Any This Is Us fan can agree: Jack Pearson may not be a perfect father, but he’s one of the best around.
On Tuesday’s episode, Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) struggled with how his own life decisions were impacting his children — particularly his adopted, 8-year-old son Randall (Lonnie Chavis). After some soul-searching, Jack realized he’d have to hit pause on his own dreams in order to give Randall the best shot in life and gave his son a moving pep talk about embracing his gifts, standing out and being “different in the best ways.”
Ventimiglia’s on-screen daughter Chrissy Metz says it’s not an act. The actress, who has become a breakout star for her body-positivity after a life-long struggle with her weight, says her TV dad has been just as encouraging to her off screen as he is to his family on the show.
In fact, the famously fit 39-year-old is even hooking her up with some of his trade secrets.
“Milo actually works out with a really amazing trainer who does this thing called Rise, and Milo’s been doing it for seven years and he doesn’t look too bad,” Metz, 36, tells PEOPLE. “I’m really excited about starting that. I think it’s 35 to 40 minutes, and you don’t have to kill yourself to see results.”
Metz previously, revealed that Ventimiglia “acts like my dad in real life. Yeah, it’s a really sweet relationship that we have and obviously that Jack and Kate have.”
And while she admits that last week’s reveal that Jack is, indeed, dead (with the mystery of exactly how Jack died still unfolding on the series), Metz said that her character and Ventimiglia’s “will always have that really special bond that they’re always, always going to be in tune and in touch. He was everything to her.”
This Is Us airs Tuesdays (9 p.m. ET) on NBC.