan base of heroes just by being a part
of it in like the tiniest of ways, not the
creative direction you wanted to go in respect. No, no,
(09:09):
before I let you go, Mile wanna put you on
the spot with some quick questions. Quick answers are what
TV show are you watching right now that you recommend?
Aside from your round of course, this is horrible, man,
I'm not watching anything right now, you know. Like last
night I got I got home, I needed to like
unplug my brain and I turned on the Robert Redford
film A River Runs Through It really just to see
(09:32):
these beautiful visits here like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's
not the answer you're going for Flash, He's not sexy,
but it was like river runs through with that. Okay,
Oh yeah, what was the first concert you ever attended?
No effects banned, no FX. Yeah. I was a big
punk rock kid as a kid and down in Orange County,
(09:55):
down Words County, and I was under aged actually was
allowed to be there, but somehow I got in and
that was like that was I think one of the
first shows I got to. Yeah. Who was your celebrity
crush growing up? Oh? Man? Um, I remember as a
kid having a Cindy Crawford calendar. Yeah? Did I when
(10:20):
the black and the black bathing suit? She you know what,
it's not funny because I asked her too. She goes,
I only made one, made one. So she goes, I
don't we all had it? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, I all
had it. We're about to say that it Actually it
was pretty crazy. We we had a moment where Kate
on This is Us was flipping through magazine and she
(10:40):
asked a question about Cindy Crawford and it was a
conversation with me. So I'm talking to her about Cindy
Crawford and Cindy Crawford Instagram did or something, and I
was like, oh my god, Crawford, that was who we
are That's surreal. That's awesome. Yeah, all time favorite Stephen
King movie. I mean, uh, we're gonna say Coo is
(11:03):
about to say I love Coojoe too, especially we were kids.
I don't know if it holds up, but when we
were kids it was awesome. You're terri fine right with that.
St Bernard. It doesn't hold up. You saw it recently,
one of our producers. As it does, it's not like
two years ago. Doesn't really. Oh you're breaking my heart?
Yeah yeah, man, dude, Coo I was. It was so funny.
I was just my mom and dad the other day
(11:25):
and I was just like, I'm like, what's your guys
favorite book? My dad? Without missing the beatsa coudro. That
was a terrifying movie. Wow, I forgot yeah. Um. And
last question, who plays you in the My Little Intamlia biopic? Lopez?
Wonderful casting, you know what, I will nail it and
make you proud of In the meanwhile, listen to Strawberry
(11:48):
Spring on I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcast,
My little nice catching up with you, man, Thanks for
checking in. Yeah always Mare. I appreciate your brother. Take
care of you too, all right, man, you Guys with
Mario Lopez
Host
Mario Lopez
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