Keiko Agena Thinks 1 ‘Gilmore Girls’ Character Was More Complex Than the Rest
Keiko Agena didn’t just act in Gilmore Girls. Clearly, she’s a fan of the show, too. While Agena spent seven seasons playing Lane, she doesn’t think Lane was the most complex character. There is at least one Gilmore Girls character she believes was way more developed. In a recent Reddit AMA, Agena said she thinks Emily Gilmore was the most developed character. We couldn’t agree more.
Keiko Agena said she thinks Emily Gilmore was the most complex ‘Gilmore Girls’ character
Agena might have spent her time on Gilmore Girls, mostly in Stars Hollow. In fact, her character, Lane, had limited interactions with Emily Gilmore. Still, Agena recently revealed in a Reddit AMA that she believes the character of Emily Gilmore was the most complex.
Agena called Kelly Bishop, the actor who played Emily for all seven seasons, “a gem” and noted that the cast was lucky to have her as part of their team. Bishop certainly owned the role, coming into the series as a well-known stage and film actor. Bishop once revealed that she used her own family as inspiration for the part.
Emily Gilmore really shined in ‘Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life’
Agena isn’t wrong about Emily being the most complex character. The Gilmore matriarch was haughty, opinionated, and fierce, but she could also be insecure, and a bit wounded at times. She managed her family and her staff with precision but could also be incredibly hard on herself, thinking of the jobs she performed as unimportant.
Emily was complex and well-developed in the original series, but the character experienced the most growth in the 2016 Netflix revival, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. It’s easy to argue that Emily’s character development was the most intense story arc of the entire four-part series and its true bright spot. Emily went from being a businessman’s wife to a grieving, directionless widow and finally to a woman who understood that she could change directions as she saw fit.
Could there be more for Emily Gilmore?
In 2016, the cast of Gilmore Girls signed off for seemingly the last time. It doesn’t have to be that way, though. It feels like there is plenty more story to tell, and we’d be most excited to see where Emily has found herself in the years since Richard Gilmore’s tragic death.
When fans last left her, Emily had settled into a house on Nantucket, far from her faux friends from the Daughters of the American Revolution and her stuffy house in Hartford, Connecticut. She had traded her heels for sneakers and seemed fulfilled. A peaceful ending was the intention, but Gilmore Girls fans want more. Kelly Bishop isn’t opposed to the idea either, although, at last check, she wasn’t feeling particularly confident that she would get the chance to play Emily again.
