“I never do things conventionally.”

So says Milo Ventimiglia of his against-the-grain life that was on full display last week when the This Is Us Emmy nominee bucked the “photo dump” social media trend of posting 5-10 images at once by uploading well more than 100 images to Instagram in seconds. By emptying his camera roll, Ventimiglia showed off months of travel adventures that included stops in Switzerland, Zion National Park in Utah and Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina. And also proving his atypical lifestyle, the multi-hyphenate did something that would make most in-demand actors gasp: He turned down several movies in order to set off on the globe-trotting itinerary.

“Some of its was travel with friends, some was on my own,” explains the 44-year-old during an interview to tout his collaboration with Lowe’s on its House of Curators series to select affordable décor designed to emulate his California home and much-used Airstream (which he used on select trips). “For me, there’s so much outpouring of emotions that I do at work, so to get out in the world, see friends in Switzerland, Fort Bragg, do some good with some military folks, and be out on the road by myself — it all goes into the collective bucket with acting on set, with characters.” Though Ventimiglia, next seen on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, knows it was “a lot” to dump all the stunning images at once, it reflects a beautiful sight in that “it was the culmination of life for the last couple months from April through September.”

This story first appeared in the Oct. 6 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.

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