Milo Ventimiglia is headed back to Stars Hollow!
The actor, 49, exclusively confirms to Us that he will appear in Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino’s forthcoming HBO Max documentary about the show.
“I have yet to record my part,” Ventimiglia tells Us. “I think the world of Amy, and Lauren [Graham], too. I have no idea what we’re going to talk about. It was 26 years ago that I made the show. It’s funny: I’ll have people run up to me and be like, ‘Hey, do you remember that time on Gilmore when you said this?’ I’m like, ‘That was 26 years ago.’ I’m like, ‘Tell me something about your life from 26 years ago.’ They’re like, ‘I wasn’t born.’ [laughs]”
Ventimiglia played Rory’s (Alexis Bledel) troubled sometimes-boyfriend Jess Mariano beginning in season 2 of the dramedy. He reprised his role in the 2016 Netflix revival of the show.
He shares that when he thinks back on his time on the program, it’s not specific episodes or scenes — e.g. “Why did you drop out of Yale, Rory!” — that come to mind.
“The episodes are for an audience to pick apart, dissect,” he explains. “For us to make it, [it’s] the experience of making it. What were those days like on set? Hanging out with Jared Padalecki, being with Alexis. The experience is something that I always lean into, that really fills me up.”
“I remember shooting on the back lot of Warner Bros. with Alexis and getting on the bus and carrying a bag that the prop guy wanted to make really light,” he continues. “But I [said], ‘Yeah, but it looks full and it’s huge, so it should be heavy. Put a sandbag in it.’ Those are the things that I think about. I don’t think about the episode. So I probably won’t watch any [episodes] to refresh, to remember….I have no idea what I’m getting into. But yes, I will be a part of it.”
Below, the This Is Us actor also opens up about life with two young kids with wife Jarah Mariano; how the family is doing following losing their home in the 2025 L.A. fires; and his charming new Netflix Christmas movie, A Dog’s Perfect Christmas, based on the beloved book by W. Bruce Cameron.
You haven’t done a Christmas movie before. Why was this the right one?
I’ve always long been a fan of [costar] Dennis Quaid, and I had a really great conversation with our director, Cathryn Michon. I just thought this would be a fun thing to be a part of. [Plus] the dog element, of course. Who doesn’t love a dog movie?
Tell Us about the best part of life with two kids now.
Honestly, when the kids smile, it’s the most wonderful thing. When they’re seeing something for the first time and experiencing that life, and it’s brand-new to them. It’s like, wow, they’ve never seen a red apple. It’s the coolest thing on the planet. That excitement is probably the best part. Then when they sleep!
This movie is all about the healing power of dogs. You have a dog, Duke.
He’s wonderful. He just has this natural instinct and ability that I think a lot of dogs do. Some dogs kind of bounce off walls and chase balls. My dog Duke is very soulful. If you’re having a bad day, he knows it. Just a very soulful, soulful guy.
Dennis has played many movie dads over the years. Now you’re a movie dad as well. Did the two of you talk about that?
A little bit. My wife brought our daughter to set, and Dennis has this underwater voice he does, where he makes his voice literally sound like he’s underwater. My daughter was just fascinated by it. Everybody was like, “Dennis, what is this voice? You’re like ‘Cool Dennis Quaid,’ and now you’re goo-goo-ga-ga with Milo’s baby.”
You are coming up on two years since the fire. How is your family doing?
It’s good. The kids have no idea what happened. Wife and I are good. We’re settled. We’re in a wonderful home, in a wonderful place, around some good family and friends. … It’s an interesting, messy bubble of an emotional experience of losing everything you own, to at the same time trying to move forward. You can’t sit in that place. We’re through the emotional side of it, still dealing with the business side of it and watching from afar the political landscape that is going on in Los Angeles. I just don’t envy Los Angelenos right now in any of that.
Have you thought about speaking out on the political side?
Being a parent these days, I think about what that could bring back to my family. I think there are many ways to speak up without speaking out, being effective without actually having to sit in the front of a cause. There’s a lot of things you can do collectively to move a community that aren’t necessarily in the spotlight.
What have you learned about yourself from this experience?
Perseverance. Stuff is stuff. Memories, they’re still there. I had this interesting practice after the fires — and this happened from immediately until even yesterday — but every one to two minutes, right after the fires happened, I would remember an object. As time went on, it’d be like every five minutes, 10 minutes, a day, two days, two weeks. But that object was always attached to a memory, and I would write down the object to retain or recall the memory. Object is gone. Memory is still there.
It’s a huge, messy experience for a lot of people in Los Angeles, but being able to move through it and find gratitude in a way for an experience like that happening, I look at where I am now with my wife and my kids and a new home and a new place, and I’m like, “Well, we probably wouldn’t be in this direction had that not happened.” So you kind of have to be grateful for the big, ugly event. But it’s tricky and it’s complicated and it’s messy and it’s wonderful. Everybody’s going to experience it differently. So I think the best thing you can ever do is just try to do your best.
A Dog’s Perfect Christmas is streaming on Netflix beginning November 4.
