Turns out, Stars Hollow wasn’t idyllic for everyone. Keiko Agena, who played Lane Kim on Gilmore Girls, recently opened up about her experience on the show. While she clarified there was a lot of “gratitude” toward the Gilmore Girls world, she revealed that she was also in “survival mode” during filming.
During a June 19 episode of the Dear Felicity podcast, Agena was asked what it was like to be so well-known for playing the iconic character of Lane Kim, and she had a surprising answer. “For me, it's this separate thing because I think what it was for people was different than what it was for me,” Agena explained, per E!.
She added that she knows that Lane means a lot to Gilmore Girls fans, past and present. “In a weird way, I feel like I want to honor the experience that people had from the show and what it meant to them, especially young Asian people, because I get that comment a lot, about what it was like for them to see someone like that on screen,” she added.
However, Agena’s actual experience on the show was different. “For myself, it was such a survival mode situation. I didn't think of it that way at the time,” she said, “So now, it's a mix of just having gratitude for having gone through that experience and having that experience.”
According to Agena, she also felt pressure to live up to the reputation of Lane Kim. “I think I'm at a transition point in my life where I have to let go of the pressure that I put on myself to be the best version of who it is that I think you love,” she added. “Because I love her too. I can tell when I meet someone who knows Gilmore Girls or who loves Lane, I recognize that love. I see that you love that person.”
"I think that the disconnect is that I also love that person," she continued. "But I don't know how to be that person. I'm only like a shadow representation of that thing. I can also celebrate in the appreciation for this thing and not feel a responsibility to be that thing.”
Agena has previously opened up about wishing she had more of a connection with Alexis Bledel, who played her onscreen bestie Rory Gilmore in the series. “I wish we had more of a friendship,” Agena told Scott Patterson (who played Luke Danes) on his I’m All In podcast in 2021.
“That was probably a lot to do with me not making as much of an effort as I should’ve,” Agena added at the time, per People.
