Ryan Gosling & Other Actors Who Were Almost In Gilmore Girls

Gilmore Girls was pretty much perfectly cast, so much so that it’s hard to imagine anyone else in Stars Hollow. But before Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel officially became the Gilmore Girls, there were other actors in the running. Plus, some current A-listers — including Ryan Gosling, Chris Pine, and Anna Kendrick — *almost* made the cut to play supporting characters.

Back in 2002, the show’s creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino, opened up about finding the perfect people to play Rory and Lorelai. “Alexis had never done anything before. We found her in New York at NYU, and she had the flu. She was very annoyed at having to audition, and she didn’t want to speak to us,” she said in an interview, originally published by the Daily Texan. “She just wanted go home and back to bed, and we’re like, ‘She hates us. We love her! Let’s give it to her.'”

Gilmore Girls was also Graham’s big break. “The fact that you had someone that talented running around Hollywood, not found yet, was the biggest coup in the world,” Sherman-Palladino said. “Because Lorelai’s a hard f*cking part. You’ve got to be funny, you’ve got to talk really f*cking fast, you’ve got to be able to act, you’ve got to be sexy, but not scary sexy. You’ve got to be strong, but not like ‘I hate men.’ It’s a lot that goes into this character, and it was really a tough find.”

She continued, “They’re both sort of brand new faces in their own right and that was really quite lucky and fun for us.”

Though it’s hard to imagine anyone else in those roles, the cast could have looked very different. Here’s everyone who almost landed a role in Gilmore Girls — plus, some familiar faces who appeared in the show later on.

Sherilyn Fenn For Lorelai

According to IMDb, Sherman-Palladino originally wanted to cast Sherilyn Fenn as Lorelai, but couldn’t because of Fenn’s role in Rude Awakening. However, Fenn ended up appearing in the show anyway in two different roles: Sasha, the girlfriend of Jess’ father, and Anna Nardini, April’s mom (and Luke’s ex).

Mädchen Amick For Lorelai

Mädchen Amick was up for the role of Lorelai before it went to Graham. “I actually got really far in the testing process and almost got the part of Lorelai, but the network said I didn’t seem old enough to be a mother, which I had thought was kind of the whole point,” Amick said, per TVLine.

Later, Amick appeared in three episodes of the show as Sherry, Christopher’s love interest. “It was really cool that Amy [Sherman-Palladino] brought me back in for this part,” Amick said about the role, adding “You’d think she was on the show a whole lot more for how much they talked about her.”

Liza Weil For Rory

Liza Weil originally auditioned for the role of Rory. “And they loved her, but they knew that she wasn’t the right fit for Rory,” Jami Rudofsky, one of the show’s casting directors, recalled in 2015 per Vanity Fair.

Instead, the role of Paris Gellar was created specifically for Weil. ‘I got a call and they were like, 'They really liked you but it wasn't quite right. But if [the show is picked up] maybe they'll find something for you to do,’” Weil said at the Gilmore Girls reunion at the ATX Television Festival in June 2015, per Mashable. “I thought that was probably the end of it."

Soon enough, she was playing Paris. "Now I think it's very flattering," Weil said about having a character created for her.

Alex Borstein For Sookie

Alex Borstein — aka Mrs. Ungermeyer in The Lizzie McGuire Movie and Susie Myerson on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel — was originally cast to play Sookie St. James, Lorelai’s BFF. Borstein actually appeared in an unaired pilot episode of the show, but was replaced by Melissa McCarthy when she couldn’t get out of a contract with MadTV, per Vulture.

Borstein played other roles on the show, though. She appeared as Drella, an unfriendly harpist at the inn, and Miss Celine, a stylist for Emily Gilmore.

Nathan Wetherington For Dean

Nathan Wetherington played the role of Dean in the unaired Gilmore Girls pilot. “I think the only reason I got cast in Gilmore Girls was because word was traveling that I was in the running for Anakin,” he recalled in 2018, per Entertainment Weekly. (He later dropped out of the running for Star Wars.)

He also remembered having an awkward experience on set. “I kind of let myself get hustled. I remember going into makeup for the first time and they sprayed my hair over and they were combing it down and I didn’t know if I could say anything,” he added at the time. “I was like, ‘This doesn’t look like me, I don’t know what’s going on right now.’ I remember feeling very uncomfortable in my own skin.”

After the pilot, Wetherington was replaced by Jared Padalecki.

Ryan Gosling For A Football Player

According to Rudofsky, Gosling almost scored a role on the show. “When I was a very wee casting person, I was casting independent movie for no money,” Rudofsky recalled meeting Gosling for the first time, per BuzzFeed. “I rolled my eyes because he was late, and he was blonde. I thought he was giving attitude – what I didn't realize was that he was in character. He did the audition, and it was one of the most amazing auditions that I've ever seen.”

Rudofsky recommended him to Sherman-Palladino. “[I'd] kept him in my mind, and I was thinking 'I can't wait for them to meet him.' And I am talking him up,” she recalled back in 2016. “I'm like, 'Amy, guys, he's the best actor. I'm telling you, he is amazing.' So he came in, I think it was a football character? I don't even remember.”

But apparently, Gosling wasn’t quite a fit for Stars Hollow. “He auditioned, and it kind of fell flat. And Amy was like, 'Really, Jami?’” she added.

Chris Pine For Someone’s Boyfriend

In 2017, Pine revealed that his first-ever audition was for a role on Gilmore Girls, though he seemed fuzzy on the rest of the details. “My first audition, professionally speaking, was for Gilmore Girls,” Pine told W. “My father had gone in for an audition — I’d just graduated college — and he told Maura Casey [the show’s casting director], ‘My son’s coming back into town. Would you have him in for a reading?’ So nepotism at its best.”

Pine wasn’t sure the exact role he auditioned for. “Maybe a boyfriend of someone. I don’t know. I got my start playing boyfriends, princes, husbands-to-be,” he added.

Anna Kendrick For A Guest Spot

Anna Kendrick recalled trying out for a guest spot in Stars Hollow, but not making the cut. The Pitch Perfect actor mentioned Gilmore Girls while reflecting on her career during an April 2015 interview with the New York Times.

“When you grow up middle class, you just always feel like you’ve got to be working or you won’t be able to pay the bills,” she said at the time. “I never let myself forget that I can’t just put this down and expect it to be waiting for me when I feel like coming back to it. The memory that at one point I couldn’t book a guest spot on Gilmore Girls is always on my mind. There is someone else out there who can do my job.”