Here’s a fact that will interest those who spent Thanksgiving break binging on “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life”: Lauren Graham, who plays fast-talking, caffeine-fueled, hip mom Lorelai Gilmore, is an SMU theatre graduate who earned her MFA from Meadows School of Arts in 1992. She attended SMU with the support of scholarships and met her first agent after performing at an SMU workshop.
Netflix released four new 90-minute “Gilmore Girls” episodes on November 29, sending millennials and their moms to their couches for a marathon of memorable moments in magical Stars Hollow. The revival picks up 10 years after the finale of the original series and follows the characters through four seasons of change. The miniseries seems to have filled the Gilmore void left in the hearts of millions when the series wrapped its seven-year run in 2007, earning praise from nostalgic fans and television critics alike.
Graham went on to star in the critically acclaimed series “Parenthood” as well as a host of movies, including “Birds of America,” “Flash of Genius” and “It’s Kind of a Funny Story.”
One more thing to know about the multitalented Mustang: Graham is also an accomplished writer. Her new collection of personal essays, Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls and Everything in Between, was released on November 29. She also is the author of Someday, Someday, Maybe: A Novel, published in 2014.
SMU Magazine did some time traveling in its archives and found this great interview with Lauren Graham from 2008, when she spent two days working with theatre students at Meadows School of the Arts:
Lauren Graham: Acting Is Being The Real You
As Lorelai Gilmore on “Gilmore Girls” for seven years, actress Lauren Graham ’92 typically worked 14-hour days. “To do anything else feels like I’m on vacation,“ says the M.F.A. theatre graduate.
So she was unfazed during two days of training SMU theatre students in February. Hustling back and forth from one conference to the next workshop held at Meadows School of the Arts, she barely took time to sip from a bottle of water.
Theatre Chair Cecil O’Neal says that Graham has been generous with her time, energy and expertise during visits to SMU. “It is absolutely wonderful for our students to have an opportunity to learn from someone as knowledgeable, experienced and successful as Lauren.“
While on campus, Graham observed that the student experience has changed somewhat since she attended SMU. “They’re so much more exposed to the business of the business than we were,” she says. “My class wanted to be theatre professionals, mainly. We were kind of biased about what it meant to be an actor in film and television. I don’t think students have that bias so much now. They’re more interested in working in a world where they can make a living. They seem really enthusiastic and very smart.”
Although trained for the stage at SMU, Graham’s experience in film and television comes into play when passing along insights about the business to students. M.F.A. candidate Lydia Mackay found the workshop beneficial and supportive. “She reminded us that to be ourselves, and to be confident in who we are and the choices we make in our art, is vital not only to our success but to our integrity,” Mackay says. “Theatre students worry about being right or wrong, but Lauren really encouraged the belief that there is no right or wrong, there is only you. And people want to see the real you.”
Graham realized she wanted to be an actor at an early age. Growing up in Virginia near Washington, D.C., she participated in the renowned Arena Stage program for children and young adults. When she graduated from Barnard College, however, it was with an English degree. “I’m from a pretty academic family, and when I called home talking about my acting studies, I was hearing, ‘You’re rolling around on the floor? That’s a class?’ ”
Going to school in Manhattan exposed Graham to plenty of theatre and acting classes, and she was hoping for a career as a performer. “Then I got out of school and I was working retail during the day and cocktail waitressing at night, six days a week,” she says. “I was in the city, but I had no access to the business.”
After a long run of “Gilmore Girls” and Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations for best actress, Graham is concentrating on movie roles; her next feature, “Flash of Genius,” is set to debut in June. But she hopes to play a different role in her next TV show. “I’d really like to be an executive producer,” she says. “I’ve learned a lot about how a show succeeds and the kind of world I like to create and be part of.”
Read more:
- The New York Times: Lauren Graham’s Taste of Tokyo
- Los Angeles Times: A coffee-free Lauren Graham on the ‘Gilmore Girls’ revival and becoming a writer
- Vanity Fair: Lauren Graham on ‘Gilmore Girls’ revival: It’s ‘What I wanted it to be’
- Daily Mail: Lauren Graham talks magical ‘Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life’ experience
One reply on “SMU Alumna Lauren Graham ’92 Returns As Lorelai Gilmore”
[…] wanted to be theatre professionals, mainly," she said in an interview with her alma mater, Southern Methodist University. "We were kind of biased about what it meant to be an actor in film and […]