This Is Us fans could probably watch Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia play Rebecca and Jack Pearson on television forever. Unfortunately, season 6 will be the final time viewers get to watch their love story unfold. It’s a testament to the actors that fans have fallen so deeply in love with their characters, which is probably because Moore and Ventimiglia’s connection dates back to their first audition together.
During a This Is Us interview, Mandy Moore explained the audition process for Rebecca and how the producers paired her up with Milo Ventimiglia for a chemistry read.
“I went in very early in the audition process,” Moore shared. “I think I was one of the first people they read. The feedback was, ‘They really liked you. But now they’re going to go and read a bunch of women in New York and across the country, and we’ll hopefully hear back in a couple of weeks once they’ve done that.’”
She continued, “About five or six weeks later, we got a call. ‘OK. They want to bring you back in with a couple of other women and a couple of guys, and they want to pair people up and do what they call a chemistry read.’ I got called in to audition with Milo. He was the only guy I read with. And we, sort of, just instantly had this connection. It went well, and I guess the rest is history because we both got the job.”
It’s easy to imagine Dan Fogelman and the This Is Us producers immediately knowing they found their Jack and Rebecca after seeing Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia together. And thankfully, they evidently made the right choice during the audition process.
Milo Ventimiglia spoke with Entertainment Weekly at SCAD TVfest about his friendship with his This Is Us co-star.
“We started this friendship where we were very communicative [and] very supportive,” the actor revealed. “I remember saying to her, ‘If you’re not happy, I’m not happy.’ And there have been moments where she and I have been on set together, and she has not been happy with the direction a scene is going, or I haven’t been happy with the direction a scene is going.”
Ventimiglia added, “But where we ultimately find ourselves is her saying, ‘Hey Mi, what do you think?’ or me saying, ‘Hey Man, what do you think?’ And we would always find our way together … I think it’s rare that two people in the trade of acting can give so much of themselves to these characters and these roles, but Mandy has given me 100 percent, 100 percent of the time, and I give her exactly the same.”
Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia share a formidable bond that, undoubtedly, contributes to the success of This Is Us.
Thankfully, fans have time to prepare their goodbyes to Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia as Rebecca and Jack in This Is Us. The series finale will air on May 24. In the meantime, both actors have teased what the final episodes have in store for their characters.
Ventimiglia told Variety, “I think Jack is just consistently there no matter what. He’s there in the kids’ behavior. He’s there in the kids’ actions, whether they’re talking about him or not. There may not be much we’re going to learn about Jack, but I think the thing to know is that he’s always there. And going toward the end, we saw Jack’s end, we’ll get to understand where the true Jack’s end is when we get there in [May].”
“[Rebecca]’s kind of on a farewell tour,” Moore revealed while speaking with Variety. “I think she’s also really honest and direct about what she wants and what she expects … She’s got a lot of words in the scenes. She’s got a lot on her mind. While she’s sort of there with her family, she really wants to be able to reflect back on the parts of her life that she doesn’t want to forget and impart what she’s found so beautiful.”
This Is Us Season 6 airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.