Melissa McCarthy did not realize how demanding Gilmore Girls was while she was making it. She thought that was simply how television worked.
Looking back on her years as Sookie St. James, McCarthy said the series was “really hard,” pointing to scripts that could run 93 pages and dialogue that had to be delivered with extraordinary precision. Actors were not supposed to change even a contraction, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Sometimes those pages arrived the morning they were being filmed. McCarthy also remembered tackling 10-page oners, long scenes designed to play continuously without the usual collection of shorter setups and edits.
The strange part, from her perspective, was that none of it initially seemed strange. Gilmore Girls was her first major television role, so she had no easier production to compare it with.
McCarthy Says the Scripts Could Reach 93 Pages
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McCarthy described the experience during a new Variety interview, calling the show “good training” before explaining just how rigid the writing could be.
The rapid dialogue that became one of the show’s signatures left very little room for an actor to reshape a line on the spot. McCarthy recalled scripts running as long as 93 pages and said performers could not alter even small contractions. She assumed that was what making television was like and learned how to meet the demands.
She Still Defends Amy Sherman-Palladino’s Way of Running the Show
She said she loved that Sherman-Palladino had such a distinct style and built a world that depended on precise rhythm, wording and speed. McCarthy also admired how firmly the creator protected that vision.
She placed that determination in the context of television in the early 2000s, saying a woman running a network series at that time likely had to fight especially hard to keep other people from reshaping what she had created.
McCarthy believes that insistence ultimately paid off. She pointed to the fact that Gilmore Girls has endured for decades and said viewers still feel an unusual sense of ownership over the series.
Sherman-Palladino and husband Daniel Palladino left before the show’s seventh and final season but returned for Netflix’s 2016 revival, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.
Fans Still Bring Sookie Up Nearly 20 Years Later
McCarthy admitted she remains surprised by how often people approach her about a role she began playing in 2000. She has built a major film career since then and earned two Academy Award nominations for Bridesmaids and Can You Ever Forgive Me?, yet Sookie remains the character many viewers immediately associate with her.
“I’ve worked since then!” McCarthy joked about the continuing attention, before acknowledging how meaningful it is that people still describe Gilmore Girls as a comfort show.
She returned briefly for Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life and said she remains close with former co-stars Lauren Graham and Yanic Truesdale. McCarthy told People that she and Truesdale have even vacationed together.
McCarthy also recently watched the original pilot with her daughter Vivian, who was struck by how different her mother’s voice sounded more than two decades earlier. McCarthy joked that the difference was simply youth.
The franchise itself is still moving. HBO Max announced in August that the first authorized Gilmore Girls documentary is currently in production, with Bonni Cohen directing.
The film will tell the show’s story with participation from Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino, along with Graham and other key cast and crew. It is also expected to include never-before-seen outtakes, behind-the-scenes footage and original script pages.