After recently revisiting one of her most iconic roles, that of Lorelai Gilmore on the Netflix reboot of Gilmore Girls, Lauren Graham is taking being America’s surrogate mom to the next, perhaps obvious level. The actress and author is the cover girl for the January issue of Good Housekeeping, which hits the streets on December 13 – and hits the reception area of your doctor’s office a few months after that, if you can wait that long.
Lauren, who I can’t believe is 49, is promoting her new memoir, Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (and Everything in Between). She shares lots of behind the scenes stories from the set of the show, so if you’ve got a GG fan in your life, this could be the perfect stocking stuffer. She’s also working as fast as she can in the process of writing her second novel, a follow-up to 2014’s Someday, Someday, Maybe: A Novel, and also producing a screenplay.
In the magazine, Lauren shared her “7 Biggest Life Lessons,” and they are ones I think we all could use in our lives too – I know I sure could. Of particular note is Life Lesson #4, “The best pairings come naturally,” the proof of which comes from her relationship with her 51-year-old beau, Peter Krause, who played her brother on Parenthood from 2010-2015. She also talked about playing Lorelai from GG and Sarah from Parenthood, some sage advice she received from a beloved Hollywood idol and her inspiration for writing. Check out some highlights from the interview:
On playing two similarly unconventional single moms: “There are things that I’m good at and there are things that are just not for me. I’m not gonna play a cop, I’m not gonna play a doctor…and that’s OK. I’d rather be in [roles] that are really verbal and smart and funny. As Diane Keaton said to me, ‘Funny doesn’t age.’”
On which character she relates to more: “I relate more to Lorelai Gilmore, probably. I mean, I speak quickly more in attitude and just in athleticism of what that work is and was for me, as an actor, that’s a place I feel really comfortable and exhilarated, so, in that way I guess I relate a little more to that world and that language.”
On her relationship with Peter Krause: “We couldn’t stop talking. Not about ourselves, but about the world and books and family. Once we got together, there was no game play. It was like, You like me, and I like you. It gave me an understanding of life: This is how things happen, and it’s completely random.”
On her surprising hidden talent: “I really like to entertain. None of my characters ever cook, so I would think it’s surprising that I actually really like to.”
On her inspiration to become an author: “One day in my trailer in Parenthood I looked up and I had the afternoon, and it just kind of occurred as a way to be creative and but not have to be part of any other structure. It was kind of a revelation that I could just do something on my own and the fact that it has now given me other work is like icing. I just did it for fun.”
Lauren went on to say of her relationship, “It’s not a big, loud life. We have a lot of neighbors, people come by, we’re with Peter’s son a lot and we keep it small.” She also confessed that she likes to spend her spare time doing very un-celebrity-like things, admitting, “This is deeply dorky, but I really like to organize…I’ve taken the ‘Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up’ book and really gone too far!”
Full disclosure, I never watched Gilmore Girls (sorry) and I never watched Parenthood (again, sorry) – but I do watch This is Us, which is kind of like Parenthood 2.0, so does that count for anything? I did enjoy Lauren in Bad Santa though, and she seems like a put-together kind of woman. I totally want to hang out with her, providing she’d help me tidy up my hot mess of a house.
Photo credit: Good Housekeeping/Brian Bowen Smith, WENN.com, Getty Images
This is a first…! to be the first to comment, I mean. I love Peter Krause as an actor (especially some of the episodes from Six Feet Under and before that…and ms. Graham was great in parenthood (never watched Gilmore Girls)…nice that things do work out for two very hard working actors and such.
No, This is Us does not count. Gilmore Girls is a beautiful, wonderful show. It’s just beautiful.
Not to disregard This is Us, which is great, but Gilmore Girls is different. And for all its fantasy-like Stars Hollow and characters, it’s amazingly real when it comes to relationships.
The recent four episodes also proved how good the show is at blending fantasy and reality extremely well.
I really like This is Us. I never watched Gilmore Girls. Might have to check it out some snowy weekend soon.
Watched Parenthood and GG but just cant get into the hype of TIU. Love lauren graham!!!
Agreed – This is Us was SOOOO overhyped with schmaltzy ads, I was turned off and never even gave it a shot. I liked Parenthood, but NBC was never too obnoxious with their ads for that. TIU though, yikes.
Hey now, my dentist’s office has the latest Good Housekeeping issues at all times as well as a bunch of other current titles. No outdated mags for them, lol.
I never watched GG but now I’m intrigued. I tried to watch Parenthood and couldn’t stick with it but Graham seems likable. She and Krause seem very sweet together.
GG is amazing. I was not a fan of Parenthood, despite the wonderful cast.
I was a huge fan of GG back in the early 00s and just watched the new episodes of Netflix. I’m conflicted about the ending and the episodes overall, but I loved Emily’s story line (RIP Edward Herrmann).
As for Graham, I’ve always been a big fan, but she’s definitely had fillers/work done — it was really obvious in the new GG episodes. It’s too bad because she is such a beautiful woman and should have just allowed herself to age naturally.
Kelly Bishop killed it in the reunion episodes. Missed Edward Herrmann so much 🙁 I wasn’t sure about the fillers, thought it might have simply been weight gain.
I think it’s weight gain, not fillers. She was a tiny thing in the beginning of GG, the last season you could tell she gained weight, her waist was much thicker and her face totally changed. She’s lost most of it but getting that tiny again probably wouldn’t look good on her face anymore.
I’m a huge GG fan and wasn’t happy with Graham the last season, it seemed she was just phoning it in, and Lorelai had become very whiney . I’d heard she wanted the show to end so she could do movies, she had her one role in Bad Santa and thought she could be a movie star. I’m still a fan of Graham and I’m glad she’s doing so well.
Amy Sherman Palladino (the creator) left after the 6th season and the 7th (last) season just wasn’t the same. Lauren has said she felt the tone of the show was very different.
Agree with Emma, I think there were a lot of off screen (and on screen) issues in the final season.
I’ve watched the series so many times, and it definitely has flaws (including the new stuff) but overall I’ve always loved it. Lauren should have gotten more recognition for her work in the early seasons too.
I wanted to love GG. I tried so hard, but ultimately the aggressive tones the actors used, the banter I guess, was so biting it caused me to become agitated watching so I had to stop 🙁
It wasn’t the lines, it was the delivery. The all seemed so angry all the time, besides Melissa’s character Sookie.
So I have to miss the reunion shows 🙁
The banter killed my soul
Thank you. I always thought it was just me. I’ve never made it past the first season of GG. (OT….I’ve never made it through the first episode of Downton Abbey. I always fall asleep.)
Yeah, you’ve gotta really enjoy banter to watch the show. I love banter, so I loved the show, but I can see how someone who doesn’t enjoy it wouldn’t enjoy the show.
I also hated Lorelei. And Rory. I thought they were both just awful and unlikable. I would not be friend with either of them irl. I got through about two seasons before I realized I didn’t like them and it made watching the rest difficult. I did watch the reunion episodes, which solidified my hate for them. Emily was, and always has been the best character kn the show. Everyone else is horribly rude and grumpy.
I watched the series back then and liked it. Now I watched the netflix episodes and I downright hated the characters. I kept asking myself how it is possible that I didn’t notice all that negativity and agressiveness before. Had to skip large sections of multiple episodes and was glad when the netflix thing was over. I am sad that I lost my patience and tolerance for these characters, because I used to enjoy the show a lot.
Lauren Graham’s character on Gilmore Girls was a mean bully that expected to be lauded for her own quirks but made fun of everyone else’s and needed all the attention to always be on her. Her “jokes” were nearly always at someone’s expense. But, because she was an attractive woman, it was “adorable” instead of obnoxious or cruel.
And, her ‘evil, controlling’ parents were pretty great and always supported her, even when she was pregnant at 16, she the one that rejected them and their support because they were so “controlling,” but then as soon as her daugher, Rory, made a decision she didn’t agree with, she stopped talking to Rory and told her parents that she was done, Rory was theirs now?
I have never understood the love for Lorelei. She’s pretty horrible.
That was sort of the point of the show, she was very much her mother’s daughter. While the audience caught on quickly, it took a while for Lorelai to figure it out.
As for her being done with Rory, that was more about her parents letting her down and going behind her back. She didn’t like Rory’s decision but she knew Rory would eventually figure it all out, but she felt betrayed by her parents.
She felt betrayed by her parents, so she took it out on Rory? By cutting off all communication with her daughter when her daughter needed her most?
I don’t agree that Lorelei was like her mother. Emily didn’t always do things right, but she tried, especially with Lorelei. She even had her cook make a twinkie! Lorelei just mocked anything that wasn’t exactly what she thought it should be.
I haven’t watched the Netflix episodes, so if I ever do get to them, any or all of my opinions may change, but based on the original series, I think Lorelei was awful and I don’t understand why people loved her character so much other than that she was played by an attractive, charismatic actress.
Rory wasn’t innocent in all of this, she chose her grandparent’s side against her mother. And I agree that Rory needed Lorelai most at that time, but that wasn’t what Rory wanted, and it would have been a boring story line. Rory and Lorelai needed a big shift in their relationship and this was it. Rory came out of it more confident and knowing more about herself instead of depending on her mother to define her.
Lorelai and Emily are very much alike. They’re both stubborn and need things to go their way. And they both think their way is best.
Emily was always my favorite and she had some of the best lines.
I don’t think it’s irrelevant that Lorelei was the mother in her relationship with Rory and my take is that a mother doesn’t renounce her motherhood the first time her daughter asserts her independence or does something she doesn’t like. I guess I view it hat Rory came out of that okay as being despite Lorelei’s treatment.
But, we can agree that Emily’s the favorite 🙂
Based on your feelings now, I would not recommend the Netflix episodes!
I love and loathe Lorelai, Rory and Emily. They are all terrible people in some ways and great people in other ways. They are not easy to like people, but I was obsessed with the story. It gripped be because even when they were being awful, there was a realness to their emotional responses.
After Rory moved in with her grandparents, communication was cut off in both directions. At one point, we find out that Lorelai tried to call Rory’s phone but she lost it and got a new number. I have a lot of things I could say about this, but ultimately, I’m not trying to convince you to change your opinion. Did you watch the whole series? I’m curious what you saw/didn’t see. I love that show but I don’t think any of the characters were amazing people. They were all downright terrible at times. I think that some of what we see with Lorelai is how having a baby at 16 matured her in some ways, but stunted her in many others and passed this onto Rory as well.
Geez I love this show so much and I’ve watched the series many times so I do love to discuss it. But my original point was just that you probably shouldn’t watch the Netflix episodes unless you want to be angry.
@AngelaH, thanks for the tip, I’ve been undecided on whether to watch the Netflix episodes. I did watch the whole series, I used to watch it with friends (all of whom thought Lorelei was perfect), but I’ve never re-watched the series.
One thing I will say about this show, is that even when characters annoyed me, Gilmore Girls was always entertaining, so it wasn’t a hardship to watch, just frustrating sometimes.
@sa
I totally understand. I would yell at the tv when I watched. There were times when I couldn’t stand most of the characters!
Sorry but This is Us is totally not Parenthood 2.0, the only similarity they share is that they’re family-series but that’s it, the feeling is totally different (at least for me).
So many words and yet none of them are about The Royal We!! Boooo!!!
Loved Parenthood (but not GG) and love Lauren and Peter.
I am a huge fan of Lauren Graham and so happy she’s happy. Her book is charming and I can’t wait for the sequel. The Netflix sequels were satisfying for me, but I guess i’m in the minority. I loved the ending and in my world it’s Logan and Rory ride or die.