Why Are There So Many Goddamn Actors on Gilmore Girls?

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With so much up in the air due to the state of our world right now, I have been much less inclined to indulge in new TV shows during quarantine. Investing myself in new characters and worlds is already draining, and it has proven to be overwhelmingly so during a worldwide pandemic. For this reason, I have found myself sifting through my old pool of beloved series that I have watched fully and decided to take the plunge and rewatch them from the beginning. One night, I laid in bed, in need of something familiar, something comforting to dive into again.

And so, I reimmersed myself into the world of Gilmore Girls, where I was warmly greeted by a 15-year-old Rory (Alexis Bledel) and my absolute favorite, the Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham). Stars Hollow was just as I remembered it: warm even when it was cold outside, the caricature of a small town that I’d want to live in even though I could never live in a small town. It had the same twinkle lights, gazebo, Luke’s, everything.

My first watching of the show was around 2016 when I was 15 years old and could barely keep up with the countless references to actors I didn’t know and movies I hadn’t watched (This time around, I could still barely keep up with the references, but I’m a 2000’s kid, so I take no blame). However, something else stuck out to me this time, something that has haunted me for weeks now: Gilmore Girls has featured so many goddamn actors. “Featured,” in every single sense of the word. Actors that we all know and love have appeared on Gilmore Girls as important supporting characters, throwaway side characters, extras in the backgrounds of scenes, passing characters with one line. And not just actors, well-known actors who later went on to land the biggest roles of their careers in their own TV shows and movies.

When I say that this topic has haunted me, I mean that it has taken over my life. My notes app quickly gained a new list where I kept track of every single actor that I recognized on the show, whether that be from a prominent role or as a passing face in the background. Some of my favorite sightings include Jason Earles (Hannah Montana) as an extra, Max Greenfield (New Girl) at Dean’s bachelor party, Jane Lynch (Glee) as a nurse, Victoria Justice (Victorious) at a birthday party that Lorelai and Sookie organized, Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody, Mr. Robot) as a member of Lane’s Bible study group, David DeLuise (Wizards of Waverly Place) as T.J.’s brother (These actors are actually brothers in real life!), and Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton) as an editor from Princeton. This list is not exhaustive, but baffling all the same. Why are there so many recognizable actors in random roles on Gilmore Girls? How is it possible that so many of them went on to become famous in their own respective areas of the industry? What is it about this particular show that brought so many familiar faces to the auditions? Frankly, most of these parts were unmemorable, appearing only briefly or for a short scene. So, we can’t claim that these actors had that special magic that landed them the job because there was only so much being showcased through their roles. So, why?

To add more fuel to the fire, there is the peculiar case of Jared Padalecki (Supernatural), Chad Michael Murray (One Tree Hill), and Adam Brody (The O.C.), or “The Holy Trinity,” as I like to call them. This trio of actors is another wormhole of questions for me, as all three played significant romantic roles on the show until they were cast as the leads in their own respective TV shows. Each of these actors bowed out of Gilmore Girls to go on to their new shows, unknowingly stepping into what would become the biggest roles of their careers so far. Our timeline begins with Murray, known for playing Lucas Scott on One Tree Hill, who left Gilmore Girls in 2001 to complete a short arc on Dawson’s Creek as Charlie Todd, and later landed the titular role of Lucas in 2003. On Gilmore Girls, he played Rory’s teased love interest, Tristan Dugray. Shortly after, Brody joined the cast in 2002 as Dave Rygalski, Lane’s bandmate and love interest, until he, too, was cast in his most popular TV role as Seth Cohen on The O.C.. This caused him to make an early exit from Stars Hollow in 2003, explained to be due to his moving to college in the story. Lastly, we have Padalecki, the crowning jewel of our Holy Trinity, who played Rory’s first love, Dean. He had, by far, the most significant role on the show of the three actors, switching between being a lead and recurring role for 5 years. In 2005, he left to play Sam Winchester on Supernatural, his most famous role and one that he remained in for the next 15 years of his life.

All this to say, there aren’t any real answers as to how or why the strange appearances and fleeting roles of many of these actors came to be. We are left only with speculation and vague concepts of timing and fate, none of which can give us a satisfactory explanation. However, I can only think that this anomaly rings so truly of the spirit of Gilmore Girls. One of my favorite things about the show is that there is great attention to detail given to the passing of time over the course of the series. It’s a breeze to guess what time of the year it is in any of the episodes because Stars Hollow is always equipped with the appropriate details for each season- pumpkins and hay bales by the storefronts for fall, snowmen out in the town square for winter, the fresh puddles and wet streets for when it’s just rained, the abundance of flowers around town and the inn for spring and summer… The seasons come and go in a way that operates outside of the realm of TV, a way that feels real and slow and fast all at the same time. It feels oddly comforting to think that, even if they only appeared in the background of one episode, each of those actors left the show because life had bigger plans for them. Each member of “The Holy Trinity” joined new shows within the same year or so of leaving because it was simply their time. It was inexplicably in the cards for them that they finally land their breakout roles. You see, Gilmore Girls captures something so rare: life. Every single day, there is someone moments away from having their entire life fantastically uprooted and reimagined, and this show, by some weird product of timing and luck, managed to immortalize that moment for so many up-and-coming actors.

During a time of uncertainty, this fills me with hope. Our world is falling apart more and more every day and things seem like they’re never going to get better, but still, I think of those countless actors on Gilmore Girls. They had no idea how much their lives were going to change, and neither do we. To quote one of Lorelai’s most famous lines, “We’re almost there and nowhere near it. All that matters is we’re going.”