The clock is ticking. This Is Us fans don’t know much about the circumstances involved in Jack’s death, but Milo Ventimiglia, the actor who plays him, recently opened up in an Entertainment Weekly interview about what life will be like for the NBC drama’s beloved patriarch before his untimely demise.
The Tuesday, January 24, episode showed Jack trying to get wife Rebecca (Mandy Moore) to come around on the idea of having a fourth child. Ventimiglia told EW that Jack realizes another mouth to feed might ultimately feel like a burden because of the “toll on his wife, and the strain on their financials and their marriage.”
“[Jack feels] the heart of wanting to have another baby because three have turned out so great,” the Gilmore Girls alum, 39, said. “And three are also moving to that age where they are going to really be their own people. The little girl’s not going to need Dad as much, or the little boy’s going to be like, ‘Dad!’ and then they roll their eyes, and they walk away.”
“A little bit comes out of the necessity of being a father, but it’s also Jack understanding that just because a child doesn’t depend on you in that way, physically like, ‘Feed me. Physically change my diapers. Make sure I don’t die,’ they’re still kids,” Ventimiglia continued. “They need to learn lessons, and I think it’s an adjustment for Jack to know that he has to step into a different realm of his fatherhood.”
The episode included an emotional present-day scene in which Kate (Chrissy Metz) screamed about the loss of her father, and Ventimiglia said this is a sign that she is starting to “move on from past pains, and accept that people are truly there for her and loving her.”
“The biggest thing for Kate is learning to truly love herself,” the Heroes star explained. “And I think if you truly love yourself, then you can choose to do better for yourself. You can keep your health. You can surround yourself with people you love. Toby has had to work so hard to let her know that he loves her.”
This Is Us airs on NBC Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
