PinkPeanut

Ooh! Thank you!! I'm sure I've read it at some point, but I forgot it! Thank you for posting it!

I love trouble!

I so want to see that! Aw, that's such a great little article. I can't believe I don't remember most of it.

LiteratiFan0624

Thanks for the link!

madelen

Thanks so much for that article, Darcy!

You can really see that in the scenes he had with both Scott and Alexis. He had great chemistry with both of them.

He should have done that!

darcybennett

Thanks for posting that bit about his agent wanting to change his name, madelen. Stupid agent! I loved how Milo reacted towards him and how he stood his ground and refused to comply. Sounds like something I would have done too. I don't understand this need for actors to change names... it's a part of the business that befuddles me... just adds to the 'fakeness' of it all, if you ask me.

Kelly_mv

I think that truly defines him on how grounded he is and how he wont change as a person for the industry. Like the first post has him quoted as saying- "Just stay true to who you are as a person. Don't change yourself.'

M.I.S.S.Y

Well said Kelly! Ditto!

Kelly_mv

Milo Interview by Terry Morrow:

'Bedford' actor dismisses racy talk
By TERRY MORROW
March 29, 2006

PASADENA, Calif. - A little smart sex talk doesn't bother Milo
Ventimiglia.

"The Bedford Diaries," his new series debuting at 9 tonight on WBXX, Channel 20, focuses on a group of college students taking a human-sexuality class. In a January interview, the 28-year-old actor said he had no qualms with the drama's frankness.

"We are trying to put a cerebral spin on a subject matter that people tend not to want to talk about," he said. But as of this week, the WB is concerned, and so is the Federal Communications Commission.

The New York Times reported last week that the WB has re-edited the first episode of "Bedford" due to concerns over its content. The series contains a scene in which two college-age girls kiss in a bar and another female unbuttons her jeans.

The censoring went against the wishes of "Bedford" creator Tom Fontana, the newspaper reported.

While talking about the show's sexual content prior to the censoring, Ventimiglia, who plays one of the students in the class, said he was "fine" over what the show portrays.

He said the show will be judged differently than, say, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," a hit featuring detailed and graphic violence each week. Sex is still taboo on television, while violence is still being accepted.

"Because we are not a cop/procedural drama and the fact we talk about sex, we're wrong," he said. "We're playing adults, young adults, in college, and we are showing what they are really doing. "We're all over 18."

Ventimiglia, who plays a manipulative student journalist on "Bedford," said he has one scene where he is shirtless. The rest of the time he's fully clothed.
"That's why I signed on to the project," he said. "I saw that this is more cerebral than showy. It's more of a mix of emotions." Instead of sensationalizing sex, "Bedford" details the consequences of some sexual relationships and their influence on "day-to-day life," he said.

On "Oz," the HBO prison show that Fontana created, rapes and other sexual encounters punctuated the drama. Ventimiglia said he went into "Bedford" knowing the WB show would not be as graphic as anything on HBO. (For one thing, the WB has advertisers to please, while HBO does not.)

"If it was like that, I wouldn't have done it," he said. He took the role so he could work with Fontana. "I wanted to be in the presence of Tom Fontana," he said. "I wanted to walk with him. "I learned about story arc, characters and how to tell a good, solid story. I learned how to take a moment in a scene rather than smothering it with unnecessary emotions. I learned a lot from being on this show with him."

Kelly_mv

Milo Interview from Zap2it.com:

Ventimiglia Grows Up for 'Bedford Diaries,' 'Rocky'
By Kate O'Hare
March 29 2006

LOS ANGELES -- At the ripe old age of 28, Milo Ventimiglia -- who first came to prominence playing a teen on The WB Network's "Gilmore Girls" -- is happy to have graduated to playing a college student in the new WB drama "The Bedford Diaries," premiering Wednesday, March 29.

"Thank God," he says, over a pasta lunch (he's a lifelong vegetarian) in a Santa Monica, Calif., restaurant. "In 'Rocky,' I'm playing 28, so that's unbelievable."

In "Bedford Diaries," created by Tom Fontana ("Oz," "Homicide: Life on the Street"), Ventimiglia plays Richard Thorne III, a former bad boy who edits his New York college newspaper and attends a human behavior and sexuality seminar taught by professor Jake Macklin (Matthew Modine). Playing his classmates are Tiffany Dupont, Penn Badgely, Corri English, Ernest Waddell and Victoria Cartagena.

In the 2007 feature film "Rocky Balboa," the sixth "Rocky" movie, again written and directed by its star, Sylvester Stallone, Ventimiglia plays Rocky Balboa Jr., son of the legendary Philadelphia boxer.

Ventimiglia has also signed on for an NBC pilot called "Heroes," about people who discover they have superpowers.

It may seem odd to do a pilot when one already has a series, except that The WB recently announced it was merging with UPN this fall to create a new network called (for the moment) The CW.

"I called Tom," Ventimiglia says, "and I'm like, 'So?' He's like, 'I've never been on a network that's been canceled.' We started laughing about it. Who knows? I mean, it could work out. Ten years into the business for me, I'm like, 'Cool,' if it doesn't, what are you going to do about it?"

Although Ventimiglia and Badgley play classmates in "Bedford," there's about a decade's difference in their ages, which worked out to the relief of Fontana.

"I was very concerned about Penn," Fontana said in a January interview. "If I was 18, if I had money from a TV show and looked like Penn Badgley, and I was in New York, I would go wild. I got very parental, which is not very much like me.

"But it was Milo who took him under his wing. ... Milo was like the great older brother."

"Penn's a bright guy," Ventimiglia says. "He didn't need me or anybody. There is that concern because he's 18 going on 19, but if you know Penn, he's not capable of putting himself in a position where he's going to get hurt, arrested or in trouble.

"The reason that Penn and I even discussed living together was saving money. When Tom got wind of it, he was like, 'Thank you so much for doing this.' The funny thing was, Tom was like, 'Julie [Martin, an executive producer] was so worried.' I'm like, 'Julie wasn't worried. You were worried.' He really deeply cares about everybody and the process."

Ventimiglia is equally impressed with Stallone after shooting "Rocky Balboa" with him in Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

"The first time I met him," he recalls, "he had a big smile on his face. He's physically twice me, just big. His hands are huge, and he's got that deep, booming voice that just engulfs you. It's very intimidating. But he's also just quiet at times and soft, just a normal guy.

"Of course, I respect the guy because he's done a lot of work; he's a talented writer."

The two even share a crooked lower lip, in both cases the result of nerve damage at birth.

"[During the first meeting] I started laughing," Ventimiglia recalls, "and he looks at me, then he leans over to the casting director and says, 'His lip even hooks down like mine does.' I'm like, 'That's way too close!'"

Everyone knows the iconic visual image of Rocky dancing on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and that can overshadow the fact that Stallone wrote not only the "Rocky" movies, but several of his other films, and directed four of the "Rocky" movies.

"He's my director, and he's playing my father," Ventimiglia says. "There are so many odd lines of approaching the work. In that sense, Rocky's a little slow, and my character's a pretty bright kid, so he talks to him like an 8-year-old.

"When I saw him turn Rocky on ... Sylvester talks, very animated, really bright. Then when he gets into the character of Rocky, he goes" -- Ventimiglia lets his expression go slack -- "and then he starts looking around. He has this simple smile on his face, and he gets very slow. He does this before every take."

And it's not just Stallone's acting that impressed his young co-star. "When I read the script, I was impressed by it. I said, 'This is a really good story, even if it wasn't a 'Rocky' film. It's written well; it's funny; it's heartfelt.

"Then being on set with him, seeing how hard he works to get the shots cinematically. It's a beautiful, beautiful film. He did such a good job with it."

Ventimiglia also has ambitions behind the camera with his own production company. "We're going out with three TV projects this year," he says. "It's so much work. We just got this option on a book. It's one of those things where my partner and I were like, 'If we don't get it, don't have to work so hard.' Now we're like, 'Great.' Oh, my God, I'm going to go gray and bald in the next year, just working on this story as well as three other films and three other TV shows we have."

While Ventimiglia might appear in some of these projects, don't expect to see his girlfriend, "Gilmore" star Alexis Bledel.

"Separate church and state," Ventimiglia says. "It's just best to keep all that separate."

Kelly_mv

ELLEgirl Magazine

Issue: April, 2006

Picture: HERE.
Thanks to Darcy for hosting it

Interview:

OUR NEW CRUSHES
The Guys On The Bedford Diaries

Just when primetime was getting boring, the WB's new series The Bedford Diaries is here to save you from another night of unnecessary eBaying. Revolving around a college human-sexuality class, Bedford's about what students do between the partying and the studying: knock boots.

Penn Badgley, 19, plays naive but studly freshman Owen. On the show, you'll see him with a head full of curls, but after shooting wrapped, he shaved them all off: "It was such a pain. I had to put product in my hair at several points in the day- and worry about humidity." (Word.)

Ernest Waddell, 20, plays Lee, a working-class guy from Queens studying drama, with a girlfriend back home. "I like that I'm a black male who is not portraying a basketball player or a rapper," says Ernest of his character.

And Milo Ventimiglia, 28, is Richard, an emotionally-out-of-order Park Avenue bad boy. "He's a good person," explains Milo. "But because he's grown up with money, and the drinking and the drugs that he did, people treat him a certain way, so it keeps his defences up." Hmmm, Richard sounds like what some girls call a "project."

Bedford may be the raciest thing on the WB since Joey and Pacey did it on Dawson's Creek (dude, Dawson was pissed!). Tune in and get a glimpse of college life. But, just as a disclaimer, we at ELLEgirl think studying should be your #1 priority. Ahem... yeah.

-AI

Kelly_mv

Alternative Press magazine

Issue: April, 2006

Pictures:

• Index photo- HERE
• Main photo- HERE
  Thanks to Cristin for hosting them

Interview:

Through Being Cool

Milo Ventimiglia
AGE: 28
HQ: Los Angeles, CA

RESUME: Most famously, he played the loner rebel Jess Mariano on the WB's Gilmore Girls; Ventimiglia has continued his time on the small screen as Chris Pierce in American Dreams and this year's college-based drama The Bedford Diaries; he will make a, um, brief appearance this month in the internet-age horror film Stay Alive, and next year will see the release of Rocky Balboa, in which he plays the surprisingly square Rocky Balboa, Jr.

BAD HAIR DAZE: "I didn't do anything [except] I got a really bad haircut," Ventimiglia says of his upcoming role as the younger Balboa. "Like, seriously, 1994. It's really short on the sides and cleaned up in the back, but kind of long on top. It's just a bad haircut. The hairstylist in the film, God bless her, she gave me the best bad haircut ever."

MILO WAS A PUNK: Though he claims to despise the current "angry, pierced-lip" set, Ventimiglia grew up listening to classic punk bands like Adolescents and Operation Ivy. "By the time I got to college, I kind of formed my own opinion of what I liked, and it was all punk," he says. "I don't know how many people have heard of Leftover Crack or Choking Victim; they're not quite out there in the mainstream, but that's my most recent stuff.

For those of us who have followed his less-than-predictable career, there are certain thinga you might expect when you call 28-year-old Milo Ventimiglia for an interview. It would be great, for example, if he were in Connecticut pontificating about J.D. Salinger like Jess Mariano, the cultishly loved badass he played on the hit show Gilmore Girls. Or, maybe he could be hanging out with Sylvester Stallone after a long day on the set of the forthcoming film Rocky Balboa, in which Ventimiglia plays the famed boxer's now-adult son. Hell, he could at least be grooming the impressive beard he boasts in Stay Alive, a thriller about being stuck in an online video game, due in theaters later this month. But the truth about Ventimiglia is that he's merely a working-class actor who has very little in common with the characters who have made- and will continue to make- him sort of famous. On location in Philadelphia, the former WB star talked to AP about life after Rory Gilmore, obsessive fans and the fine art of playing one really big dork.

So right now, you are in Philadelphia filming the latest Rocky movie. What kind of preparation does it take to play the Italian Stallion's son? To some degree, are you following in his footsteps?

Oh, not at all. He went the opposite way of his father. He went into corporate America, and that's where we pick him up in the story. He's not this huge, buff boxing guy. He's slim, meek [and] not as self-confident.

Basically, he's drinking soy lattes while his father is beating on pieces of raw meat.

Pretty much. You get a little insight about [the character in earlier films]. But there's no indication of what the kid is going to do- if he's going to go into boxing or be an intellectual or whatever.

That film will be out next year, but in the more immediate future is Stay Alive. The film seems a little confusing. So you're all playing a video game, but somehow, everyone actually dies?

It's basically early 20-somethings who find a video game that if you die in the video game, that's how you die in real life. It's like, "Give it a couple of minutes, give it a little time, but you're gonna die." My character is the Drew Barrymore. It's the initial death.

At least you got to go home early.

Yeah. It was a couple days of work in New Orleans. It was a great group of people, too. I wish I could have spent more time out there. But I just went, did my job and went home.

Between those two films, people must have pretty big expectations for you in the next year.

Granted, these are all really great jobs that are going to get seen, but I don't feel the pressure. I don't feel it's any different than any other year.

Do you already feel famous at this point in your life?

I'm a person, like anybody else. I think it surprises me every single time somebody walks up and talks to me or asks for a picture or an autograph. I just very kindly say, "Thank you." Unless they're crazy- then I run.

Really?

Seriously, I have. But that's not why I do this. I've got a friend who's a navel aviator and he''s flying spy planes all over the world, and I'm like, "Holy ****, I can't believe it!" There are so many jobs, to me, that are larger than what I do.

At some point, did you accept the surreal nature of this? While it's weird that you have a friend that flies spy planes, it must also be bizarre to him that he can Google your name and find blogs about girls wanting to sleep with you.

It's strange. It's the part of what I do that I'm still dumbfounded with. It's like, "You want me to sign a piece of paper for you? Okay." [laughs.] "What are you going to do with that piece of paper?"

Do you still get a lot of people coming up to you saying, "Hey, aren't you Jess from Gilmore Girls?"

I think once or twice I've had people say, "Hey, you used to be on American Dreams." and I'm like, "Oh, my God, thank you!" If I go back into the history of what I've done and what's been put out to the general public, it's been Gilmore. That was a show I was on for two years, and I pop back in and there are chat rooms about the character and whether or not he and Rory should get back together.

It's funny that you're still seen as Jess. You're a pretty different person.

Yeah, and this character that I'm playing now [in Rocky Balboa] is a dork. He's just a dork. He buys these dumpy off-the-rack suits with pleats in the pants. The kid is just not a winner. Then in Stay Alive? Forget about it. I look very different. I've got a huge beard and these huge glasses. You know Coke-bottle lenses? I'm wearing those.

Maybe after Jess, it was time to play a couple of dorks.

What is a dork? I could be a dork. It doesn't matter. It was just time to play something different. I think the general public- they lose sight that actors are malleable. They can move and bend and fold into different types of chatracters and give their own interpretation of a character. It's not necessarily about the way someone looks. It's what's going on within a person's heart and mind.

-Trevor Kelley

Kelly_mv

March 29, 2006

Insider Interview from tvguide.com

Interview:

Milo Ventimiglia Fans, Rejoice!
by Matt Webb Mitovich

The new and controversial The Bedford Diaries. A Gilmore Girls return. A possible gig as a superhero. Rocky Balboa's son. And he even gets slain in a new slasher film. If you're a Milo Ventimiglia fan, this is your time to bask in his... Ventimiglianess. On the occasion of The Bedford Diaries' debut (tonight at 9 pm/ET on WB), TVGuide.com spoke with the popular actor about his very busy schedule.

TVGuide.com: Dude, have you ever had so much to talk about? I don't know where to start.

Milo Ventimiglia: Dude, start somewhere, dive in. Whatever you want to start with.

TVGuide.com: In Bedford Diaries, you're playing a bit of a snake in grass.

Ventimiglia: Yes. Yes, I am, yet again. Richard Thorne III, kid who comes from money, formerly of a drinking and drug problem... has since cleaned up and now nobody likes him.

TVGuide.com: And he has some sort of a past with one of the lead girls?

Ventimiglia: His past is with Corri English's character, Natalie, a girl who tried to kill herself. We don't really know the reason she tried to kill herself, but it had something to do with whatever was going on in her relationship with Richard.

TVGuide.com: Based on the pilot, this show seems to want to push the envelope a bit, doesn't it? The language is a little salty.

Ventimiglia: It does want to push the envelope, and it's kind of come under criticism for it. [Last week, WB decided to air a sanitized, more FCC-friendly version of the pilot.] Like at the TCA press tour for Bedford, we had a bunch of people grilling [executive producers] Tom Fontana and Julie Martin....

TVGuide.com: About what? Like, the [oral sex] reference?

Ventimiglia: Stuff like that, for the WB, is so racy. Finally, a couple of us piped in to say, "Look, we're not showing rape, we're not showing murder, we're not showing homicide or any form of killing like you see on CSI or any of those shows. What we're talking about is the reason why every single person in this room is alive — through sex."

TVGuide.com: Intentionally or not.
Ventimiglia: Exactly, man, intentionally or not.

TVGuide.com: I dunno, this may be the show that shuts down WB once and for all.

Ventimiglia: [Laughs] It's going to be a nice closing bell.

TVGuide.com: You're also attached to the fall NBC pilot Heroes, which sounds fun and interesting.

Ventimiglia: That's a second position. I got attracted to that by David Semel, who was an executive producer on American Dreams. They were having a hard time casting this role of Ethan....

TVGuide.com: Is he the junkie-superhero whose ability is to paint images from the future?

Ventimiglia: No, that's Isaac. Ethan's the guy who thinks that he can fly but he actually has a bit of clairvoyance and can tell other people what their powers are, while it seems like he has none of his own.

TVGuide.com: He thinks he can fly and has clairvoyance — so, he can foresee himself crashing into buildings.

Ventimiglia: [Laughs] There you go.

TVGuide.com: Explain to people the "second position" thing.

Ventimiglia: If Bedford Diaries gets picked up, I go back to New York and back to Bedford, and someone else plays Ethan.

TVGuide.com: We get Scott Baio or something.

Ventimiglia: Exactly. Or, if Bedford doesn't go any further and Heroes gets picked up, then I jump on Heroes.

TVGuide.com: And Milo keeps up with his mortgage payments. Now somewhere in here you found time to do the new Rocky Balboa film.

Ventimiglia: Yeah, I finished that [in early February], when everybody was on hiatus.

TVGuide.com: You're playing Rocky Jr. Is he a lover or a fighter?

Ventimiglia: Neither, man. He's a Philadelphia corporate businessman in really dumpy suits that have pleated pants.

TVGuide.com: That's what he's become? In Rocky V he was this punk with a bad earring.

Ventimiglia: Yeah, the earring that hung down to, like, his shoulder. No, now he's trying to find his way in corporate America and not wanting anything to do with the world he grew up in. Then his dad starts talking about wanting to fight again.

TVGuide.com: Is Rocky Sr. going to die in this one?

Ventimiglia: Uh... I don't know.

TVGuide.com: You're also in Stay Alive [which hit theaters March 24]. I assume it's not based on the board game with the marbles?

Ventimiglia: It is not, no. I think they are releasing a video game with it, though.

TVGuide.com: The cast looks like the fourth- and fifth-network all-star team.

Ventimiglia: Let's see, we have two reps of Fox with Frankie Muniz (Malcolm in the Middle) and Samaire Armstrong (The O.C.), you've got myself and Sophia Bush (One Tree Hill) from the WB.... I get killed, though. But it's a pretty good death.

TVGuide.com: Lastly, you squeezed in a Gilmore Girls return, airing April 11. What compelled you to do that?

Ventimiglia: It fit with my schedule. They asked if I wanted to come back, and I said sure. It's always fun to go back and see the crowd.

TVGuide.com: What plot point is Jess serving?

Ventimiglia: Does Jess ever really serve plot points? [Chuckles] I think he did a little the last time, in getting Rory thinking about her ex-boyfriend. [This time] I pop in, I have a nice scene with Scott Patterson, and I have a good scene with Rory, Alexis Bledel.

TVGuide.com: Does it go without saying that your dance card is too full to ever go back to Gilmore full-time?

Ventimiglia: I wouldn't do it. It's not that bad to go back and forth once or twice a year, but I couldn't go back to [being a] regular.

TVGuide.com: So leave us with this: Who is the better match for Rory, Logan or Jess?

Ventimiglia: I really used to like Logan, but he's been kind of an a--hole. [Snickers] I think it has to be Jess or somebody else.

Kelly_mv

March 26, 2006

The Insider interview from BostonHerald.com

Interview:

The Insider: Milo Ventimiglia
By Amy Amatangelo

Name: Milo Ventimiglia

Character: Bad boy Richard Thorne on "The Bedford Diaries" (premiering Wednesday at 9 p.m. on WLVI, Ch. 56).

Age: 28

Hometown: Anaheim, Calif.

Love life: Ventimiglia dates his former "Gilmore Girls" co-star Alexis Bledel.

Where you've seen him before: Ventimiglia was Jess on "Gilmore Girls" and Chris on "American Dreams." He also had guest spots on "Boston Public" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit."

Where you'll see him soon: Ventimiglia is filming the next "Rocky" movie, in which he plays Sylvester Stallone's son.

Fun fact: When he was first starting out as an extra in a Dr. Pepper commercial, an agent encouraged him to change his last name to "Venti." He refused.

On his character: "I realized he's a bit of a lost little boy. He comes from a place of privilege growing up. He's more misunderstood and wants to be accepted and actually just fit in... I think he's got a dark side... I think, personally, for me, it's finding that balance where you actually want to do something grander that just, like, 'Oh, he's the diabolical kid or he's just trying to pick on one person.' So, yeah, I think he's done some things that anybody else could perceive as rotten. But at the same time I think he tries - he tries real hard to do the right thing and the good thing as much as anybody else."

Where you'll see him in five years: Headlining the new "Rocky" franchise.

Kelly_mv

January 3, 2006

CNN's SHOWBIZ Tonight Interview

Screen Caps: HERE
Thanks to Canopus for making them

Video: HERE
Thanks to Cristin

Transcript:

ANDERSON: And secrets from the set of the new "Rocky" movie from the actor who's playing Stallone's son. We go a few rounds with Milo Ventimiglia in the interview you'll see only on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT.

.....

ANDERSON: Tonight, in a "Showbiz Sitdown," Sylvester Stallone is back in the boxing ring once again. The actor who starred in all five "Rocky" movies is shooting the sixth, "Rocky Balboa," right now in Los Angeles. And California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger just visited the set. There's the picture.
Details about the new movie have been top secret. But tonight in an interview you'll see only on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT, the actor who plays Rocky's son, Milo Ventimiglia, he joins us live to dish a little bit and to talk about his new DVD release "Dirty Deeds."

Milo Ventimiglia joins us now live. Thanks for being here.

MILO VENTIMIGLIA: Definitely. Thank you for having me.

ANDERSON: All right. We just showed the picture of Governor Schwarzenegger on the set, but we also have pictures of you and Sylvester Stallone on the set. I want to ask you, Sylvester not only starring in this film, but he's also directing it.

VENTIMIGLIA: Directing...

ANDERSON: So what is that like for you, under his direction?

VENTIMIGLIA: Well, it's nice. He wrote the script, as well, writing, directing, producing and acting, so he -- if you have any questions, you can really talk to him about it, because he knows the world of the characters and the story.
At the same time, like, he's a very kind person with his time. And he trusts the actors and what they're doing. And he hired us for the reason of doing service to these characters that he brought to life several years ago. And now it's continuing...

ANDERSON: Almost 30 years ago.

VENTIMIGLIA: Yes, I know. I wasn't even born or thinking about being conceived, I think, when the first one came out and was made.

ANDERSON: Well, let me ask you about that. It's been nearly 30 years, nearly 16 years since the last "Rocky" film was released. What do you think the appeal is?

VENTIMIGLIA: I think there's always going to be a want for films like this. I mean, it's the working-class, underdog story that appeals to, I think, not just Americans but anybody. It's just nice to see, you know, such an earnest, such an honest character continue to grow throughout, you know, one film to the next film to the next film. And into the sixth film, which is such a beautiful story. It's really nice.

ANDERSON: And now you are a part of it.

VENTIMIGLIA: And now I'm a part of it.

ANDERSON: And let's get down to it, secrets from the set. We want to know, what are you filming right now? Is there anything involving fight scenes with Sly right now?

VENTIMIGLIA: We took a week in Las Vegas to film a fight sequence. And then we were in L.A. for about 2 1/2 weeks. And we're actually about to pack up and go to Philadelphia to work for the brunt of the script. Ah, secrets, I don't know...

ANDERSON: What can you tell us?

VENTIMIGLIA: ... I don't know what I'm allowed to talk about. It's going to be a great film.

ANDERSON: Oh, it's horrible.

VENTIMIGLIA: It's very reminiscent of the first one, going back and acquainting myself with all of the films. I think that it's closest to the very first film...

(CROSSTALK)

ANDERSON: And good to hear that you've done your research.

VENTIMIGLIA: Oh, yes. I did.

ANDERSON: And Sylvester Stallone, he's turning 60 years old this year, Milo. Has there been any joking, any ribbing, on the set that he's back putting the gloves on again?

VENTIMIGLIA: You know what? You joke with him, you're going to get hit.

(LAUGHTER)

No, he's a -- I don't think there's been joking so much as just the logistics of, if a boxer were to come back, if he were to come back and try fighting again, what's the reality of it? Would they allow that? Would they be too concerned about him hurting himself or hurting somebody else, in like this kind of fit of rage of, hey, it's the last fight? But, no, nobody -- you can't really make fun of a guy who's in, like, the best shape of his life.

ANDERSON: He still looks good.

VENTIMIGLIA: He looks great. And what I think was so amazing for me to see was his stamina. You know, he wrote, directed, is producing this film, and he's acting, and he's doing a great job. And he's keeping his energy up from the very beginning of the day until the end of the day.

ANDERSON: He showed me part of the script last year, and he was thrilled about it, very, very excited about it. And quite a career, I must say. Congratulations to you, as well. Quite a career you are having, too.

VENTIMIGLIA: Thank you.
ANDERSON: In addition to this, also, you've got a movie coming out on DVD, right?

VENTIMIGLIA: Yes, "Dirty Deeds," a film that came out at the end of the year and coming with a DVD release.

ANDERSON: Not an X-rated movie, right?

VENTIMIGLIA: No, no, no.

ANDERSON: I just want to clear that up.

VENTIMIGLIA: Oh, no, no. I'm sorry, no, it has nothing to do with ACDC. It's a high school story, a simple story about a kid who gets challenged to do a series of what they call dirty deeds over the course...

ANDERSON: Dares.

VENTIMIGLIA: ... yes, dares, over the course of a night for homecoming.
ANDERSON: Well, thanks for clarifying that. And thanks for sharing all of this with us.

VENTIMIGLIA: Definitely.

ANDERSON: Milo Ventimigla, thank you for taking time with us tonight.

VENTIMIGLIA: Thanks a lot.

ANDERSON: And you can catch Milo in "Dirty Deeds" on DVD January 10th.

Kelly_mv

March 29, 2006

The TV Tattler interview from aol.com

Interview:

Sex and the College Campus? Milo Ventimiglia Jumps Into 'The Bedford Diaries'

March 29 -- Must be nice to have a television studio like Warner Bros. on your side.

That's the case of actor Milo Ventimiglia, who first won over audiences as Jess on the WB's 'Gilmore Girls.' Since then, the network attempted to create a spinoff for his character and now has placed him in their midseason college drama, 'The Bedford Diaries.'

In an interview with editor Kelly Woo, Ventimiglia chatted about the WB's support, the need to shave every day and playing Rocky Balboa's son.

What's 'Bedford Diaries' about?

It's six college kids going to school in New York, taking a class on sexual behavior and the human condition. That sets up a platform for love and sex and friendship and camaraderie.

What drew you to the show?

I sat down with Warner Bros. and they put a couple projects in front of me. I'd always been a fan of Tom Fontana ['Oz,' 'Homicide: Life on the Street']. The character I play, Richard, was one I had thought a lot about. I'd begun to play a similar type character in another project I did that didn't go anywhere.

What do you like about your character, Richard?

I like the mystery between who he was and who he is now. Through the course of the eight episodes we've filmed, there's this talk of how he used to drink and do drugs. He was a little more fun, a little more wild. But now, in his more reserved state, people approach him with caution, because they don't know what he's thinking. That frightens people.

What was it like working with Matthew Modine, who plays the sex seminar professor?

Working with Modine was pretty amazing. I've been a fan of his work for a long, long time. When I was in high school, 'Vision Quest' was my favorite movie. I watched it every day.

Every day?!

I wrestled in high school. The movie's about wrestling and it was like the only movie about wrestling. And not only was it the only movie about wrestling, it was actually a really good movie about wrestling -- collegiate wrestling, not WWF stuff. I remember the first day of work, I'm thinking, "I'm sitting next to a guy I've watched over and over again. I can probably quote his lines better than he can." Over the course of shooting the episodes, he'd come up and we'd throw lines back and forth from the movie. It was cool.

You're always playing younger characters. At least now you're in college.

I know, thank God ...

Do you get annoyed by that?

The only thing that really gets annoyed is my face, if I have to shave every day. You'd always hear rumors about how guys have to shave twice a day. Here I am, 28 playing 21. It doesn't bother me so much; if it's a good character, it's a good character. If producers and directors believe I can play that young, and still treat me with respect, I'm OK with it.

darcybennett

Thanks for re-posting all of those articles, Kel! It was great reading them all again.