Milo Ventimiglia Thinks Jess Mariano "Would Be a Kickass Dad"
The This Is Us star reflects on how he thinks his Gilmore Girls character has grown.
Jess Mariano was your quintessential bad boy on Gilmore Girls. This loner came equipped with a problem with authority, a snarky attitude, and he was the apple of good girl Rory Gilmore's eye for a time. But people change, and we'll soon see the man that Jess has become when Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life premieres on Netflix November 25.
But perhaps we don't have to wait that long to know what an older, more mature Jess will be like. Milo Ventimiglia will be reprising his role as Jess in the upcoming reboot, and he gave his take on the kind of dad he thinks his Gilmore Girls character would be during a Q&A with TODAY's Parenting Team following a screening of his new show This Is Us in New York on Tuesday. "I think Jess would be a kickass dad," Milo revealed. "I think he's someone who's passionate. I think he's someone who's cautious. But I think he has a sense of humor about the world, and he doesn't necessarily take himself so seriously. And I think in that, he'd probably raise a pretty fun little kid."
In fact, Milo said he admired Jess' transformation in the character's final appearances on Gilmore Girls. "I always appreciated who Jess turned out to be in the later episodes. Of course, he had his problems when he was younger. But then, who he became, he was a decent guy," Milo explained. "He kind of grew out of his bad behavior and want to poke fun at other people for his own entertainment. And he just turned out to be an OK guy."
Clearly, Milo has certainly done some maturing of his own, as you can see in this recent pic of the actor.
As for Milo's own paternal aspirations, the 39-year-old actor, who plays new dad Jack in the new series This Is Us, told the crowd that he thinks "it'd be fun to be a parent," and he's "excited about the prospect of it." "Oh, I'd love to," Milo said of the possibility of one day becoming a father during the Q&A. "For me, this may sound a little sideways, but for me, it's about finding the right partner, and then I'm sure the kids will be the byproduct of a good, strong partnership."
Milo has certainly had some high-profile partnerships of his own in the past. He turned his onscreen chemistry with Alexis Bledel, who played Rory in Gilmore Girls, into a real-life romance from 2002 to 2006. He also dated his Heroes co-star Hayden Panettiere from 2007 to 2009. And Milo has also been linked to Isabella Brewster in the past.
We can't wait to meet Jess all over again when the Gilmore Girls reboot debuts this fall. But this Clubhouse Playhouse of an iconic scene from the show featuring Lauren Graham and Andy Cohen should keep you plenty entertained until then.
