She loves the bad boy! Sutton Foster once swooned over Milo Ventimiglia — even before she signed on for the Gilmore Girls revival. The Younger actress opens up exclusively to Us Weekly about the embarrassing moment she realized that her obsession went too far.
“I had such a crush on him. I journal and cut things out from magazines for inspiration, and I was going through old journals and out fluttered a photo of Milo,” Foster, 41, tells Us of the Heroes alum, 38. “I wasn’t a teenage girl. I was in my late twenties when this happened!”
Ventimiglia joined the beloved series in 2001 as Jess Mariano, who dated Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel). Rory also romanced high school sweetheart Dean Forester (Jared Padalecki) and college boyfriend Logan Huntzberger (Matt Czuchry).
“There was something about [Milo] and Rory and Jess,” Foster adds. “I mean, I liked Dean too. I was never a big fan of Logan. But Jess was always my favorite. He was — there was something about their chemistry together.” (Ventimiglia and Bledel dated in real life from 2002 to 2006.)
Foster didn’t film any scenes with Ventimiglia on the upcoming Netflix reboot, but she did share the screen with a familiar face — her ex-husband, fellow Broadway star Christian Borle.
“We were married in real life, and we actually watched Gilmore Girls together. It’s crazy! … We are really good friends now, amazingly,” Foster tells Us. “He’s a wonderfully talented guy, and it just became an opportunity where we could do this together. The two of us are the stars of the Stars Hollow musical. It was amazing to share that experience with him, especially with our history.”
Foster and the Smash alum, 42, met at Carnegie Mellon University and were married from 2006 to 2010. The actress now resides in NYC with film writer Ted Griffin, her husband since 2014.
“I feel so lucky that Christian and I are able to have such a good relationship, because we were a part of each other’s lives for such a long time — and then to kind of come full circle together was really surreal and awesome,” she adds to Us. “It couldn’t have been a better experience.”
Gilmore Girls creators Amy and Dan Sherman-Palladino asked Foster to join the star-studded cast. The trio worked together on the short-lived ABC Family series Bunheads, which was canceled after one season in 2013. Foster played Michelle Simms, a Las Vegas showgirl who ends up teaching ballet with her mother-in-law.
“They created this role for me, and it’s just a real gift and opportunity. I just feel so lucky. I cannot wait to see it,” Foster says of the Gilmore Girls gig, which she shot in four days. “Gilmore Girls was incredible — to get to be on the set and hang out at Luke’s Diner and walk around Stars Hollow.”
Foster is just as upbeat about a possible Bunheads revival. “Of course [I’d do a reboot]. It had such a little cult following,” she tells Us. “It was amazing. I loved it so much. I was so disappointed when it didn’t come back. Frankly, any opportunity I would have to work with Amy and Dan again. And to play that character again and to live in that crazy world of dance — it would be great to relive that.”
Netflix has yet to announce a release date for Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life. Younger is currently filming season 3 in Brooklyn and was recently renewed for a fourth season.
