Gilmore Girls star Lauren Graham has revealed she would “always say yes” to reprising her role as Lorelai Gilmore if the series ever rebooted.
The hit comedy series follows witty single mother Lorelai Gilmore (Graham) and her teacher’s pet daughter Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel) as they navigate awkward family relations, boyfriends and Rory going to Ivy League college, all from their home in the close-knit fictional Connecticut town of Stars Hollow.
The series ran for seven seasons between 2000 and 2007, with a miniseries revival in 2016 titled Gilmore Girls: A Year In the Life. It has been praised for its subtle analysis of class, wealth and female independence, since Graham’s character Lorelai is ostracised from her wealthy upper-class family when she becomes pregnant with Rory aged 16.
Asked by The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon if she would ever return to Stars Hollow again, Graham responded with a decisive yes.
“I would, yes. I always say yes. Because it's the best part I ever had, and I loved doing it. It's just that thing where it was the perfect material at the perfect time with the perfect writer, and it just means so much to me.”
The show has been experiencing a revival among younger viewers who have discovered the show on Netflix in recent years.
Graham remarked that it is “getting strange” to be approached by fans who have different types of attachment to the show.
“On one hand, people are starting to say, ‘You raised me.’ And I'm like, ‘I hope there were other adults involved!’” she said. “And then on the other hand you have people that are like, ‘Oh, I just have the show on in the background. It puts my dog to sleep. We're not even listening anymore. It's just on like background music.’”
Graham and Scott Patterson, who played Lorelai’s on-again-off-again love interest in the series, reunited in December for a Walmart advert that saw the pair appear in Luke’s diner and walk through Stars Hollow town square covered in snow.
Famously, Lorelai has a serious coffee addiction in the series, and the advert saw Luke pull out a huge coffee machine from a Walmart box.
Devoted fans couldn’t help but point out how Luke’s nephew, Jess (Milo Ventimiglia), worked at Walmart during season three of Gilmore Girls.
Full circle moment and character development for Luke since he gave Jess a hard time when he worked at Walmart,” said one user.
“Wowww we feel seen by Jess’s former employer,” someone else wrote.
Speaking to People ahead of the Walmart ad’s release, Graham explained how it’s “always a little surreal” returning to Stars Hollow.
“It was a particularly odd day for me because there’s just so much familiarity with that character and seeing Scott and being in that place,” she said.
As for Patterson, he said the highlight of doing the ad was getting to work alongside Graham again, whom he called his “favourite scene partner of [his] entire career.”
“I’ve never worked with anybody with a better skill set, more grit and just this incredible stamina among the other things that she brings with her humour and her kindness,” he said about Graham.
“I’ll always cherish the time I got to spend with Lauren and act with her because she’s literally an icon. And that is just growing as the years go by.”
