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Nick Holmes played the character of Robert Grimaldi on Gilmore Girls. He appeared in 4 episodes, starting with ‘You Jump, I Jump, Jack‘ and ending with ‘The Real Paul Anka.‘ Robert Grimaldi was a member of The Life and Death Brigade, one of the guys most often seen hanging with Colin and Finn.
I had a chance to speak briefly with Nick, who shared that he’d originally auditioned for the role of Dean (which went to Jared Padalecki) for the Gilmore Girls pilot. He subsequently came back for other love interest auditions, including for Tristan and Jess. However, it wasn’t until ‘You Jump, I Jump, Jack‘ that Nick found his role.
“I think they gave me the role because of the shooting required – there’s a gag in that episode where the Life and Death Brigade is skeet shooting, but with paintball guns at men in tuxedos – and I’ve had extensive experience with paintball and shooting in general,” Nick notes.
I asked Nick what his experience was like working on Gilmore Girls, and this is what he had to say:
“My first night of filming was in Griffith Park and that’s when I met Alexis, Matt, Tanc Sade, and Alan Loayza. I was terrified – but Alexis was really cool and Matt is the sweetest guy alive, so that helped a lot. Plus, the director of that episode, Kenny Ortega (High School Musical), was very at ease and that made the whole set relax. It was amazing to see the Out Of Africa type environment they had set up in the forest. I was walking around feeling very high on the whole experience.
The next day of filming was at the Disney Ranch north of Los Angeles. It was a big day with a lot to accomplish – like the umbrella platform jump. Last shot of the day was the skeet shooting and that’s when the pressure was really on me. There was only a few minutes of daylight left so Amy proposed a long steady-cam shot that would prevent having to shoot close up coverage of everyone. The start of this shot was my shooting the guys in tuxedos flying through the air. After a few false starts and gun errors (I didn’t get a chance to tune the gun before hand) everyone was really looking at me like I was full of it and they were worried it wasn’t going to happen. I got my head together and we got the shot, then we had just enough time to get coverage of the men in tuxedos getting hit. So until the sun went down I was standing in the middle of the Disney Ranch, surrounded by the crew and the production staff (who had come down to watch the spectacle), shooting stunt men as they were launched into the air two at a time. By that time I was warmed up and I couldn’t miss and everyone was having a great time watching it all happen. It was, without a doubt, the most delightfully surreal moment of my life.”
I couldn’t find the skeet shooting scene online, but here’s a video of one of Nick Holmes’ scenes on Gilmore Girls in ‘The Real Paul Anka.‘:
Nick says that Gilmore Girls was “the greatest job I’ve ever had” and he continues to be very close to many people he met on the show (including John Cabrera). Check out this photo of Nick in the episode ‘Pulp Friction‘ where he gets to date Rory:
Nick Holmes has done 5 movies since Gilmore Girls, 2 in post-production for this year. He’s also moved to behind the camera as second unit director for The Thirst: Blood War, a horror flick about vampires and warlocks. Nick also had a part in the film, as did other Gilmore Girls star Rini Bell (Lulu on Gilmore Girls). Here’s Nick’s behind-the-scenes look at the movie:
Nick is also on twitter! You can follow him here: twitter.com/narcissusholmes
Top image used with permission / Bottom image: TheWB.com
i love him…i think he wouldv’e done a good job as tristan but hes really good as robert….. watching gilmore girls now…. i jump you jump jack and the ep when him & rory go to the party together
1064 days ago
[...] that you can currently find featured at the top of his website. He also worked with Tanc Sade & Nick Holmes on the Two Straws short. His web series, GOLD, has now aired 5 episodes (see them here) with the [...]
1066 days ago
[...] films, Two Straws, which brought together 2 other Gilmore Girls Life & Death Brigade alumns, Nick Holmes (Robert) and Alan Loayza (Colin McCrae). This was Tanc’s second $20 short, after You Had Me [...]
1106 days ago
[...] Nick Holmes (Robert of the Life & Death Brigade on Gilmore Girls) released today a short film that he made recently as part of the Instant Film Festival, an annual festival held in LA. The festival challenges film makers to script, complete, and screen a movie within 48 hours. The resulting film, In Parallel, was made with Mackenzie Firgens and won most of the awards at the last festival. Check it out: [...]
Yeah, I know Rory just blurted out “Grimaldi”, but that’s how he’s credited in imdb, so I think it became his ‘accepted’ last name, as it were. ;)
Think Rory’s blurting out of “Grimaldi” was to pacify her Mom and when she asked Robert we never heard an answer.
Always interesting to hear the actors backstory on some of the more interesting GG moments, especially so since Nick’s rememberance mirrors the Palladino’s voiceover on the You Jump episode so well.
Since both posts today mentioned that the actors Nick and Wayne had auditioned or at least read for some other parts before finally landing one on GG, it makes me wonder who else besides Alexis and Lisa Weil are known to have read/auditioned for the part of Rory; possibly the Chilton twins Teal Redmond and Shelly Cole or maybe Kristen Ritter since ASP seems to stockpile actors for further parts?? Any info out there??
pretty cool, i think rory just made up “grimaldi” though :)
Wow I had no idea he tried out for all those roles. It’s good to see he finally landed a role on the show. He did a good job as Robert, I liked Robert, it would have been nice to see him in more episodes.
Yeah, I don’t think we ever learned Robert’s last name. I think Rory told Lorelai that his last name was Grimaldi to get Lorelai off her back when she was asking questions. Remember at the Pulp Fiction theme party Rory asked Robert what his last name was, so I don’t think she knew.
Was his last name even Grimaldi? I could’ve sworn Rory just made that up to tell Lorelai because she didn’t know his real last name.