‘Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life’: Scott Patterson ‘Didn’t Really Feel Like Luke’ on the First Day of Filming

Luke Danes is a fan-favorite character on Gilmore Girls. Luke is portrayed by Scott Patterson, the central love interest of Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham).

The actor showed up on the set of Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life thinking reprising his role as the grumpy, backward baseball hat-wearing diner owner would be a snap. But, as it turned out, it took the actor a while to feel like Luke again. 

Scott Patterson expected reprising his role as Luke Danes to ‘be easy’

Patterson spent seven years playing Luke on Gilmore Girls. Understandably, he got to know the ins and outs of his character well. As the actor told Vulture in 2016, he didn’t expect to have any problems reprising his role for Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. Patterson realized that wasn’t the case during his first scene back.

“You know, I thought it was going to be easy but it wasn’t,” he said. “And then [the] first day on set for me, the first diner scene, you know, I didn’t really feel like Luke. I didn’t feel it.”

At that point, it had been almost a decade since Patterson had put on a flannel shirt and backward baseball hat to serve coffee to Lorelai, Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel), and the rest of Stars Hollow. 

Scott Patterson ‘lost the character’ of Luke Danes

How did Patterson get in touch with Luke? He wandered Stars Hollow. 

“I asked [creator] Amy [Sherman-Palladino] if I could take like a little five, 10-minute walk around Stars Hollow and get the old scent back and she said, ‘Okay, go ahead,’ and I came back feeling pretty good,” he said. 

Admittedly, the actor said he lost touch with Luke in the years since Gilmore Girls went off the air. On top of that, he didn’t have long before filming began on the revival to get in touch with Luke again.

“I kind of lost the character in nine years because I haven’t been thinking about him,” Patterson said. “And it was a really small window for the time the show got [sic] okayed, we got the script, and then we started shooting. There wasn’t a lot of time to prep.” 

Eventually, it “all came flooding back.”

Luke Danes was supposed to be a woman named Daisy on ‘Gillmore Girls’

Originally Patterson wasn’t supposed to get so much screen time on Gilmore Girls.  In fact, he wasn’t even supposed to be on the show. 

As previously mentioned, Sherman-Palladino had a woman named Daisy as the local diner owner. Patterson as Luke was one of the major casting changes on Gilmore Girls. Palladino only introduced Luke after being told the program was too “female-heavy.” 

See Patterson as Luke by watching Gilmore Girls and Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life on Netflix.