Milo Vetimiglia|||

The Green Room:
May 10, 2002

Milo Ventimiglia is burning in the minds of teen girls everywhere due to his role as Jess on the surprise hit series, "Gilmore Girls". What may be a surprise to his fans however, is that he has quite the knack for using the 'love them or hate them' four-letter words, something that I am personally a big fuckin' fan of. (Ok, so that's using six letters, but you get my point!)

Don't let my swearing take away from Milo the actor though, because he is the real deal. So much so that Warner Brothers paid him to NOT work for a whole year. Does that sound a little confusing? Well, it did to us as well, so we went ahead and had Milo give us the lowdown.

JB: How are you?

MV: Ugh. I'm fuckin' wrecked! We had a wrap party last night. I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't do anything?but I bowled like a crazy muther.

JB: (Laughter) So it was a long night?

MV: Yeah it was a long night! (Laughter)

JB: And nothing hurts more than an early morning interview.

MV: Actually this isn't too early. I got back last night and saw that I had the interview in the morning. I woke up like half an hour ago and my publicist said the interview was pushed back by an hour. I was just like, "Great" and I really didn't have any idea what was going on. I got up and I checked the fax and saw the interview was bumped, so I went back to bed.

JB: I admire your perseverance.

MV: (Laughter) Thanks, man.

JB: So shooting is done for the year!

MV: Yeah. We wrapped up last Friday. I have a nice three and a half months off. I feel like I'm back in school. I felt like saying, "Have a bitching summer and see you next Fall!"

JB: "Please sign my yearbook." (Laughter)

MV: I swear to God that's what it feels like. It's crazy.

JB: Anything planned for the hiatus?

MV: So far I have no work lined up, but I'd really love to continue working. As of right now though, nothing.

JB: Enjoy the time off!

MV: Yeah! I'm sure I'll find something to do. Some kind of trouble to get into. I just bought a house, so I'm remodeling that. I'm doing a lot of handy work around that place.

JB: Some exciting summer Home Depot trips are in your future.

MV: Oh man! There is a 24-hour Home Depot right near my house.

JB: There are 24-hour Home Depots? That's crazy!

MV: Yeah! So at three in the morning I'll be banging away and turning on my circular saw?just going for it.

JB: Tell me about your WB holding deal? What exactly did that consist of? Is it that you couldn't go and work for another network?

MV: Basically?yeah! They said, "Here's a lot of money and don't work for anybody else. We don't have anything for you, so you're going to be sitting for awhile." That was an interesting thing.

JB: Was it hard convincing family members that it actually happened? I'd imagine it was difficult to describe to people that you were getting paid to not work?

MV: Not with my family members because they run my books for me, so they saw the checks. Convincing my friends was another a thing. They'd be like, "What are you doing today?" "Well, I think I'm going to go to the beach." They'd be like, "Dude, you said that like two months ago?what are you really doing today?" "I think I'm going to go to the beach." (Laughter) And then the next day I'd be like, "I think I'm going to go to Europe." I was just out of my head bored. Warner Brothers didn't have anything for me to do, so I had to go to do something. The first month or two of being in the deal was fine?I was just hanging out around in LA, going to my parent's house in Orange County or catching up with old friends. Six months into things I was like, "Fuck this shit?I've got to go do something!"

JB: So it lasted for quite some time?

MV: Oh man, it was like a year. They wanted to hold me for almost like two years, but my management team said no.

JB: Could you at least do film?

MV: Yeah. I could do film. In the course of the contract, I did book a film and they did release me to do a guest spot on CSI. They also let me do a commercial or two. There were opportunities but they were getting ready to put me in a show. The holding deal kind of had nothing to do with "Gilmore Girls".

Pilot season came around and I was only reading for the studio's pilots because the contract was with the studio and not the network. I was reading for other pilots and nothing was clicking. I read for "Smallville" and all of these different pilots and for one reason or another I just wasn't getting them. The producers were like, "He's great, but we're not interested." I read for a pilot that was outside of my contract and the producers were really excited about me and Warner Brothers was going to let me out of the contract. At the last minute they said "no" and sent me in for this one pilot and then I tested for it. Next thing I know I was in a meeting with the casting directors for "Gilmore Girls" and the part was a guest spot with the possibility of returning. It wasn't as a series regular or anything. They brought me back to the producers the day of my studio test and that night they called and said, "Hey, we want you to be a series regular." That kind of threw an interesting twist on the contract because it was geared towards putting me in a new show, not an existing show.

JB: Prior to that or even now, do you get yourself worked up about pilot season?

MV: I think this is the first season that I really didn't think about it. I didn't have to audition because I was on a show and I knew we were coming back. I had a contract so now I could focus on my work. I've talked to some of my friends who are actors and they are going crazy and here I am at the craft service table. It was nice to not have to worry about that. Pilots are stressful as it is because you don't know if they'll get picked up. There are some like "Smallville" where they are filming the pilot, knowing that they were picked up for 22 episodes. I'm sure it makes you feel a little more comfortable.

JB: Have you found yourself getting noticed more?

MV: Occasionally. I'm still a nobody, which I enjoy because I can just go about my business. Time to time I'll get somebody who says, "Are you that guy on Gilmore Girls?" They freak out for a second. I was out to dinner with some friends the other night and some girl walked up to me. She was probably about 15 or something. We were finished eating and I was sitting back. The girl walks up and asks, "Excuse me?are you from Gilmore Girls?" I say yes and she asks if her sister can have my autograph. I say, "Yeah that's cool, but where is your sister?" "She's over there but she's a little embarrassed." I said, "Do you want me to go meet her?" I got up and went to meet her. You can tell the people that are genuinely excited about meeting someone who's on TV and I try to relate to them as, "I'm just a person and I'm not larger than life!" It's fun for them though and in a way it's kind of fun for me.

JB: Since jumping in "Gilmore Girls", you've appeared in your share of teen oriented magazines. Have you been the subject of jokes because of it?

MV: Oh my God! Yeah! Oh yeah! One of my oldest friends used to rip on me when we were in college. He's always known that I wanted to be an actor and when we got to the age where we understood the publicity end of it, he would give me crap about Tiger Beat and Teen Beat. I'd be like, "I just want to act and I'm not going to go that whole route." Now my mom was in a grocery store and pulled up a Tiger Beat and my picture was in it. I was like, "You've got to be fuckin' kidding me!" Then I popped up in Teen Beat and others. It's crazy. Hopefully other things will come up. I did a thing for Seventeen that comes out this month and just some other random stuff.

JB: They ask those weird, "What's your favorite color?" kind of questions.

MV: Oh my God. Nothing against the magazines because they definitely have their purposes, but I don't want to answer questions like "Do you have a girlfriend" and "What is your favorite color". Answering more adult questions is more intriguing and that's the vibe I'd like to give off.

(Silence)

MV: My favorite color is black by the way!