By Michaela Gordoni
Milo Ventimiglia’s role in I CAN ONLY IMAGINE 2’s shaped him as a man, friend and father.
Once he read the script, he immediately knew he wanted to portray MercyMe’s Tim Timmons in the movie.
“The page was the first introduction,” Ventimiglia said. “Once I got to know Tim, I thought, ‘Oh, this is the real experience.’”
“I could almost put the script away,” he said. “I didn’t need to learn anything by asking targeted questions like, ‘What do you eat for breakfast?’ I just wanted to become friends and let that friendship evolve.”
He found more than a friendship with Timmons; he found an “affirmation of living.”
And “an affirmation of goodness. An affirmation of gratitude that Tim walks with every day and every interaction that I’m around to see happen,” Ventimiglia said, knowing that he’ll be life-long friends with the musician.
Related: Milo Ventimiglia sits with Tim Timmons, who he portrays in, “I Can Only Imagine 2”
Timmons is equally grateful for his relationship with Ventimiglia.
He has “that intentionality of, ‘Let’s just be humans and love each other really well,’ was jarring,” Timmons said. “I was so impressed and grateful to have a new friend who would be that kind of beautiful human.”
After podcaster Annie F. Downs interviewed Ventimiglia and Timmons last week, she said, “Here’s the thing I wasn’t prepared for: the genuine friendship between these two men. As you listen, you’ll hear it and maybe, like me, it’ll bring tears to your eyes.”
This movie was very significant for Ventimiglia, not just for the weight it carried as a true story but because it was his first since he’s become a dad.
“My approach was totally the same,” he said. “But the well I could tap into emotionally became infinite.”
“I was told you’re touched in a different way,” he said of how fatherhood has changed his storytelling. “I felt that, and I felt more connected to the story we were telling.”
His connection to his daughter somehow expanded into what Timmons had gone through.
“I felt immersed in it,” he explained. “It deepened the emotional experience.”
He hopes that viewers understand that they can endure and persevere through faith.
“Goodness, connection, strength in the hard moments in our lives,” he said. “Being grateful for those hard moments — because we all experience them in different levels and different degrees. Without them, we can’t find that strength for ourselves and that strength for others.”
Ventimiglia also told Downs on her podcast, “This wasn’t about a movie, this wasn’t about even telling a story. This was ‘Oh, wow, I’m given a moment in life to connect with another human being and his story and know him and become like lifelong friends from this…’ For me, it’s about my friend.”
I CAN ONLY IMAGINE 2 secured a +4 content rating from Movieguide®. It is out now in theaters.
Read Next: I CAN ONLY IMAGINE 2 Cast Explains How Movie Explores ‘Grief, Gratitude’
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