Milo Ventimiglia Remembers His First Fan Interaction for Gilmore Girls (It Wasn't a Great One)

Let the Emmy nominee regale you with the story of the time he was at the gym and was approached by a viewer

By Chris Harnick Aug 15, 2018 1:22 PMTags

Milo Ventimiglia has heard a lot from fans over the years. The Emmy nominee shot to fame playing bad body Jess on Gilmore Girls, and is currently both breaking hearts and making them swoon on NBC's This Is Us as the Pearson family patriarch Jack. Much of the first two seasons of This Is Us revolved around Jack's death, so Ventimiglia heard a lot from fans, from theories about his character's death to how they felt about it. However, those interactions pale in comparison to his very first fan interaction, it's something Ventimiglia remembers vividly and shared with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show.

"I thought you were good for the whole town," Fallon told Ventimiglia about his character Jess on Gilmore Girls.

"Well, you thought I was good, but not everybody did," Ventimiglia conceded.

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Behind the Scenes of Netflix's Gilmore Girls Revival
The WB/Carol Kaelson

For those needing a refresher: Jess was Luke's (Scott Patterson) nephew and when he arrived in Stars Hollow, he came between Dean (Jared Padalecki) and Rory (Alexis Bledel).

"I had my very first fan interaction with Gilmore Girls, I was at the gym, I'm 24 years old, probably looked like I'm 17. Well, actually that worked out because Jess was 17, but I'm at the gym and this girl stops me," Ventimiglia explained. "She goes, ‘Excuse me. Do you play Jess on Gilmore Girls?'"

Ventimiglia said, yes, he does.

"She goes, ‘Oh my god. I f—king hate you,'" he said. "And wait, and then…she didn't even say, ‘Hey, good job.' She just—she walks away! She was gone." She just wanted to say she hated me."

Ventimiglia is up for his second Emmy for playing Jack on This Is Us. The NBC family drama is currently in production on season three and will feature Jack and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) in their early years and Jack in fighting in the Vietnam War.

This Is Us premieres Tuesday, Sept. 25 at 9 p.m. on NBC.

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