Jack Pearson is dead.
Long live Jack Pearson.
Showcased on TVs biggest stage, a.k.a.
Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC
But in a twist (go figure!
Its hardly a goodbye for one of prime times most beloved dads, though, givenTIUs penchant for era-hopping.
At least not entirely.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The secret is finally out.
Bittersweet or sweet relief?MILO VENTIMIGLIA:Ill say both.
Im really happy with the outcome.
[Both laugh.]
Lets go back to the genesis of this mystery.
Milo, you knew since the pilot that he was dead, right?
But William still says, He mustve been proud of you.
He used past tense.
Which has been another question Ive fielded a lot: Does that mean youre not on the show?
And, Milo, what was your initial reaction to finding out youd be playing a dead man walking?
Did that intrigue you?VENTIMIGLIA:It absolutely intrigued me.
We get to bounce around.
But that wasnt a surprise; it felt properly modulated.
The crescendo after we did the second to last episode [What Now?
Are people going to not like this?
Are people going to like this?
And I miscalculated howbigof a thing that was going to become.
It was those moments.
For me, personally, it was almost uncomfortable.
And, Milo, what were you drawing from?FOGELMAN:The show is about the little stuff.
Normally, its two people having conversations in a car.
His ultimate death was very small and quiet, and it wasnt even on camera.
Theres something just really real about that.
Dan was being very kind to me as an actor.
[Fogelman laughs.]
Same thing with the kids.
Even down to when we shot it, Mandy didnt know I was going to be in the room.
She walked into the room and pretended to see Jack.
He doesnt know hes going to die one second later, but I do think thats what he played.
I think that comes across.
How much concern was there about not letting this overwhelm the show?
That was a head fake on our part.
But I thought we handled it well this year.
And, of course, Whats going to happen to Jack?
Is he going to die this season?
But it wasnt this overwhelming thing that was the only thing people were only talking about.
So I felt we did a nice job.
But Ive never experienced that with Dan.Ever.
Because I knew at a certain point that was going to be satisfied.
I was a pilot light.
Which is ironic because the character just died in the most public way on national television.
How does Jacks past inform what has previously been the past when we met him?
If our past becomes the future, what happens when we go to the deeper past?
That sounds really science fiction-y, but its not that crazy.
]VENTIMIGLIA:I keep telling people: Youve only known him for 32 hours.
Even in death, theres a lot of life left in Jack.
Milo, what was your take?
And I have two slow cookers.
I have one Crock-Pot, a smaller one, and then I have one larger all-clad slow cooker.
I was like, Guys, dont hate on machinery.
Its okay, it was just an accident.
It was a faulty, fictional slow cooker that doesnt deserve a real, live companys destruction.
And I said, No, no, no, I got it.
And it was important to me that Jack was the last one to interact with the fated slow cooker.
To see whyMandy Moore called Jacks cause of death exponentially more tragic, click here.
This Is Usreturns to NBC on Feb. 27.
