March 29, 2006
Insider Interview from tvguide.com
Interview:
Milo Ventimiglia Fans, Rejoice!
by Matt Webb Mitovich
The new and controversial The Bedford Diaries. A Gilmore Girls return. A possible gig as a superhero. Rocky Balboa's son. And he even gets slain in a new slasher film. If you're a Milo Ventimiglia fan, this is your time to bask in his... Ventimiglianess. On the occasion of The Bedford Diaries' debut (tonight at 9 pm/ET on WB), TVGuide.com spoke with the popular actor about his very busy schedule.
TVGuide.com: Dude, have you ever had so much to talk about? I don't know where to start.
Milo Ventimiglia: Dude, start somewhere, dive in. Whatever you want to start with.
TVGuide.com: In Bedford Diaries, you're playing a bit of a snake in grass.
Ventimiglia: Yes. Yes, I am, yet again. Richard Thorne III, kid who comes from money, formerly of a drinking and drug problem... has since cleaned up and now nobody likes him.
TVGuide.com: And he has some sort of a past with one of the lead girls?
Ventimiglia: His past is with Corri English's character, Natalie, a girl who tried to kill herself. We don't really know the reason she tried to kill herself, but it had something to do with whatever was going on in her relationship with Richard.
TVGuide.com: Based on the pilot, this show seems to want to push the envelope a bit, doesn't it? The language is a little salty.
Ventimiglia: It does want to push the envelope, and it's kind of come under criticism for it. [Last week, WB decided to air a sanitized, more FCC-friendly version of the pilot.] Like at the TCA press tour for Bedford, we had a bunch of people grilling [executive producers] Tom Fontana and Julie Martin....
TVGuide.com: About what? Like, the [oral sex] reference?
Ventimiglia: Stuff like that, for the WB, is so racy. Finally, a couple of us piped in to say, "Look, we're not showing rape, we're not showing murder, we're not showing homicide or any form of killing like you see on CSI or any of those shows. What we're talking about is the reason why every single person in this room is alive — through sex."
TVGuide.com: Intentionally or not.
Ventimiglia: Exactly, man, intentionally or not.
TVGuide.com: I dunno, this may be the show that shuts down WB once and for all.
Ventimiglia: [Laughs] It's going to be a nice closing bell.
TVGuide.com: You're also attached to the fall NBC pilot Heroes, which sounds fun and interesting.
Ventimiglia: That's a second position. I got attracted to that by David Semel, who was an executive producer on American Dreams. They were having a hard time casting this role of Ethan....
TVGuide.com: Is he the junkie-superhero whose ability is to paint images from the future?
Ventimiglia: No, that's Isaac. Ethan's the guy who thinks that he can fly but he actually has a bit of clairvoyance and can tell other people what their powers are, while it seems like he has none of his own.
TVGuide.com: He thinks he can fly and has clairvoyance — so, he can foresee himself crashing into buildings.
Ventimiglia: [Laughs] There you go.
TVGuide.com: Explain to people the "second position" thing.
Ventimiglia: If Bedford Diaries gets picked up, I go back to New York and back to Bedford, and someone else plays Ethan.
TVGuide.com: We get Scott Baio or something.
Ventimiglia: Exactly. Or, if Bedford doesn't go any further and Heroes gets picked up, then I jump on Heroes.
TVGuide.com: And Milo keeps up with his mortgage payments. Now somewhere in here you found time to do the new Rocky Balboa film.
Ventimiglia: Yeah, I finished that [in early February], when everybody was on hiatus.
TVGuide.com: You're playing Rocky Jr. Is he a lover or a fighter?
Ventimiglia: Neither, man. He's a Philadelphia corporate businessman in really dumpy suits that have pleated pants.
TVGuide.com: That's what he's become? In Rocky V he was this punk with a bad earring.
Ventimiglia: Yeah, the earring that hung down to, like, his shoulder. No, now he's trying to find his way in corporate America and not wanting anything to do with the world he grew up in. Then his dad starts talking about wanting to fight again.
TVGuide.com: Is Rocky Sr. going to die in this one?
Ventimiglia: Uh... I don't know.
TVGuide.com: You're also in Stay Alive [which hit theaters March 24]. I assume it's not based on the board game with the marbles?
Ventimiglia: It is not, no. I think they are releasing a video game with it, though.
TVGuide.com: The cast looks like the fourth- and fifth-network all-star team.
Ventimiglia: Let's see, we have two reps of Fox with Frankie Muniz (Malcolm in the Middle) and Samaire Armstrong (The O.C.), you've got myself and Sophia Bush (One Tree Hill) from the WB.... I get killed, though. But it's a pretty good death.
TVGuide.com: Lastly, you squeezed in a Gilmore Girls return, airing April 11. What compelled you to do that?
Ventimiglia: It fit with my schedule. They asked if I wanted to come back, and I said sure. It's always fun to go back and see the crowd.
TVGuide.com: What plot point is Jess serving?
Ventimiglia: Does Jess ever really serve plot points? [Chuckles] I think he did a little the last time, in getting Rory thinking about her ex-boyfriend. [This time] I pop in, I have a nice scene with Scott Patterson, and I have a good scene with Rory, Alexis Bledel.
TVGuide.com: Does it go without saying that your dance card is too full to ever go back to Gilmore full-time?
Ventimiglia: I wouldn't do it. It's not that bad to go back and forth once or twice a year, but I couldn't go back to [being a] regular.
TVGuide.com: So leave us with this: Who is the better match for Rory, Logan or Jess?
Ventimiglia: I really used to like Logan, but he's been kind of an a--hole. [Snickers] I think it has to be Jess or somebody else.