Why Jack From This Is Us Looks So Familiar

Diehard fans of Gilmore Girls will best remember Ventimiglia for his role as Jess Mariano, the once-love interest of Rory Gilmore. Despite some questionable character moves, Jess was well-liked enough at one point to be considered for his own spin-off series.

The spin-off, of course, never happened; however, Ventimiglia still found time to appear in Netflix's Gilmore Girls revival in 2016. Now, with rumors that a second revival may be in the works at Netflix, could we see Ventimiglia step into the role one more time? Probably not, according to USA Today.

"There are more stories to tell with a lot of these characters, but at the same time some of these characters for some of us actors are more than a decade in the past. It was exciting going back to Gilmore Girls for the four Netflix movies, but I'm satisfied with it," he said. "I think the stories were told. I think it was great for the audience and fans to get just one small taste of that world again. But, at the same time, I think people should not get so greedy."

Following American Dreams, Ventimiglia's next big role was Richard Thorne III on the WB's The Bedford Diaries. Canceled after just eight episodes, the show chronicled the lives of six New York City college students, one of whom just so happened to be played by future Gossip Girl star Penn Badgley.

Ventimiglia's role received a mixed response: the New York Times called Ventimiglia's role "the most compelling character, a cynical rich kid and reformed alcoholic who becomes editor of the college newspaper and has most of the best lines"; the Washington Post, meanwhile, called his character "smug," adding that the show's characters seemed "weak and inauthentic."

Hmmm. No wonder it got canceled.

In 2007, Ventimiglia appeared in a commercial for Apple, during which he, gasp, requested a middle seat on a plane, then spent the rest of the flight showing off his fancy new iBook to his seatmates. It was likely hugely popular among nostalgic fans of Baha Men's "Who Let the Dogs Out."

Ten years later, a fan on Twitter randomly asked Ventimiglia when he would get his own Apple commercial. Ventimiglia's response: wait... I did one of those?

"They doing those?" He wrote. "Love to. I'm @Apple through and through. What do you think @Apple?"

Tongue in cheek, perhaps? If not, we can't blame him for having a slip of memory. After all, "Who Let the Dogs Out" was a really, really annoying song.

During the same year as Mob City, Ventimiglia landed the lead role of Ian Mitchell on the Crackle series Chosen. The character was a husband, father and lawyer who wakes up one day and finds a box at his door with a gun and a photo of a stranger. The box explains he has to kill the stranger in three days and if he doesn't, he risks the life of his daughter and himself.

Chosen was a very physical, violent show and Ventimiglia spent time perfecting the reactions of his character.

"I almost had to un-learn my natural response, which was a challenge, and a good challenge," Ventimiglia, who also served as a producer on the show, told Collider. "I didn't want Ian Mitchell to look like a guy who was reactionary and knew what to do in a situation. His body didn't instinctually kick in. He had to struggle through it, at first. There are things that, as an actor, I'm exposed to that a lot of people aren't exposed to because I've played a lot of different characters and had the good fortunate to see a lot of different sides of life."

He continued, "But, Ian Mitchell is holding a fountain pen and talking to a judge. I had to turn off Milo for a minute and understand what Ian was doing, in his daily life, and how he would react to everything."