‘Gilmore Girls’ Casting: Sally Struthers Landed The Role of Babette Partly Because of Her Height
Sally Struthers has spent decades in Hollywood. Her career started in her early 20s when she first appeared in All in the Family. While her career has taken her in many different directions and landed her in plenty of memorable roles, many fans likely remember her as Babette Dell in Gilmore Girls. Sally Struthers recently revealed that she landed the role of Babette, at least partially, because of her height.
Sally Struthers’ height helped her land the role of Babette in ‘Gilmore Girls’
Sally Struthers is petite by most standards. While the famed actor stands just over 5’0, her height never really came up during her early Hollywood career. Being short, however, did help her land the role of Babette Dell in 2000. According to Struthers, who recently appeared on Let’s Talk About That!, a podcast hosted by Larry Saperstein and Jacob Bellotti, her agent informed her that the casting team for Gilmore Girls was looking for a short actor to take on a role on the show. She claims her agent said they wouldn’t be seeing anyone over 5’0 for the part.
Struthers walked into the audition, albeit an inch taller than the team was looking for, and talked about being petite. Twenty minutes later, she said, she landed the role. From there, the team had to cast the role of her husband, Morey Dell. They already knew they were looking for a very tall actor. They found him.
How much taller was Morey Dell than Babette?
As Sally Struthers tells it, the Gilmore Girls casting team set their sights on someone “very tall” to play the role of Babette Dell’s husband before she was cast. Still, when they cast Struthers in the role of Babette, the team didn’t have an actor lined up. They made good on the promise, though. Eventually, they cast Ted Rooney to play Morey Dell, the mysterious and laidback jazz musician. He certainly is tall and absolutely towered over Sally Struthers.
Rooney, who in a perfect example of how small the world is, was the son of one of Struthers’ teachers, is 6’6. Struthers, at a petite 5’1, was nearly a foot and a half shorter than Rooney. Sally Struthers and Ted Rooney’s height difference offered an interesting juxtaposition. It also made for several cute storylines and one-off comments.
