Stop saying that Milo Ventimiglia is not the right Jack on This Is Us
This post doesn’t contain spoilers.
Right now I am all about the new NBC series This Is Us. The new drama is something I wasn’t expecting, and it wasn’t until a week before its premiere that I decided that I was going to watch it.
There were a lot of promos and even early positive reviews so it was hard to avoid the expectation. But at the time, for obvious reasons, the characters and the story weren’t that clear to me. Recently, after 5 episodes, I started to see some articles online that pretty much claimed that Milo Ventimiglia, the actor who portrays Jack (the father of the family), wasn’t the right choice because he was too handsome, charming or in good shape.
Is this really something that we as viewers (and even I as someone who has studied scriptwriting) should really make a big deal of? I get it at some point if we recognize that his physical presence is attractive and striking, because let’s face it, he’s good looking. But if you compare his earlier works or how he looks in his day to day life with his current characterization, you can see that he is fully into the part. Yes, the casting department could have picked someone less good looking or “ugly” (what’s ugly, though?), but this is also about selling a product and if you have the chance to pick someone who’s attractive to viewers and yet can portray a typical father (and not the stereotype or ideal we have in our minds), what is to criticize?
How cool would it be if instead of criticizing Milo’s looks they would comment on his actual performance and acting skills, which he is doing amazing by the way. I have been able to talk to some people who are also following the series, and read comments from viewers online, and they all agree on the fact that Jack is probably the most likable character because he is the closest to a real father who struggles but does everything for his family; and that at the end is what we need in this world.
And finally this made me think about the way we perceive characters, and for me I had never actually though about how good looking an actor or actress is for a part because more than that what matters is how the actor/actress is portraying the character; who said that a normal middle class father can’t be good looking? Or that a doctor has to be handsome? Of course there are characteristics that have to be found in an actor, but being good looking shouldn’t be an issue, or at the very least not the defining one. After all there’s always make up but no way to cover a bad performance.
Note: watch This Is Us, it is fantastic.
