SPOILER ALERT! This post contains spoilers for I Will Find You, now streaming on Netflix.
Milo Ventimiglia is leaving “America’s Dad” behind.
The This Is Us star, 48, takes a darker turn in Netflix’s new Harlan Coben thriller I Will Find You, playing Hayden Payne, a wealthy and powerful man tied to David’s (Sam Worthington) search for his missing son, Matthew.
The series follows David, a father imprisoned after being convicted of killing Matthew, who breaks out after discovering his son may still be alive. Ventimiglia’s Hayden enters the story as the ex-boyfriend of David’s sister-in-law Rachel (Britt Lower) before his shocking true motives are revealed.
For Ventimiglia, the appeal was surprising viewers who still associate him with Jack Pearson.
“I don’t know if people are going to see it coming from America’s Dad previously, from [This Is Us’] Jack Pearson,” he told People. “People see the last character I played, and they’re not going to know that this one’s coming.”
That contrast was part of the fun.
“It was a bit of trickery that I think we were playing off of,” he said.
Hayden’s reveal — that he orchestrated Matthew’s kidnapping because he believed the boy was his biological son — gave Ventimiglia the chance to explore a much darker character.
“I thought, well, this is going to be fun,” he said. “There’s always something fun being the villain.”
The role also arrived during a major transition for Ventimiglia. After he and his wife, Jarah Marino, lost their Malibu home in the Los Angeles wildfires, the couple relocated to Nashville while he filmed I Can Only Imagine 2 — all while becoming first-time parents.
The move from one project to the next happened almost immediately.
“Set-to-set was two weeks,” Ventimiglia said. “So when I wrapped the gig on I Can Only Imagine 2 in Nashville, packed up the truck and trailer, drove up to Toronto, and by the time I stepped off set and stepped back on set, it was two weeks.”
While playing Hayden was “the fun part,” Ventimiglia said rebuilding his life was the bigger challenge.
“The logistics of moving and expanding family when we don’t have a home, to a new town, and setting my wife and baby and dog up in a new neighborhood that we’ve got to relearn everything and make our own — that’s the tough part.”
Because of the quick turnaround, Ventimiglia didn’t read Coben’s novel before filming began, instead using the scripts as his guide.
“The roadmap is always the script,” he said.
Despite the show’s dark subject matter, Ventimiglia said he enjoyed building a connection with Worthington and Lower behind the scenes.
“It’s fun when you can go from being a fan to being a friend with your costars,” he said. “You have that confidence in one another, and that trust in one another.”
In the finale, Hayden is killed after David tracks him down and learns the truth about Matthew. Ventimiglia said he embraced the character’s darkest moments before filming his final scene.
“When it was finally time to let loose, it was like, cool, let my imagination go,” he said.
But he also wanted viewers to understand the complicated emotions driving Hayden.
“In a way, I wanted an audience to feel sympathetic for what Hayden was experiencing,” Ventimiglia said. “He’s at the end — and he knows it.”
Of course, he knows Hayden’s actions are unforgivable.
“He’s a sick f***. He’s horrible,” Ventimiglia said. “But hopefully, you’re also a little … ‘Oh, man, I feel you.’”
I Will Find You is now streaming on Netflix.