Milo Ventimiglia Reveals He Wanted To Quit 'Gilmore Girls' And Become A Mechanic

Milo Ventimiglia has had one of the most enviable careers in television.

Most famous TV actors are known for one career-making role, but Milo has three: angsty troublemaker Jess Mariano on Gilmore Girls, bleeding-heart do-gooder Peter Petrelli on Heroes, and currently loving father Jack Pearson on This Is Us.

But for each of these iconic roles, Milo has also experienced periods of disillusionment with his profession and contemplated leaving Hollywood three different times.

Milo revealed to People halfway through the original run of Gilmore Girls, he was ready to hang up Jess's leather jacket for good and take up a less flashy occupation: as a mechanic.

Sounds like Gypsy almost had some competition.

He told People.

I was just fed up. I couldn't catch a break to lock on to some work and be creative... I was going to go be an auto mechanic. In Southern California there's this auto school and it's advertised 'Everybody needs mechanics, because they need those cars fixed' and I'm like, 'That's a job that's going to be in demand, so why don't I learn more than I already know about cars and professionally fix cars.'

This flirtation with leaving showbiz came at the end of Season 3 of Gilmore Girls, which concluded Jess' major story arc as he and Rory split before she left for college. But Jess had become such a fan favorite that the show pitched a spinoff series for him.

When that spinoff was passed on by the WB is when Milo said he wanted to quit acting. Of course, he didn't, and soon after landed a role in Rocky Balboa and his starring spot on Heroes. And he brought Jess Mariano back in later seasons of Gilmore Girls, including a cameo in last year's Netflix revival.

That was actually the second time Milo considered quitting acting. He revealed he also almost quit to become a mechanic before landing Gilmore, when he was only landing background parts.

More recently, Milo said he yet again considered leaving Hollywood a couple years back, after already achieving celebrity thanks to Gilmore and Heroes. But this time he wouldn't become a mechanic; he wanted to move to Italy, shave his head, and work on a farm.

I was like, 'I'm gonna sell everything, I'm going to fly to Rome, I'm gonna buy a motorcycle, I'm going to ride around until I can find a farm I can work on. I'm going to shave my head, I'm gonna grow a beard and I'm going to work on a farm' … just lead a very different life very far away.

But of course, Milo is still far from that Italian farm lifestyle today. Before he could act on his urge to leave TV, he landed the role of Jack Pearson in This Is Us, which went on to be NBC's breakout hit of 2016.

We'll just have to cross our fingers and hope that Milo doesn't finally go through with his urge to quit showbiz anytime soon!