Milo Ventimiglia Shares How Luke & Liam Hemsworth Made Up for Not Meeting This Land of Bad Co-Star

Whether you know Milo Ventimiglia as Jack Pearson in This Is Us, Jess in Gilmore Girls, or even Peter Petrelli in Heroes, the actor’s upcoming movie, Land of Bad, which hits theatres on Feb. 16, sees him in a whole new light. In the movie, Ventimiglia transforms into a badass action star as his character, Sugar, won’t stop at anything to see his mission through.

Alongside Sugar in the mission is a group of three other officials including Kinney (played by Liam Hemsworth), Abel (Luke Hemsworth) and Bishop (Ricky Whittle). And, given that the premise involves the four of them in a dangerous ambush into enemy territory, it’s safe to say that things get really bloody really quick.

When Ventimiglia talked to SheKnows, however, it seems like their time in between takes was luckily quite different. “I mean, when you’re working with Ricky Whittle, and Luke Hemsworth, and Liam Hemsworth it’s all just good times all the time,” he says. “They’re light and they’re fun and we’re having a good time and cracking jokes and watching those guys eat a pound of meat every 20 minutes.”

“I think given the explosions and the battles and the close-quarter combats, we were all just laughing and stretching,” Ventimiglia says, adding that he sometimes had to “stretch out a little bit more” because he was one of the “old guys.”

As for the co-star who made him laugh the most on set, Ventimiglia knew immediately who it was. “Ricky Whittle,” he says. “He’s devilishly funny.” “Ricky was the one that was constantly cracking jokes, constantly cracking up,” Ventimiglia remembers. “And then Liam Hemsworth was matching it.”

As for which one of the two Hemsworth brothers he considers his favorite, Ventimiglia refused to take sides. “I can’t do it,” he says. “I love them all equally, as similar as they are in the way of a Hemsworth, they’re also so unique.”

Ventimiglia then dished on his expert Hemsworth knowledge. “I look at Luke, and I can very much see how he’s the older brother leading the way,” he says of the Westworld star. “And I’ve met Chris [Hemsworth] a few times and I see Chris [has] gone out and done his own thing like the middle child. And then there’s Liam who’s just deep with emotion.”

“They’re all so unique but they all fundamentally have this just good spirit and kindness and heart and protective quality that they’re just they’re a good family,” Ventimiglia adds. “You know, Mom and Dad Hemsworth did well.”

And while Ventimiglia’s time on set seems great, there’s one co-star of his, Russell Crowe, who he unfortunately didn’t get to meet. In the movie, Crowe plays Air Force drone pilot Reaper who becomes the crew’s eyes in the sky during their battle for survival.

“No, I never met Russell,” Ventimiglia admits. “It was a bummer. It’s actually hard when you do a Russell Crowe movie and you don’t get to work with Russell Crowe.”

“But that doesn’t make the experience any less,” he continues. “I still admire the guy and love what he did in the movie and am proud of the work and everything.”

“Russell was making his own movie, then they just kind of pasted it all together,” Ventimiglia adds.

For a final question, we asked Ventimiglia about playing characters (both in This Is Us and Land of Bad) who, without giving too much away, have somewhat tragic endings.

“It’s kind of just like life, right? We all know, we have an end we don’t know when it’s gonna happen,” Ventimiglia reflects. “So why not live life fully? Why not experience what these characters are experiencing at such a level that you were really invested in them?”

He then went on to add that a specific moment in the first scene of the movie made his character come to life for him. “I think it was important that very first opening scene with myself and Liam, when he’s deciding between Frosted Flakes and Froot Loops, and I say ‘Go to Froot Loops, my daughter loves them,'” he describes. “Then bam the guy already humanized, you already understand him, you can take him out of that uniform and be like, ‘Oh, he’s just dad. He’s got a little girl. Oh man, I want to see his journey I want to root for him. I want to see how this goes.'”

“You know what the end is for these characters and you know that any of us are going to have an end but you don’t know exactly what it is,” Ventimiglia reflects. “So you kind of have to just live your life fully and be a good person and enjoy yourself.”

Before you go, click here to see the top 10 TV shows that don’t shy away from dealing with grief.