On Friday's Chelsea, Chelsea Handler asks Milo Ventimiglia — she introduces him as "TV's hottest dad" — about his role on This Is Us.
"You're basically a piece of meat and you'll need to deal with that," she jokes, pointing out that the trailer featuring his butt got 100 million views before the show came out.
He thinks there was a more serious reason it was so popular, though. "It was inclusive of age and race and gender and other walks of life," he says. "I think there was something that was very familiar and was needed. It was a heart inside a big steel case of television that just wants to be destructive or powerful or life-changing. It's got a heart." Plus, he added, "people like mustaches."
The mustache, he explains, is a way to mark what time period each scene takes place within. He talks about jumping from 1980 to 1988 — but then stops himself as he starts to say "ninety." We already know he dies in the show, but thanks to that little mistake, can we rest assured that he makes it to the '90s?
As another way to look less "like a modern guy," creator Dan Fogelman told Ventimiglia to stop working out, which he found more bothersome than Mustache Gate.
"There was an article written saying they can't get behind the show because my physique was taken out," he said — but he didn't take it seriously. "They're just looking for a reason not to smile when everyone else was smiling."
To further help himself get into character, he's taped a photo of him and his father in his set trailer, above which he wrote, "Be a good husband, be a good father."
"That's the approach that I have for Jack," he said. "A man who can convey strength without being overpowering."
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