Mandy Moore Gushes Over Milo Ventimiglia’s ‘This Is Us’ Directing Debut (Exclusive)

While Mandy Moore has been Milo Ventimiglia’s scene partner for the last four years on This Is Us, she recently got the chance to work with him in his role as a director, and she was wildly impressed.

ET’s Leanne Aguilera recently joined the stars of the hit NBC family drama ahead of a screening of their upcoming episode at the London Hotel in West Hollywood, and Moore had nothing but praise for Ventimiglia and his This Is Us directorial debut.

“I’m a very proud friend,” Moore said with a beaming smile. Ventimiglia stepped behind the camera to help the recent episode “Storybook Love,” which aired on Oct. 22, and Moore gushed over his work and the episode itself.

“It was one of the best of our entire series, and I think that was pretty universal,” she shared. “I feel like the entire internet would agree with that sentiment.”

“My goal was to serve the actors, serve the story, serve the crew,” Ventimiglia said with a humble shrug. “Everybody really knocked it out of the park. Everybody showed up really prepared and ready to go and excited to be there. It was fun, and we had a good time.”

The show has long been applauded for its unflinching and often emotionally complex examinations of the lives a the Pearson family over two generations.

However, when scenes get particularly heavy, Moore and Ventimiglia agreed that they had one serious go-to solution to help get into a better headspace.

“Candy,” Ventimiglia explained.

“We do, we get candy. When we need it,” Moore agreed. “It’s like, Milo and I will look at each other and just go, ‘Snack time?'”

Ultimately, Ventimiglia explained that the cast is actually pretty good at distancing themselves from the more emotionally draining aspects of their performances and that the mood on set never gets that heavy in the first place.

“There’s the work, and then there’s time with your friends, and your time with the crew,” Ventimiglia shared. “You’re there to do a job and when action is called you’re able to snap into it and when cut is called your able to get back into whatever else your doing.”

“It’s nice,” he added. “There’s no real though of, ‘Oh god, I need to get away from the tough scene were doing right now.’ It’s just you’re in it, and then your back to normal life.”

This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.