Milo Ventimiglia Promises ‘This Is Us’ Fans Will Love Miguel By Episode 15

Milo Ventimiglia knows This is Us fans aren’t happy with his TV best friend Miguel. The character, played by Jon Huertas, seemingly committed the ultimate friend faux pas when he went and married the wife of Milo’s character, Jack Pearson, presumably after Jack’s death. But ever the nice guy on TV and in real life, Ventimiglia says fans will have a change of heart about Miguel in the near future.

“If after episode 15, you don’t love Miguel or understand him or give him a chance, you might just be an unhappy person in general,” Ventimiglia said at a recent This IsUs screening for Television Critics Association members, according to TV Guide.

“It’s sad, because I don’t believe that it’s Miguel’s fault,” Ventimiglia added. “People fell so in love with Jack and Rebecca that they couldn’t see anyone else.”

This Is Us fans were stunned after the second episode of the NBC drama when they found out that Ventimiglia’s character was not married to Rebecca (Mandy Moore) in the present day. When it was revealed that Jack’s best friend was Rebecca’s current husband, viewers were not happy, especially since he had previously commented that Jack had found a catch in Rebecca.

“You married way, way above your station,” Miguel warned his friend in Episode 2. “I’d be careful not to give her a reason to notice.”

Milo Ventimiglia’s TV wife admitted she doesn’t know exactly how Huertas’ character ended up as her present-day husband, but she assured fans that there was nothing shady about it.

“People just assume that Miguel slithered his way in,” Moore told reporters at the TCA gathering. “There’s no way. I know it’s not true, even if I don’t know [the specifics].”

Moore even makes it sound as though Rebecca and Jack had marital issues that had nothing to do with Miguel.

“We learn in the second episode [about] the alcohol,” the actress said. “We’re shooting episode 15 right now and there are definitely issues that come to light that are not pretty. Frankly, they are traits that Rebecca is not attracted to and does not like at all.”

This is not the first time that Milo Ventimiglia has defended his onetime TV bestie. In a previous interview with Entertainment Weekly, Milo said there is a lot more to the story of his character’s co-worker and confidant.

“There’s a lot to discover about who Miguel is and how he was involved in the family’s life,” Ventimiglia said.

“That’s where we are even still building from — just nine, ten episodes [into filming], there’s still a lot that’s going to be happening in the past with Miguel and Jack and Rebecca, as well as in the present day. You’re going to learn a lot more about him as you see he’s just ‘Grandpa’ to [Randall’s daughters,] little Tess and Annie.”

Admittedly, the This Is Us cast had strong opinions when they first found out that Jack and Rebecca are no longer together and that the Pearson matriarch had remarried. Chrissy Metz, who plays the adult version of Milo Ventimiglia’s daughter, Kate Pearson, on the show, told Entertainment Weekly that she is attached to her TV father and that she initially resented her character’s stepdad.

“I’m so attached to Milo, and I really believe him to be like a father figure to me — even in real life — so that as Kate I’m like, “No, no, no, no, this is my dad! Nobody’s going to replace my dad!”” Metz admitted to EW.

“What’s this? Miguel?” The actress added. “His best friend?… You know that [Jack is] a good man, and he’s a good father, and you’re just so in love with their love story, and they’ve been through so much already, you’re like, ‘Who is this man coming up in here trying to infiltrate?'”

Susan Kelechi Watson, who plays Randall Pearson’s (Sterling K. Brown) wife, Beth, on the show, said her real life family was unhappy about the storyline that has Milo Ventimiglia’s character out of the picture in 2016. In fact, the actress said her clan doesn’t like Rebecca’s second husband “at all.”

And Mandy Moore said she could understand why viewers were upset, with some even threatening to quit watching the show early on due to fears that Milo Ventimiglia would no longer be part of the This Is Us cast.

“Milo and I were laughing about it together. People are just like, ‘That’s it. I was watching the show purely for the Jack and Rebecca storyline, and I might have to check out now,'” Moore said. “And it’s like No, no, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait. You have to understand this concept of us jumping around in time, and Milo’s not off the show. There’s more to come.”

Moore told Vulture that people hate Miguel and that she feels bad for Huertas.

“Poor Jon! People hate Miguel. I’m like, ‘Just wait, wait. There’s so much story to unfold.’ I don’t know if people will necessarily have that reaction once things are revealed,” she said.

Indeed, Milo Ventimiglia said he was ambushed with “a flood of messages” after Episode 2’s bombshell ending. Ventimiglia added that people just need to put their hate on hold.

“What I’ve been saying to everyone was, ‘Just wait,'” Milo said. “I’m happy that people were slamming me with question marks, but at the same time, it’s a moment where I feel like as storytellers, all questions will be answered. You just gotta wait.”

Now it sounds like the wait is almost over, and if what Milo Ventimiglia says is true, This Is Us fans may owe Miguel (and Jon Huertas) a big apology.

[Featured Image by Mark Davis/Getty Images for NCLR]