[She] Did Have A Heart Down There

A Gilmore Girls star defends her divisive character, saying she “really did have a heart down there someplace.” Created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, the show ran for seven seasons on The WB and The CW from 2000 to 2007, following a single mother, Lorelai (Lauren Graham), and her daughter, Rory (Alexis Bledel), in the quaint town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut. The Gilmore Girls cast also included Kelly Bishop as Lorelai’s estranged and acerbic mother, Emily, whose personality and unlikeability have divided audiences over the years.

During a recent interview with Collider at Paley Fest, Kelly Bishop defended her divisive Gilmore Girls character, Emily. She explains that Emily initially appeared rigid and status-driven, but her tough exterior was a defense mechanism to maintain control and avoid vulnerability. As the show progressed, Emily’s underlying heart and humanity became more evident, making her character’s complexity both natural and rewarding to explore. Read Bishop’s full comments below:

The vulnerability in Emily didn’t really come out overtly for a couple of years, but I always felt that there was a front that’s all about the status quo and the group that you move in… Of course it’s sort of that thing of being stronger than the other people or I’ll scare you before you scare me sort of thing. So when we actually started talking in some dialogue and we started to realize that Emily really did have a heart down there someplace, it was really delightful and it made perfect sense to me. Of course she’s a human being.

The Character Developed Over Time

Though Gilmore Girls primarily focuses on the mother-daughter dynamic between Lorelai and Rory, it also explores the former’s relationship with her mother. Emily has a complicated relationship with her daughter due to her decision to run away from home at 16 to raise Rory. They remained distant for years until, in the pilot episode, Lorelai asks her parents for help to pay for Rory’s schooling. Emily agrees, but only if Lorelai and Rory have dinner with them every Friday night, setting up one of the show’s central conflicts as the Gilmores must confront their complicated history.

Initially portrayed as rigid and elitist, Emily undergoes significant growth over the show’s seven seasons. While Lorelai rejected the privileged lifestyle of her upbringing, one marked by control and self-importance, in favor of raising Rory in an environment where she could become whoever she wanted, Emily had long embraced her role as a corporate wife. After marrying Richard and having Lorelai, she dedicated herself fully to managing their household, considering it her primary role until his passing. Over time, Emily becomes a more sympathetic and complex character who genuinely cares about her family’s well-being.

Our Take On Emily Gilmore

A Year In The Life Completes Her Character Arc

The 2016 revival, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, finds Emily as a widow attempting to discover her own identity beyond her late husband and the societal expectations that had shaped the past six decades of her life. Since Emily was a history major at college, she finally dusts off her degree and takes a job at a whaling museum, finding a sense of fulfillment in the new chapter of her life. Emily’s arc in the Gilmore Girls revival made her less of a divisive character as audiences started to sympathize with and understand her complexity.

Source: Collider

Gilmore Girls

9/10

Release Date

2000 – 2007-00-00

Writers

Amy Sherman-Palladino