Golden
Graham
by Margy Rochlin
TV Guide April 14, 2001 |
Lauren
Graham,
For years the casualty of shows
with great buzz and too much fizzle, sizzles - finally on Gilmore
Girls |
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She’s 34, which by the standards
of the youth-oriented WB – is, like, geriatric, right? “I used to
joke about it,” says Gilmore Girls star Lauren Graham. “I’d say I was going
to be the dean of the WB. I’d have office hours, and the kids could come
by and ask for my advice!”
Dawson’s Creek’s Katie Holmes
hasn’t dropped in for her free consultation yet. But Graham is over the
age gap. “I just forgot about it,” she says. “Now I like that out show
is something different.”
And yet, not so different. Gilmore
Girls (Thursdays, 8pm/ET) comes gift-wrapped with all of the WB flourishes
- relationship themes, adolescent-friendly dialog - but instead of teen
angst, the show's conflict revolves around single mother Lorelei Gilmore's
feelings for her aristocratic parents (Kelly Bishop and Edward Herman).
She grudgingly grateful that they've financed her 16 year old daughter
Rory's (Alexis Bledel) private-school education but hostile over the way
they treated her for getting pregnant by Christopher (David Sutcliffe)
while still in high school.
"She's the fullest character I've
ever played," says Graham over a quick tomato and basil egg white omelet
at the Farm, a Beverly Hills restaurant. Of course, by fullest, she means
two things: Not only is Lorelei multilayered and skillfully written, but
for the first time Graham has been able to play a character for an entire
season. Indeed, if her ironic delivery and lovely face seem familiar, there's
a reason. For years, she's been unwittingly carving a niche for herself
as the costar of doomed half-hour comedies. Frankly, the trend was starting
to depress her.
"People blame you if you keep working
but your shows don't work," says Graham, a survivor of Good Company, Townies,
Conrad Bloom and MYOB. "They say, 'Oh, her We've seen her.' That's why
I feel lucky to have (a show) people like."
True enough, luck had something
to do with it. But even in her guest roles - as the "speed dial girl" on
Seinfeld or as half nuts efficiency expert on NewsRadio - you can see why
she got the part. Graham is pretty enough to play the leading lady, but
her line readings suggest a more eccentric sensibility, usually the province
of TV's kooky neighbors and peculiar friends.
Even off-screen, Graham, who is
single, seems to live a character actress's existence. Today she's excited
about a party she's throwing at which all guests must wear county-western
gear. "We're having Twinkies and Kentucky Fried Chicken!" she bubbles.
Suddenly, a female customer plants herself one table away. Graham's voice
drops to a near whisper. Does she want to move? "Oh, that would be a good
story" she says with a laugh. "You'd write, 'She's fussy. Had to sit in
a lot of different places.' " But her blue eyes keep sliding over in the
diner's vicinity. "It makes me feel stupid, talking about the business,"
she says. "It's just TV, TV, TV."
Growing up, it was books,
not television, that dominated her life in the suburbs of northern Virginia.
"My father read to me from the time i was born," says Graham, who was raised
by her dad, Larry Graham, the president of the Chocolate Manufacturers
Association. Graham's mother, Donna Grant, left the family when the actress
was only 5 to pursue a career in singing (she ended up working in the fashion
industry). "Books became another parent to me. I knew everything about
puberty from books."
Still, Graham and her dad tackled
girlhood together. "He tells all these hilarious stories," she says, recalling
a teacher who gave her dad a lesson in hair brushing after spotting the
brier patch on Graham's head. Sometimes, having no mom at home made her
feel apart from her friends, who ate dinner at a regular time, with matching
silverware. Mostly, though, she felt like the luckiest girl in the world.
"I remember going to other kids' houses, and their mothers were always
in their business," says Graham, who has two teenage step-siblings from
her father's remarriage. "My father was like, ' You all right?' And
I'd say, 'Yeah.' There was no 'Wear a coat! Put on gloves!' And I was fine."
These days, Graham is ready
to reach out to her mom, who remarried (Grant's second daughter is a student
at Oxford University) and has lived in England for the past 25 years. "I'm
closer to my mother now. I want us to have a nice, peaceful relationship,"
she says, with a distinct edge in her voice. It's precisely this ability
to convey conflicting emotions, says Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino,
that convinced her that Graham was the ideal Lorelei.
"She understands hurt and
alienation and 'Why can't I make this person understand what I'm feeling?'
" says Sherman-Palladino, who uses Graham's witticisms as grist for her
protagonist. "Then again, everything about Lauren works for me."
And WB shares the feeling:
We've let her know she'll be busy here for a long time," says Jordan Levin,
WB co-president of entertainment. Graham has received one warning, though,
"They told me, 'Don't cut your hair,' " she says, a reference to the notion
that Felicity's ratings feel last year because Keri Russell lopped off
her locks. "It's sort of a big joke. But they're not entirely kidding."
above article is copyright
2001 TVGuide
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