It's almost hard to believe, but Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life was released just one week ago. Because of the high anticipation, holiday weekend, and overall trend of binge watching, it seems like everybody has already seen all four 90-minute episodes. Then again, the exception to the rule is the cast and crew itself, as they had the luxury of already knowing all the spoiler-y bits. Kelly Bishop recently revealed she'd only seen the first two episodes, and now it appears that Lorelai Gilmore herself, Lauren Graham, hasn't seen any of it.
Lauren Graham recently appeared in a 92nd Street Y talk (via People) where she discussed the various aspects of Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. When asked if she'd watched any of the reboot, Graham revealed the following:
I don't learn anything and this has the added level of ... I was so on another plane, it felt like, during the doing of the thing and I had some of my favorite moments I've ever had as an actor and as a person in that experience. I just want to leave it there for now --- that was enough. That was more than enough. It was the best experience I've ever had.
As if we needed another reason to love Lauren Graham. Apparently filming Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life was such an important emotional and professional experience that watching the finished product might ruin her memories of it.
Lauren Graham's performance in the new Gilmore Girls episodes was definitely something significant. While the audience was emotionally invested in Rory and Emily, it's always been Lorelai's story. In A Year in the Life we saw Lorelai struggle with the various changes in her life. Sookie and Michel wanted to leave The Dragonfly, her father had recently passed, and her relationship with Luke had hit a bit of a rut. But in true Gilmore Girls fashion, everything seemed to work out in the end. Except maybe not for Rory.
In the same talk, Lauren Graham also revealed how emotional the experience of returning to Stars Hollow was. In fact, she had a hard time even reading the script for the finale episode "Fall". She said the following:
I couldn't read 'Fall', I just couldn't read it. I even think --- and I'm sorry --- I shot a couple scenes without having read the whole thing. I was on this crazy high and feeling so thankful and so pleased with what the material was, I almost didn't want to know how it ended. I was worried where it was going and what if I'm disappointed. But finally I had to do it, 'cause I really had to film it, and I sat at the kitchen table and I cried from page one all the way to the end. It was the biggest emotional experience.
And this is why no one else in the world could play Lorelai. Lauren Graham has a deep connection with the single mother, and the show in general.
Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life is currently streaming on Netflix.
