Milo Ventimiglia is very appreciative of the hard work of television crews. He’s been lucky enough to work with several exemplary groups of people throughout his small-screen career. However, as the star of ABC’s new drama series The Company You Keep, Milo feels even more confident in his group’s abilities, likely because some of them are long-time friends. He compares the group to a Super Bowl-winning team. Here’s why he thinks this is true.
Milo Ventimiglia loved the ‘This Is Us’ crew so much he took them with him to the set of his new series
During six seasons as a cast member of This Is Us, Milo understood an excellent crew surrounded him. To honor this dedicated group of men and women, Milo took home one of the folding chairs the team sat in to remember them as a set memento when production wrapped.
However, he didn’t have to wait long to see the group again. According to Entertainment Weekly‘s interview with the actor, Milo asked the crew members of This Is Us to join him on his new series.
“As this show was taking shape when we were developing a pilot episode, I was walking around the This is Us set [on the Paramount Studios lot in Los Angeles], quietly having conversations with department heads,” Milo explained.
He continued, “I asked, ‘hey, you think you’d want to come on board and do this?’ And people are like, ‘Yeah, I’d love to.’ I talked to [the] hair-and-makeup [department], I talked to the camera [operators], I talked to the grips and the electrics. Seeing the same familiar faces loading lights and gear and keeping the set safe is important to me.”
Milo’s regard for the crew’s work is so high he compares them to a Super Bowl-winning team.
Milo Ventimiglia explains why it was so important to have the same crew on his new ABC series
Usually, actors must acclimate to new co-workers once they move on to their latest projects. However, Milo trusted his This Is Us crew so much that he wanted to continue their professional journey together.
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“I got just about everybody,” he says of the This Is Us crew who joined him on the set of The Company You Keep. “We did it successfully for five, almost six years together. Why not take a winning team?” he told Access Hollywood.
The actor continued by likening the crew to a pro football team. He had to say this in honor of their hard work and why he didn’t want to let them go professionally.
“I mean, you win the Super Bowl five times in a row, like, ‘Hey, why don’t we just keep playing, but we’re gonna wear different uniforms?’” Ventimiglia said. “That’s the way that I saw it. And also, I know that I like to be around my friends. I like to work with my friends.”
Milo Ventimiglia’s role in ‘The Company You Keep’ was announced as ‘This Is Us’ ended production in 2022
This Is Us was midway through airing the final episodes of its sixth and final season when ABC announced Ventimiglia’s new network thriller. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor plays a con man in the new ABC drama based on a South Korean television series titled My Fellow Citizens!
However, viewers of the NBC drama didn’t know about Milo’s new gig. They were saying goodbye to This Is Us‘ Jack Pearson, played by Ventimiglia, who led his clan through problematic trials until the character’s untimely death at 53. Jack suffered smoke inhalation in a house fire.
The series’ end was a watershed moment for fans who watched Jack and Rebecca’s (Mandy Moore) touching reunion in the afterlife years after Rebecca had to rebuild after the death of her one true love.
The Company You Keep debuts on ABC beginning Sunday, Feb. 19, at 10 p.m. EST.
