‘Gilmore Girls’ Lauren Graham Reveals Which Was the Toughest Scene To Shoot From Her Iconic TV Series

When you think of Gilmore Girls, a few things come to mind: coffee, Lorelai and Rory, maybe Yale or Chilton, and Friday Night Dinners. The concept of Friday Night Dinners was introduced as part of the deal that Lorelai (Lauren Graham) made with her parents, Richard (Ed Herrmann) and Emily (Kelly Bishop), for them to help pay for Rory’s (Alexis Bledel) private school tuition. Emily tells Lorelai in the pilot that, in addition to having a financial role in their lives, she wanted an active role. And thus, Friday Night Dinners were born. Throughout seven seasons, almost every episode featured one of these dinner scenes.

Recently, on Alex Cooper‘s Call Her Daddy podcast, Graham opened up about the fact that those were some of the most difficult scenes to shoot:

“I mean it’s tough because I don’t want to wreck anything for anybody. I loved those scenes. They were a real bear to shoot because somebody’s eating here and somebody’s eating there. You’ve got to move the camera all the way around. That was also so key to the show. It’s an interesting exercise in continuity as the hours tick by. What’s your emotional level? Where did your elbow go? There was a kind of constraint in there or something that like you had to keep this the same exact way and keep it fresh.”

Friday Night Dinners and ‘High School Musical’ Have One Thing in Common

Kenny Ortega is a name well-known in the world of Disney. The choreographer also directed High School Musical, among countless other projects. He also directed Gilmore Girls’ Season 6, Episode 13, “Friday Nights Are For Fighting.” This tumultuous episode features one of the craziest Friday Night Dinner scenes in the entire show. Graham spoke about the constant need to keep the same emotional depth and place across hours of shooting as film crews would adjust the different cameras for different characters, but this dinner was different and was shot with a handheld camera. The characters are finally coming back together for a Friday Night Dinner after Rory is back at Yale after briefly dropping out, with her father, Christopher Hayden (David Sutcliffe), now paying for it instead of Richard and Emily.

Rory’s life getting back on track seemed to only divide the Gilmores, and it leads to the knockdown drag-out fight in this episode. The handheld camera adds to the chaotic energy in a way only Ortega could masterfully choreograph. The rapid-fire mood switches, a departure from the rigidity of past Friday Night Dinners, yet with all the characters still perfectly in line with who they are.

All seven seasons of Gilmore Girls are available to stream on Netflix. You can watch the chaotic Friday Night Dinner in the clip above. Stay with Collider for the latest updates.