Yahoo Movies Scott Patterson Says He and Lauren Graham Quit Smoking to Keep up with Gilmore Girls Dialogue
Netflix/Kobal/Shutterstock
Scott Patterson and Lauren Graham can thank the famously-fast Gilmore Girls banter for helping them curb their smoking habits.
Speaking to The New York Times for a recent interview about the longevity of the series, alongside other stars and behind-the-scenes personnel from the show, the 62-year-old actor opened up about how he and Graham had to quit smoking in order to keep up with the fast-paced dialogue while shooting scenes.
The scripts for the comedy/drama show, which ran from 2000 to 2007, "were 20 pages longer than the average hourlong series," as the Times notes, and executive producer Amy Sherman-Palladino required that the actors read their lines word for word. "This was a show where if you changed one word, they would cut," Yanic Truesdale, who played Michel Gerard, told the publication.
In order to keep up with the show's rapid conversations, Graham and Patterson, who played longtime loves Luke Danes and Lorelai Gilmore on the series, had to swiftly quit smoking.
"She needed her wind," Patterson said of Graham, 53, before adding, "and I needed my wind."
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Netflix/Kobal/Shutterstock Lauren Graham, Scott Patterson
Patterson also detailed to the Times how rewrites, as well as "the volume and pace of the dialogue," kept himself and his fellow costars on their feet.
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Looking back on one day of shooting the series, Patterson told the publication about "a 10-page scene that came out of the writers' room at 6:30 a.m.," which caused him and Graham to initially panic.
"Lauren and I were sitting in the makeup chair," he noted. "We looked at each other with this abject terror, and then we got to work.”
RELATED VIDEO: Gilmore Girls: Why the reboot kicks off with 'Winter'
Gilmore Girls: Why the reboot kicks off with 'Winter'
We all know Lorelai Gilmore loves snow, but there are so many good reasons behind why Amy Sherman-Palladino may have decided to kick off the four episodes of Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life with “Winter.”
Earlier this year, Gilmore Girls celebrated its 20th anniversary and to honor the occasion the series reboot, A Year in the Life, is currently airing as a four-night event this Thanksgiving on the CW, as well as streaming for free on The CW app and cwtv.com for 30 days.
In November 2016, Netflix released the Gilmore Girls revival, which saw Lorelai still running her Dragonfly Inn while a 32-year-old Rory worked through job (and relationship) struggles years after graduating from Yale. Each episode — individually titled Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall — followed the pair throughout a season of the year.
The reboot — directed, written and executive-produced by Palladino, 54, and her husband, Daniel Palladino — brought back many original characters, including Emily Gilmore (Kelly Bishop), Lane Kim (Keiko Agena), Paris Geller (Liza Weil), Melissa McCarthy (Sookie St. James), Kirk Gleason (Sean Gunn), Taylor (Michael Winters), Logan (Matt Czuchry), Jess (Milo Ventimiglia) and Dean (Jared Padalecki).
