‘Gilmore Girls’: Chad Michael Murray Confirms How Tristan Really Felt About Rory
Gilmore Girls cast Chad Michael Murray before he was on One Tree Hill, even before he was on Dawson’s Creek. Murray played Tristan Dugray, one of Rory (Alexis Bledel)’s Chilton love interests. Though Tristan was fairly distant, Murray is quite clear about how his character felt about Rory.
Murray was a guest on Scott Patterson’s I Am All In podcast on Dec. 14, 2021. Even Patterson wanted to know what Tristan’s last line to Rory meant, and Murray was ready to explain it.
Chad Michael Murray already did lots of character prep on ‘Gilmore Girls’
Throughout his career, Murray has spoken about and been known for preparing for his characters. That was already the case when he played Tristan on Gilmore Girls.
“I always remember when I originally made notes, because I like to make notes on every script that I read no matter what, I just remember that I wanted him to be the guy that you didn’t know if you should be close to him but boy, oh boy, did you want to be,” Murray said on I Am All In. “So I always wanted to keep everybody at arm’s distance so everything was a deflection.”
‘So long, Mary’ meant ‘I love you, Rory’
Tristan called Rory Mary. When he ultimately left for military school, the last thing he said to her was, ‘So long, Mary.’
“Everything that he did, it’s a typical stereotype that we see in the world,” Murray said. “We see this type of personality that is so damaged due to childhood trauma, in Tristan’s case his parenting, that you belittle others to make yourself feel good even though it’s not doing any good. It’s this vicious cycle of a downward spiral even though his honest and true emotions were that he found her intriguing.”
Murray confirms that Tristan loved Rory.
“He thought she was smart, intelligent, beautiful and that he did love her,” Murray said. “He just didn’t know how to voice his feelings because he wasn’t raised in a family that did such. That’s what I remember about him. He’s a guy that you want to be near but I’m not sure I should.”
The ‘Gilmore Girls’ writing made it easier for Chad Michael Murray
Murray only takes a little bit of credit for his own preparation. He said the Gilmore Girls scripts did the bulk of the work for him laying the groundwork for Tristan.
“Amy crushed it,” Murray said. “What can we say? Amy Sherman-Palladino. It’s way easier. When it’s served up for you on a silver platter, it’s easier to make a meal out of it. And you have a piecemeal and you’re going, ‘Oh, okay, now I’ve got some work to do to assemble A, B, C, D.’ As I’ve gotten older, it’s been 22 years now since I’ve been working in the industry, it gets easier as you get older.”
