The star of Heroes finds that his powers are stronger.

By Nate Denver

Though he considers himself a working actor and not a celebrity, Milo Ventimiglia is no stranger to being treated like a star. In 2006, after six years on Gilmore Girls, he traded in throngs of female admirers for hordes of comic book/sci-fi fans when he landed the role of power-mimicking Peter Petrelli on the series Heroes. Surprisingly, he found the former to be more intense. “The teenage girls are fixated on who they think I am,” says the 29-year-old native of Anaheim, Calif. “You got them foaming at the mouth, rabid, wanting to run up and just touch you and run their fingers through your hair. The comic book guys, they talk more about the character in the show than who you are.”

Ventimiglia broke into acting when he was 18, with a one-line part on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The experience was a good one, thanks in large part to the Fresh Prince himself. “I’m this nobody kid with one line, and Will Smith walked up and we had a 10-minute conversation,” Ventimiglia recalls. “He made me feel welcome. I always hung onto that.”

Last year, after a decade of professional acting, Ventimiglia won the role he was seemingly born to play. Since birth, he’s had a crooked smile due to dead nerves in his lower left lip, and it helped him land the part of Rocky’s son in last year’s Rocky Balboa. “Sylvester Stallone and I were laughing about something [during our first meeting] and both of our smiles went down to the side,” says Ventimiglia. “He turned to the casting director and said, ’His lip, it even hooks down like mine does.’ There’s been occasions when I haven’t gotten jobs, but the funny thing is, girls think it’s cute.” Who doesn’t love a flawed hero?

INFORMER

A lacto-vegetarian since birth, Milo eats milk products but won’t touch meat, fish, or eggs.