‘Gilmore Girls’: Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel Share Their First Impressions of Each Other
Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel play Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, the BFF mother and daughter duo on Gilmore Girls. “Freakishly linked” as Rory says, the two couldn’t get any closer. But what happened when the actors met for the first time?
Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel first met at a hotel in Canada
Before filming on Gilmore Girls began, Graham and Bledel met. Staying at a hotel in Canada before shooting the pilot episode, the actors met for the first time.
Before having dinner with Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband, Dan Palladino, Graham and Bledel introduced themselves to each other in the lobby.
During a joint interview with Glamour ahead of Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life’s release in 2016, Bledel and Graham looked back on the early days of knowing each other.
Alexis Bledel says she was ‘dazzled’ by Lauren Graham
When Bledel got cast as Rory, the ambitious, coffee-drinking, book-loving teen on Gilmore Girls, it was her first acting job. New to the process, she showed up not really knowing what to expect or how things were going to work.
“I was 18, and I just remember Lauren was a real professional actress, and this was my first job,” Bledel said with a laugh.
She continued, saying she looked to Graham as an example.
“She had all the poise and confidence and energy of a performer! That was a new thing for me,” Bledel said. “I didn’t know how to be that yet, so I just remember being a little bit … dazzled. Like, ‘Oh, wow, she knows how to do [this]!’”
As Graham noted in the interview, she and Bledel hadn’t read lines together or even met before getting cast on the show. They simply met at the hotel before shooting the pilot and that was that.
Lauren Graham thought Alexis Bledel was ‘perfect’ to play Rory Gilmore
Thinking about their first meeting in the hotel lobby, Graham opened up about what her initial thoughts were on her new co-star.
“She seemed new,” Graham said of Bledel. “But I also thought [she was] perfect for the character. Perfect.”
Graham also said she felt they got along and looked like they could be mother and daughter.
“I thought we hit it off, and I thought that in enough ways, we look alike,” she said.
More than that, Graham tried to see things from Bledel’s perspective.
“I just I kept trying to put myself in her shoes,” she said. “I came in from summer stock and kind of a different route, and I was always impressed by how much just natural ability she had from the beginning.”
Despite meeting just before the pilot, the actors bonded. Now their roles as Lorelai and Rory have made them one of the most popular TV mother and daughter duos ever.
