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In an interview published this week, Alexis Bledel (Rory Gilmore on Gilmore Girls) talks about her upcoming film, Post Grad, and about her experience portraying Rory on Gilmore Girls.
Alexis shares a few tidbits about the relevancy of the film today, but is quickly asked about how she wanted to make Ryden different from Gilmore Girls’ Rory. In comparing the two characters, Alexis says:
“Well, as the years went by on Gilmore Girls, I noticed that Rory was kind of like an idealized product of the show’s imagination because she was really perfect in a lot of ways, which started to annoy me a bit, but you have to keep playing the character. But Ryden -– I think she’s much more relatable in a lot of ways and this character’s story picks up in the same stage of life where Rory left off, graduating from college. So for anyone who likes the show, its kind of -– it’s a continuation in a way, but she’s a completely different girl because she makes a lot of mistakes. She has a very typical college experience. She’s kind of an average girl, and I can relate much more to her.”
I have to agree with Alexis here and I think that Season 6 and 7 of Gilmore Girls suffer from this perfection. It’s not just limited to the character of Rory, though. I think all the characters became too perfectly coiffed, with things that came too easily to them (relationships aside). Many of us bonded with Gilmore Girls because the characters were realistic – they ran out of clothes, they were late to class, they made mistakes. That realism was lost as the series progressed (in my opinion). I always thought that Alexis seemed the most disconnected from this perfect-Rory, so it’s nice to hear Alexis talk about it.
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Rory was no angel. She slept with a married man and stole a boat. Dropped out of college, then had all her friends do the dirty work when she moved out of her grandparents home. I don’t why any of you think she got more perfect in the later seasons. It was the first few seasons in which she was perfect.
agreed. that’s why the sixth and seventh seasons were all of a sudden so commercialized- the lorelai/christopher affair (they went to PARIS for crying outloud), luke’s daughter, and the logan drama with rory- they were all pretty damn unrealistic, in my opinion, and only to glamour up the show to give people these big flairs of drama.
Good point, June.
The first season of Gilmore Girls looks so “old fashioned” in a positive way, even compared to other shows from 2000. I don’t think it would have a chance against the look of Gossip Girl, now.
I think that part of it is the network’s fault. Gilmore Girls had to stay afloat and the WB/CW is the kind of network that cancels a less glossy show in favor of things like Gossip Girl and 90210. They were slowly getting rid of GG and cancelled Veronica Mars. Just look at their line-up today, would Gilmore Girls (esp. the GG of the first few seasons) get picked up by the CW today??
Actually, I think the character Rory lost her verneer of perfection as the show progresses. In the first 3 seasons she was [mostly] the perfect daughter, friend, girlfriend, and high-achieving student. Even her screwups were pretty understandable and certainly forgivable. In the lst 4 years [though mostly after meeting Logan] she became prone to more than occasional poor decisions, arbitrary jealousies, drunken binges to escape emotional distress, and even criminal behavior as release when she did not get what she wanted. That she had her financial worries taken care of [to give her a superficially "perfect life"] seemed to magnify rather than minimize the imperfections in her life.
That Alexis sees it another way makes a lot of sense. At this point she wants to vary her chosen roles as much as possible and avoid “type-casting”, thus the distancing from Rory. The battle fatigue from playing the same character for so long, the internal politics of the last year plus of GG, and having her private life at times under a magnifying certainly makes her reticence to discuss or consider a future return to the character understandable and probably has more to do with her growing annoyance with the character than any overwritten perfection in the plotlines.
I miss the real Rory from Series 3 the most. I have to say season 3 is personally my favourite. For the simple reason it shows how Rory isnt all perfect with the breakup for Dean. I also think that her and Jess should have met up again in the end of season 7 after the breakup with Logan. It just would have made it no so sad.
I agree, I agree, I agree. I am watching my box set right now for the 5th time this year alone. I have owned the box set since it came out. I watch it from start to finish a lot. More and more it begins to annoy me around the time Rory goes to college.
I have noticed that they went from very real characters to magic people. All of a sudden they have no money troubles, nice clothes, need for nothing, etc. etc. Where did that all come from? A lot of people explain it by Lorelai owning the Inn. Of course that changed their money situation. It was never talked about, though. Just, all of a sudden, Rory is dressing fancy everyday. In season 7 especially, I felt like Rory’s life was unrealistic and too perfect. Now, I am a die-hard GG fanatic. Like I said, I watch the box set from start to finish several times every year. I never get tired of it. It never gets old. I collect GG stuff. All of that. However, even I do think things got too perfect, fancy, and easy.
The more the show went on, I missed the days of the main focus being on Star Hollow. I missed Dean and Jess. I miss the bus rides to Chilton. All of that. When she went to Yale, and even more when she began dating Logan, things got a little unreal. I still love it, don’t get me wrong. It was just a lot less charming and realistic than it was Seasons 1 – 5.
I agree that Rory seemed near perfect, but I don’t think it was unrealistic. I knew a few people in high school that were like Rory: hard working, driven to succeed, goal oriented, never got into trouble.
I think Rory was a nice contrast to Lorelai. They both are very smart and equally hard working, but Lorelai got into trouble when she was a teen. I’ve always thought that was why Rory was such a good kid. She knew what her mom went through when she was younger and how hard she worked to make sure Rory had all the things she missed out on by having to take on the responsibility of being a parent at such a young age.