‘Gilmore Girls’: Amy Sherman-Palladino Created Rory’s Yale Roommate Because Katie Walder Lost 2 Auditions for the Show
Over seven seasons, a lot of characters came in and out of the Gilmore Girls’ lives. When Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel) went to college at Yale, she lived in a suite with Tana (Olivia Hack), Paris (Liza Weil) and Janet (Katie Walder). Janet was the third Gilmore Girls role that Walder tried out for and creator Amy Sherman-Palladino saw to it that the third time was the charm.
Walder was a guest on I Am All In with Scott Patterson on Oct. 20. She discussed her long road to Gilmore Girls, on which she ended up appearing on eight episodes (scenes for a ninth were deleted).
Katie Walder made a good impression on ‘Gilmore Girls’ creator Amy Sherman-Palladino
Walder was a stage actor and landed a 2002 episode of Law & Order: SVU, a rite of passage for New York actors. So, her agent encouraged her to come to Los Angeles to audition for shows. At the time, Gilmore Girls was considering a spinoff about Jess (Milo Ventimiglia).
“I was in New York doing theater and my agent was like, ‘You should come out for a pilot season,’” Walder said on I Am All In. “I came out and my first audition was for the Gilmore Girls spinoff. It was the one with Milo and the dad. And I ended up testing for it and I remember going for the callback with Amy Sherman-Palladino.”
Sherman-Palladino became a Katie Walder fan instantly.
“She was like, ‘That was great. Do it 10 times faster,’” Walder remembered. “So I was like OK, and I’ve always been a fast talker so that came pretty naturally. Then I tested for it, I didn’t get it, I was so sad. Amy had called my agent at the time and said, ‘Look, I’m obsessed with Katie. I’m going to give her a role.’”
Katie Walder didn’t get her second ‘Gilmore Girls’ role either
Sherman-Palladino remembered Walder when she had a role in one episode of Gilmore Girls. That didn’t work out either, but it inspired the Gilmore Girls creator.
“So six months had passed,” Walder said. “I was in LA auditioning and whatever and I get a call that I have an audition for a guest star on Gilmore Girls. So I was like oh, cool OK. So I go in, everyone’s there, all the producers, Amy’s like, ‘How are you? Tell me what’s new.’ I do the guest star [audition]. It’s a very small guest star.”
Amy Sherman-Palladino created Janet Billings for Katie Walder
Disappointment comes with the territory for actors. You don’t get every role you audition for. You also don’t usually have a showrunner benefactor like Walder had in Sherman-Palladino.
And the next day my agent calls me and says, ‘So You didn’t get the guest star. Amy wrote a role for you. The role of Rory’s new roommate at Yale.’ I was like what? I just remember being in the street being like [screaming]. I screamed I was so excited. He was like, ‘Yeah, she kept her promise. She didn’t have auditions for that role. She created it for you.‘ I was like what? That’s mind-blowing. When does that happen? And I was so young so I was in pure disbelief and that was really my first prime-time gig other than a New York Law & Order.”
Katie Walder, I Am All In, 10/20/22
