‘Gilmore Girls’: The Vague Direction Dan Palladino Gave Sean Gunn for Kirk’s Journey of Man Act
Gilmore Girls gave Kirk Gleason (Sean Gunn) a lot of memorable moments. He’s had many jobs, made his own student film, and performed Fiddler on the Roof as Tevye. One of Kirk’s acts was The Journey of Man in front of Stars Hollow. Gunn remembers getting little guidance on The Journey of Man.
Gunn was a guest on Scott Patterson’s I Am All In podcast on Sept. 14. Discussing their most challenging dramatic moments, Gunn did cite Fiddler, and then remembered his other big performance.
The ‘Gilmore Girls’ script did not include details about Kirk’s Journey of Man
This discussion came after many conversations about how exacting the script on Gilmore Girls was. Patterson reflected on just how much memorizing it involved too. So it was unusual for Gunn to get a script that left so much to interpretation.
“I got one more kind of funny one which is there’s an episode where Kirk does, talent show or something, where he does the Evolution of Man,” Gunn said on I Am All In. “He goes through and he does the whole thing. I read that in the script, and remember everything in the script is verbatim all the time. So every single thing is mapped out but in that case, all it says is literally just that. Kirk does a mime that is the evolution of man going from being a baby to death. That’s all it said.”
Dan Palladino had no answers for Sean Gunn
Dan Palladino was executive producer of Gilmore Girls along with his wife, creator Amy Sherman-Palladino. Palladino directed that episode, so Gunn was expecting to get the rundown from his director. Not so, this time.
“I was like, ‘This is interesting. I wonder what we’re going to do here,’” Gunn said. “Showing up and going to rehearsals that morning for that scene we’re going to shoot and talking. Dan Palladino was directing that episode and saying, ‘Okay, Dan, tell me, what are you thinking here? What do you got?’ And he’s just like, ‘I don’t know, man.’ He goes, ‘Just do what you do.’ He said, ‘Just do your thing.’”
Sean Gunn freestyled the Journey of Man on ‘Gilmore girls’
For one of the only times Gunn was allowed to improvise, he was tasked with not only performing Krik’s Journey of Man piece, but essentially writing it. The episode got finished and his performance is in it, so he obviously wasn’t stumped for too long before he came up with something. Gunn has gone on to be the on-set reference for Rocket in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, so his craft has evolved since Kirk too.
“So now for better or for worse, if you ever see that scene again, I guess that’s my thing,” Gunn joked.
