This Is Us' Milo Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore on the Freedom and Challenges of Playing Jack and Rebecca

Chrissy Metz and Chris Sullivan also weigh in on the future of Kate and Toby as new parents on the NBC hit

By Lauren Piester Jun 11, 2019 7:46 PMTags
Watch: Milo Ventimiglia Reveals Which Jack Pearson He Likes Playing

Just ahead of season four of This Is Us, the stars of the NBC series have now had quite a bit of time to sink their teeth into their characters, but that doesn't mean the same thing for everyone. 

For Mandy Moore, Rebecca Pearson (and her endless changes in time period) still presents plenty of challenges. 

"Every season it's challenging," she told E! News' Erin Lim on the carpet at the show's FYC event last week. "Rebecca has lived a very rich life. She brings a lot to the table. I mean, she has had a lot of loss. She's lived a lot of life. There's never a dull moment in her life, like at every different chapter. So it's never like a walk in the park, that's for sure." 

Watch
"This Us Us" Cast Talks Season 4, Characters & More

Jack Pearson, on the other hand, died relatively young, and so his chapters are more condensed, and for Milo Ventimiglia, that provides a certain amount of "freedom." 

"Jack is established," he says. "Jack is who Jack is, and I know who Jack is, and he's kind of seeped into who I am, so actually I feel a little more freedom in playing him now, going into the fourth season, where before there was still like this discovery of wait a minute, I don't know how he's reacting or responding or anything, but now I feel like there may be a little more instinct to operate off of."

 

NBC

His favorite Jack, he says, is probably everyone's favorite. 

"I like Mustache Jack. I like '80s Jack. He's fun, and he's dealing with alcohol and he's got his kids and he's still like fun dad, and the kids are still like, you are my hero, but alsoI think he's trying to like keep it together. He's trying to hold onto that hero status with like Kate, with Kevin, with Randall, with all these kids, and also like he's just trying to keep his stuff together with his wife. You see he loves them so much. That Jack is the most fun. He's having the most fun. Jack and Rebecca of that era are having the most fun." 

The cast couldn't share much about what's to come in season four, but Moore says she's excited to hopefully see more of how Rebecca and Miguel (Jon Huertas) get together, while Chrissy Metz and Chris Sullivan are looking forward to seeing Kate and Toby take on parenthood, while Kate also tries to remain her own person. 

Click play above to hear more!

This Is Us returns to NBC this fall.

(E! and NBC are both part of the NBC Universal family.)