Lauren Graham reflects on the ‘bittersweet’ feeling of the ‘Gilmore Girls’ revival now being behind her
She also recalls her first paid acting gig -- in a training video.
For years, Lauren Graham and her “Gilmore Girls” cohorts were asked about the possibility of a reunion — either in movie form or by way of more television episodes.
Then it finally happened.
A four-part revival of the cult-favorite dramedy, which originally ran for seven seasons from 2000 to 2007 on the WB (later the CW), was unveiled last fall on Netflix to the delight of super fans everywhere. When Graham stopped by The Times’ video studio this week, though, she admitted to feeling a little morose now that it’s actually happened.
“It’s really wonderful and a little bittersweet,” said Graham, who played fast-talking mom Lorelai Gilmore on the series. “It was fun, in some ways, to have that question out there because What if? What if we could? What if we did? What would that feel like? What would that be? It was such an incredible, joyous rush to do it… So it’s been hard, actually, since then to look at other material and imagine that it will meet that bar.”
It’s really wonderful and a little bittersweet.
— Lauren Graham on the “Gilmore Girls” revival now being behind her
Graham said she never had any hesitation about bringing the show back but did acknowledge being worried about fan expectations.
“I knew no matter what we did, somebody was going to feel it wasn’t what they wanted or [that] they wanted more or less of whatever,” Graham said. “But to me, it felt like the show had grown up — as it had to. We couldn’t have gone back and done CW-ready episodes.”
The most-read Entertainment stories this hour »
The word is still out on whether more “Gilmore Girls” episodes are on the horizon. But in the meantime, Graham said she wants to focus on half-hour projects. Fox recently passed on her comedy pilot, “Linda from HR,” in which she starred as, you guessed it, a human resources representative.
“It was always quite an ambitious premise,” Graham said. “And kind of cable-y. Pilot season is kind of like a very intense dating game. If it’s not love at first sight for both people, it’s OK. But what I really love is I got to do something pretty different. And it was a great idea.… It was worth a try.”
For the full conversation, watch the video below:
Though the actress doesn’t talk as fast as her character. Graham discusses how the show “continued to rise through being underestimated,” and the events of its Netflix revival.
Twitter: @villarrealy
The complete guide to home viewing
Get Screen Gab for everything about the TV shows and streaming movies everyone’s talking about.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
