‘The Company You Keep’: Milo Ventimiglia & Catherine Haena Kim Tease Their Complicated Romance (VIDEO)
It’s tough being a liar but that’s a fitting, albeit short, description of Milo Ventimiglia‘s new character. The actor takes a sharp left turn from perfect dad Jack Pearson on This Is Us to play con man Charlie Nicoletti in the new ABC series, The Company You Keep, premiering February 19.
In the series, which comes from Ventimiglia’s TK production company, viewers will meet Charlie, a career criminal working cons big and small with his family. “[Charlie’s] someone who was born into this life, never chose the life, but he happens to be really good at this life,” Ventimiglia tells us recently.
But what happens when that criminal falls for a CIA agent (Catherine Haena Kim), who, unbeknownst to Charlie, has to do her own share of lying in her work? “You could say they both lie for a living,” Kim says. “They just have different ways of justifying it.” Adds Ventimiglia with a smile, “It sounds like actors!”
Ventimiglia teases the one thing that will throw Charlie off his game is his romance with Kim’s Emma, whom he meets at a bar in the pilot episode. “What happens when you do meet your romantic match, your partner, that you should be with, but it comes with all the complications that conflict with your world that you’ve known for 40 plus years as a human being, as a man?” he asks. “So that’s the struggle, that’s Charlie’s yoke around his neck that he’s got to somehow find a way to turn in his direction.”
The series also has its share of comedic moments amidst this new love affair, between the con games and drama that comes with Emma’s work bringing bad guys to justice. So it seemed only right to talk to the actors about their own favorite romantic comedies. Watch the video above to find out their picks, and more!
The Company You Keep, Series Premiere, Sunday, February 19, 10/9c, ABC