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Scott Patterson was in all seven seasons of Gilmore Girls. He played Luke, whose on again, off again romance with Lorelai (Lauren Graham) was almost as much of a backbone as the show as Lorelai’s relationship with her daughter, Rory (Alexis Bledel). Patterson praises working with Graham effusively, but the first time they met, Patterson was embarrassed. 

'Gilmore Girls' star Scott Patterson smiles at the SiriusXM studio
Scott Patterson | Noam Galai/Getty Images

Patterson described his first meeting with Graham and other Gilmore Girls co-stars on the Dec. 30 episode of his I Am All In podcast. Speaking directly with fans on the Warner Bros. lot, where they created Stars Hollow for the series, Patterson shared his day one troubles. 

Luke wasn’t a regular in the first ‘Gilmore Girls’ episode

Luke ended up appearing in every episode of Gilmore Girls, but that wasn’t originally the intention. At first, Patterson just signed up for the pilot, waiting to see how often Luke might appear. Also, the pilot filmed in Canada before they moved onto the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, CA.

“I flew to Toronto to do a guest spot in the pilot,” Patterson said on I Am All In. “I was in a track suit for the flight, a nice track suit. The airline lost my luggage and the person at the front desk said, ‘Some of the cast is waiting for you across the street in a five star french restaurant.’ And I’m in a tracksuit. I said, ‘I don’t think I can go to that restaurant. She goes, ‘No no, it’s okay, they’ll let you in.’”

Lauren Graham first saw Scott Patterson wearing sweatpants before filming ‘Gilmore Girls’

The nicest tracksuit in the world is still no comparison to Hollywood glamor. It’s still sweat pants, even if they’re really nice sweatpants. So, Patterson sucked it up and went to meet his future Gilmore Girls co-star.

“They let me in, they were great,” Patterson said. “So I met Lauren first and she was delightful. We had a sit down and a drink. Keiko [Agena] was there too. So I got to meet Lauren and Keiko first.”

The trio shared a bad habit too

Patterson continued his story to reiterate that he and his co-stars quit smoking in the first season of Gilmore Girls. He’s told the story before about himself and Graham quitting. In this version of the story he included Agena too. Perhaps they shared a cigarette at the restaurant and that reminded Patterson.

“We all smoked cigarettes at that time,” Patterson said. “Here’s the story with that. Our first day on set here, day one, we’re going through half the day, we’re smoking cigarettes and I said, ‘I gotta quit. I’m not going to be able to do this dialogue.’ And I said to Lauren, ‘We gotta quit. There’s no way we have the breath to do this.’ So we quit. And then Keiko quit. We all quit.”