"There's too much of me in Lorelai": Lauren Graham on breaking away from the character

Lauren Graham is forever etched in the minds of her fans for playing Lorelai Gilmore in the iconic show Gilmore Girls. After playing Lorelai, mother of Rory and Sarah, mother of Amber and Drew, she is playing mother yet again in the new Disney show The Mighty Ducks, a reboot of the film series that began in the early 1990s. Graham seems rather excited to be part of this reboot of the sports franchise.

Essaying the character of Alex Morrow, mother of 12-year-old Evan Morrow, played by Brady Noon, her character remains the strength of her son and a cheerleader of his morale. In the show, after Evan is unceremoniously removed from the team of Ducks, Alex and her son set out to build their own team of misfits to challenge the cutthroat, win-at-all-costs culture of hockey as a sport. In an exclusive interview with Republic World, a cheery Graham spoke about being able to play a mother again, and how Lorelai will always be part of her no matter what role she plays.

"There is too much of me in Lorelai"

When an actor is part of shows and movies that practically become pop culture, it remains a challenge for the actor to separate themselves from the characters. In Graham’s case, her creative process as an actor so that audiences don’t see "Lorelai" is quite unusual and refreshing. “I think rather than try to worry about that, I kind of give into it. I don’t think I can ever separate myself too much, there’s too much of me in there. I don’t know if I want to entirely (separate myself from that role).  If I was trying to get away from it entirely, I feel that could never do anything comedic again. I would only have to only do ‘law and order’ type of stuff. That’s just not me, not who I am,” she says.

"Wanted to do comedy and be goofy"

Lauren Graham says that there’s so much of her in Lorelai “to kind of let it be like that. I am probably going to bring a lot of that to whatever other work I do. And actually, there’s part of me when I read The Mighty Ducks that said that I really want do this. I want to do a comedy and be a little goofy. And little bit of that spirit is there in the character. That’s where I am comfortable, that’s really what I like,” she explains, giving an example of how her role in Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist “where I played this scary boss. Thatt was really a lot of fun but that is not my kind of natural place. While that was fun to do, this is more my kind of thing.”

The award-winning actor, producer, and New York Times best-selling author is  best known for her work on the critically acclaimed television shows Parenthood and Gilmore Girls. She is a celebrated actor whose body of work is filled with feminist characters who are spirited, smart, and hilarious. Graham, an author of four books herself, recently optioned the novel Windfall by author Jennifer E. Smith and will adapt it into a feature-length screenplay for her production company, Good Game Productions. Lauren Graham and Mae Whitman, who worked together on Parenthood, are teaming up to adapt the The Royal We, the book by Jessica Morgan and Heather Cocks, for CBS Films

IMAGE: PR