Voicing his boundaries. Scott Patterson opened up about his worst day on the set of Gilmore Girls — revealing he was objectified during a scene that focused on his backside.
“I realize it wasn’t OK and it didn’t make me feel comfortable at all. It made me feel embarrassed, actually,” Patterson, 63, revealed during the Sunday, August 21, episode of his “I’m All In” podcast. “It’s infuriating to be treated that way because you’re being treated like an object. It’s disturbing and disgusting and I had to endure it through that scene and many takes.”
Gilmore Girls, which originally ran for seven seasons between 2000 and 2007 ahead of Netflix’s limited four-episode revival in November 2016, followed single mom Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) as she navigated the ups and downs of her ‘30s while raising teenage daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel). Patterson, for his part, played Luke Danes, the gruff diner owner and eventually, Lorelai’s husband.
Prior to their nuptials, however, the two characters had a longstanding friendship filled with ups and downs — causing more than a few moments of sexual tension between them. In season 3 episode 19, “Keg! Max!” Lorelai and her best friend, Sookie (Melissa McCarthy), pause their conversation to discuss Luke’s appealing rear end — something Patterson did not appreciate reading in the script.
“Put yourself in my place. Standing there in front of all those people filming,” he explained. “This is how the creator of that show sees that character. You can humiliate him and take away his dignity and that’s okay. And it wasn’t okay with me.”
The Little Big League star also shared that while the scene itself felt inappropriate, the uncomfortable moments didn’t stop when the cameras finished rolling.
“When we weren’t filming and we were sitting down, people were still talking about it,” he said. “It was the most disturbing time I have ever spent on that set and I couldn’t wait for that day to be over.”
While the Saw V actor admitted he didn’t say anything at the time because he “didn’t want to make waves,” he pointed out that someone’s gender shouldn’t dictate how they’re treated.
“It’s as disgusting for women to objectify men as it is for men to objectify women and it’s just as harmful. It was the most offensive day and just because it was 2003 doesn’t mean it was OK,” he explained.
Patterson has been vocal about both the positives and the negatives of his experience on the family dramedy since starting his “I’m All In” podcast in 2020. The rewatch show serves as a chance for him to watch himself on the series for the first time.
In October 2021, the Yellow Fever actor noted a particular scene during his appearance at New York Comic-Con between him and McCarthy, 51, during the first season that also made him particularly uncomfortable — just for a different reason.
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“I think yelling at Sookie, so, God, almost violently to get out of the back of the counter because she was invading my space,” the actor revealed. “I think I went a little too big on that; I think that’s a do-over.”
He continued, “Bad of the character … For me, I was like, ‘No, no, tone it down.’ I think I did [try to tone it down] but [production] kept encouraging me to go go go, and I’m like, ‘This just felt a little much.’ I mean, I really ripped her and then she sat down with Lorelai and just sort of [kept talking]. If you talk to someone like that in real life, they’re going to be affected.”
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