‘Gilmore Girls’: Lauren Graham Felt Lorelai Chose Being Rory’s Friend Rather Than an Authority Figure
Gilmore Girls is one of the most beloved TV shows of the early 2000s. Millions of fans love and appreciate the show for the close relationship between Lorelai and her young, ambitious daughter Rory. While the bond between Lorelai and Rory was the heart of the show, over the years, a few have expressed their distaste for the dynamic between the women.
Even the actor behind the character of Lorelai Gilmore, Lauren Graham, has admitted that she believes Lorelei was never enough of an authority figure for Rory, preferring to be her daughter’s friend instead.
Lauren Graham portrayed Lorelai Gilmore
Gilmore Girls debuted on television in 2000, becoming a flagship series for The WB before eventually moving to The CW. The series highlighted the lives of Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, a young single mother and her teenage daughter.
Lorelai, who is estranged from her wealthy parents due to the fact that she became a teen mother, fully supports her daughter’s dream of attending an Ivy League school, all while pursuing her own dreams and goals.
When the show premiered, Graham, who played Lorelai, was an up-and-coming actor who had appeared in a number of small roles in film and TV projects. The role of Lorelai helped to put her on the Hollywood map, and as each season progressed, the actor became an even bigger star.
These days, although Gilmore has gone on to work on a wide variety of other projects, she’s still closely associated with Lorelai.
What did Lauren Graham say about Lorelai being too much of a friend to Rory?
While Graham clearly loves and appreciates the show that helped to make her a star, she isn’t afraid to call out some of the more problematic aspects of Lorelai’s personality. In a behind-the-scenes interview that Graham did while the show was still airing, Graham called out Lorelai’s relationship with Rory.
“I think one of the things the show does well is exploring what is dysfunctional about this relationship between a mother who is 32 and a daughter who’s 16,” Graham said.
“Which is, it looks fun, it’s really great, we can borrow each other’s clothes, but when a conflict happens, um, it’s tough because my character is someone who has defined herself more as a friend than as an authority figure.”
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Certainly, Lorelai and Rory spend a lot of time together, chatting over coffee about their romantic trials and tribulations and discussing their emotions – much of their conversation seems more like two girlfriends passing time than a mother connecting to her daughter.
Fans agree that Lorelai wasn’t strict enough with Rory
Graham isn’t the only one who has a problem with the way that Lorelai handled her relationship with her daughter. Fans on Reddit have often sounded off about the problematic nature of Lorelai’s parental bond with Rory. According to Screen Rant, one fan even wrote on Reddit that Lorelai “admits that she seldom put on her ‘parent’ hat with Rory and instead was always best friends with Rory. That’s not usually a healthy Mother-Daughter relationship.”
Through it all, there’s no doubt that Lorelai and Rory share a deep love and affection for each other. In fact, the deep underlying theme of the show is the importance of family connection and how important it is to define one’s place in the world. To this day, Gilmore Girls remains not only a cultural touchstone but a show that manages to gain new fans with each passing year.
