Milo Ventimiglia’s “Jack Pearson” on This is Us has stolen our hearts, and it’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role.

But as it turns out, Milo revealed that producers envisioned something completely different at first.

“I walked in with my beard and my long hair and set my motorcycle helmet down and they went, ‘Who is this guy?’ I think they just saw something different than someone who had practiced the words, and they picked me. I don’t think it was so much me choosing it as it choosing me.”

At that point, reports Variety, Milo said he’d been focusing on his personal life more than his professional one.

“I was just trying to be just a man existing as a man, and here’s this man who’s just trying to provide for his wife and his family and all of that. It was so simple and beautiful that I thought, ‘I’d just love to do it. I’d love to be a part of it.’” An actor never knows what his next thing will be: “You don’t know if you’re going to be swinging a sword in ancient Egypt or if you’re going to be playing a cop walking the streets of New York.”

We’re happy they chose you too, Milo!