I Am All In with Scott PattersonI am all in again. Oh that's you. I am all in again with Scott Patterson and iHeartRadio Podcast.
Hey everybody, Easton Alan I am all in Podcasts. One of LOVEM productions. I Heart Radio, I heart Media, I heart podcast. It's the I Am All In Podcast Here. This is Easton Allen. You know me from a I Smell Pop Culture. This great little spin off show that Scott Patterson has graciously allowed me to host. And I have such a special guest today. That's right, I'm the host. If you're listening to this, I'm the host today and I got a guess. It's Scott Patterson. You know him is Luke Dan's from Gilmore Girls. Hey Scott, how's it going do? He is too stunned to speak.
To see you. Man.
We are so pumped for this episode today. We're gonna do Q and A with you. These are questions that the fans are dying to ask you. Some of them are my personal questions. Which one is which It's up to you to find out. We are going to get to the bottom of what makes Scott tick and ask the burning questions here. So let's get started. Let's not waste any more time let's get started with a question.
I don't know what makes me tick. I don't know.
We're not going to find that out. You know, some of the greatest questions the ones you learn about yourself. Scott, Yes, what do you think Luke's biggest shining moment is in all of Gilmore Girls?
In all of Gilmore Girls. Yeah, We're start off with an easy one. I mean, really, it all harkens back to supporting Laura, l I and just being a good, solid friend. Big shining moment probably the uh. You know, people remember how you make them feel, right, so that's how they remember you. And you know, I think building her that that skating rink was you know that that was a big shining moment, you know, and just all the little gestures over the years of support and being there without having to be asked, that kind of thing, you know.
So, I mean, one of the great love stories of television. We've said it so many times on this show, but but you know we love Luke and Laura La. Now I want you to play favorites here. I want you to to offend some people and break some hearts. Who is your favorite cast member to work with and why?
Oh gosh, oh god. They were all so good to work with. You know, they were all great for different reasons, right, Yeah, you know, Lauren was great to work with because she's so good and and and you know, you know, you trust that you're and and they're also good, right, you know her, Michael Winter's I love my working with Michael Winter. Sally Struthers was a hoot. You know, you always had a smile in your face when you're working with Sally because she keeps you in stitches and she's such a great actress. Sean was always fun and great to work you know, everybody. I can't think of one person that was either difficult or not pleasant to work with. Everybody was pretty great. You know.
I've been lucky enough to see you interview a lot of those people you just listed, and you have such great chemistry on the show and then like off off camera, you guys are such good friends.
It's so fun to watch. It's like there's real love.
There was there a scene Ingomore Girls that gave you, like trouble to shoot that was particularly difficult that you can remember.
Oh boy, there were probably there were a few of them. Yeah, trouble difficult shooting I mean difficult for me to get at emotionally or just get the scene or.
Yeah, you know, or like was there some kind of complicated thing like like you know, it was in the rain or something like that, or no, no, well there was.
One day during the there was fires. There were fires near the studio. Oh wow, it was I think it was like season four, season five, maybe in season six, but there was ash raining down on the studio. So it was getting We were inside and we were right next door shooting at the Red White and what do you call it the movie theater? Red white and when is it called red and white movie theater? Yes, I will confirm that something like that. And we were shooting indoors in this sort of like garage thing. But but ash was coming in, you know, it was coming into the door was coming in, and we had to deal with this ash and this gray and it was just very odd and we kept having a stop and do more takes and it was just we weren't really in fear of being evacuated, but just it was very pomp peish. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Yeah, it was a little strange, eerie. I love this kind of stuff. When Luke is is writing on his order pad at the diner. What were you actually writing on there?
Scribbly things? I just you know, I tried once every once in a while, i'd write pancakes. Really, I try to write pancakes and I go back and look at it look like a four year old road. Usually it's just sort of scribbly things, you know, like I'm acting like I'm writing instead of actually writing. And you just need to write, but you don't want to, you know, because I have limited brain power. I really needed to focus on the lines what I was writing. Now it's usually just sort of like doodling stuff.
Okay, this is one of my my personal questions. I'm just throwing this in there. I've always wondered when an actor is like has a has a book or a like something that could conceal a script. Do you ever do that to like just kind of help, Like, is there ever a time where like someone's holding a menu but like the script is in there just so they can like jog their memory of the lions.
Does that ever happen you mean while we're shooting? Yeah, yeah, like while you're shooting. Oh no, I don't. Yeah, I've seen that before, but not on Gilmore, and you would you would think you would see it on Gilmore because it was so challenging, right, So No, I never saw it on Gilmore. Uh huh.
I watched a taping once of a star I shall not name, but he had to every two seconds had to ask for his line, and I was like, oh man, this is you had to have that memorized where.
That is just like that, it's not possible to work with people like that. Yeah, it's just you can't. You've got to know your stuff, right And uh, I mean especially Gilmore. Oh yeah, you know, if it's not a dialogue heavy show, like I'm working on a show now where it's not dialogue heavy, it's like pure mode. It's like everything is just heavy emotion all the time, every scene. So it's really not about the lines. Yeah, it's really what you're putting underneath the lines. So you know, I learned my I learned my stuff in rehearsal because I want it to be very fresh and have the quality of the first time that I've ever said these things. And that was the challenge of that. It's like getting the emotion a and then you know doing the lines as really like it's the first time you've done them. So you couldn't do that on Gilmour, right, yeah, that's not possible, But on this other show, yeah, it is possible. And then like like in terms of.
Interrupting the filming process, was there anyone Was there any other cast member who would like break the most or laugh the most during a scene?
No? You know, if we would get late at night, you were in our twelve thirteen, fourteen, fifteen hour and Lauren would break because she had to, she had to release the tension and laugh, and we would get all kind of silly and loopy, like it was what you call church laughter and getting punchy. Yeah, and once it starts, you can't stop it. And most directors were like, you know, smart enough to just sort of let it go. And I think we had one director that got very upset with us. We just and it made it even funnier, right, We just started laughing at him for the feudal attempts to get us to stop laughing, but we needed, you know, you need to just sort of let it out when something funny happens. You've kind of earned that laugh, you know, absolutely right?
How many of the luke hats did wardrobe have Like how many of those were there?
I don't know. I mean you have to figure there must have been a couple of backups, right, Yeah, yeah, but I have the original that belongs in the Smithsonian. It's just a house now. It is in my house. Well, it's in storage. Put it that way, along with many other items. So so so was the same hat every time? Or I believe it was? Yeah, wow, yeah, Oh my god. I love that.
There's like so much like love in that ball cap, Like it's so it's a magic item, you know.
Yeah, all my hair's in there. I guess it's gone now. Scott.
You you've had such a such an interesting career, and we've talked before about I mean, I love your the Saw movies and uh a little big League.
I love so many roles you've had.
Is there a dream like role or type of performance you've always wanted to have and you haven't yet.
Yeah. I've always wanted to play you know, like a really like scary bad guy, a villain. Interesting. Yeah I can a film, Yeah, and just see if I can pull that off, because those are fun roles. Those are really really fun roles and not a lot of dialogue, just just a lot of sort of looking and reacting.
I can see it in my mind, like like you'd be so good that you're this lovable guy. But but I know that like you could turn that on and become a terrifying person.
I think it would be fun. Those are the funnest roles. And those are the roles that I I you know, like a Gary Oldman role in the professional right, something like that. I mean, how much fun did that guy happen? I mean it's just like, oh yeah, yeah, those those roles are fun. All right.
Here's a question about Luke and Loralai. What do you think Luke loves the most about Laura Lei?
Her spirit? You know, her her her sunny, optimistic, sarcastic, witty, brilliant self. You know, there's so much going on with her at any given moment that you know, it's hard not to love her. I mean it's it's it's it's so easy to fall in love with her, and you know, whatever is coming out of her mouth at any given moment, it just makes her even more and more beautiful. You know, whether she's you know, throwing down with Emily or loving her daughter, or you know, she's just she's She's all the colors of the rainbow all at once, you know, so pretty spectacular character.
Absolutely, But now I need to know does Lauren love coffee as much as Laura?
I does? I believe she does? Yeah, yeah, yeah, there were a lot of coffee orders coming in. Yeah, I bet life iman date. Sorry, a lot of coffee orders.
Scott, this is so cool. I love doing this. I love learning more about you, and we have so much more to get into. But first we have to hear about some great goods and services that you might want to take advantage of at home. Anybody see I am all in again podcast. This is Easton Allen. That's my voice and Scott Patterson's here too. We're gonna jump into some more questions. How did it feel for you and Lauren to kiss after all that anticipation in waiting?
What was that moment? Like? It was It was really great. It was really just it was everything that I thought it would be, you know, and like I've said before, you know, we were both very nervous. We wanted to get it right and get the scene right. Building up to it, you know, that was the nerve wracking part. It's like, let's really set this up without guilding the lily too much, and but it was it was pretty obvious what it was going to be. And I think that the best part about it was the fact that it broke It broke off and then she repeats the line and then comes in for me. I mean, it was just great. And then Kirk runs through you just is there a better writing? There? Just isn't. No, the last thing you expect, right, yes, exactly right. The stuff of dreams are made of. It was a wonderful day.
When did you know that Loral and Luke were finally going to like get together?
I knew the moment I read the pilot script before my first audition.
Wow, yeah, all right, so it is it was always there's always going to happen.
I love that as you called me and said did you read the script? And I said yeah. She goes, you know what this means? I said, yeah, I know what it means. She says it don't blow it because you're the love interest, and I said, yeah it looks that way. You know.
Now, looking back on Gilmore as a whole, is there anything you would change about Luke's character, like how he was developed?
Is anything you do differently. No, No, I think he has the I think he has the proper amount of development, you know, I think less is more right. Yeah, we got enough nuggets from his life too, you know, to to inform an audience but also retain his mystery, which I think is a really powerful thing and a character you could do that with. Because it just sort of, you know, sits well with me. Now, there's really nothing.
No.
I got very lucky to be able to inhabit that role and contribute what I contributed. I just you know, it's twenty five years later and this thing is still growing. I knew it would be a successful show. I just you can never imagine that it's going to turn into something like this, you know. So it just I just I'd never I've never been lucky in my life. And then I realized with this show boy, you got lucky. I really got lucky. You know. It's like that, you know, when preparedness meets opportunity that is, yes, exactly exactly, And man, I you know, I was definitely prepared. And I've been auditioning really well for a couple of years. You know, I finally learned how to be a good auditioner because it's a skill set, it's a different it's kind of different from acting. Really. Yeah, it's more psychology than anything. And I got very good at that and it really helped me in that audition, you know, because they really thought I didn't care that and I knew I had to flip the psychology in the room in order to get an offer on something right because it was working. I was I was almost getting every offer every audition that I was going into because I acted like I didn't care. And I thought, Oh, this this acting like you don't care thing, it's working, So let's found the key. Let's keep doing it. You know.
I just had the pleasure of interviewing Robin Lively on on this show and we were talking about auditioning, and she was saying, like, it never gets she was saying she never felt comfortable auditioning. It's it's such an awkward part of the process but necessary. And I was wondering if you agree with that, like, like, did you was there a point where you ever enjoyed the thrill of it orthing?
Yeah, because you know, if you have a real intention of going in and taking over the room, that can be fun. Sometimes you're thwarted from doing that because it's just too heavy a vibe in there. And like I remember going in and meeting, God, who's the guy that directed Clear and Present Danger, John McTiernan or big A list, big movie director, right, Yeah, And I went in for a role a Philip Noise, Philip Noise. Sorry, yes, I went in and I read for Philip Noise and this big time casting director and Philip Noise and big time studio executives. And you go in thinking, man, I'm gonna take over the room, just like I always do. And you get in there and you're like, no, you're not taking over. There's a lot of power in that room. So but I did well, you know, I was proud of myself and didn't get the roll. But Feedbuck was very good, very strong, so you know, but no, you really do need to just go in and take the room, right, You just need to. You need to create the space to do your work. And that's what it's about. It's really you know, I forget who was talking about this, but it's one of the best descriptions I've heard of going into a room. It's like, look at it like it's your first day of work. On set on the job. You've already gotten the job. Now it's day one and you're going in and it's a work session, right, Yeah, you're walking into a rehearsal process. So how are you going to approach that because that's the person that they're going to coexist with for three months or seven years or whatever it is. Right, Yeah, how does this guy approach his work? So that's kind of how I have to look at That's great, that's great advice.
Anyone out there listening wants to get into the form of acting, take a lesson from Scott Patterson here. I love watching like videos of people auditioning because I met it's just got to be so weird to like, you're putting all this emotion and this preparation into this performance, but then there's like a cast, you know, just like a women wearing like bifocals, just dryly reading the other character, like the other person in the scene, and it's got to be so I don't know, I just it's such a unique challenge. I think for as someone who's never acted or attempted or anything, it just seems so difficult. So I'm always so impressed that actors can just do this over and over again.
Well, cancer directors pretty much know the scene. They know the beats of the scene, so they won't you know, and they don't really read with you. They have somebody else do it. And a lot of times it's a good actor reading with you and they know the beats and they know the scenes. Especially if you're going on tape. Sometimes you get tripped up because they don't know the scene very well and it's not a very good actor your opposite, and really if you act over them, it's going to be awkward. It won't feel organic. So you're really just sort of responding about what is being given to you in that moment. And I think that's really the trick, right is you can't be so if you're so wedded to one of your choices, your your choice, and you you go in there and you try to execute those choices and get very result oriented instead of allowing a process to happen that's organic and you know, changeable, then you're going to be in trouble. So I think it's really just taking in any given moment what you're being given and just sort of giving it back. It's so fascinating. I love this kind of stuff when when Gilmore Girls ended.
Before you know, before you did the movie, you know, the Netflix movies. Uh, what did you what was going through your head? Like, did you think it was going to come back in some way?
Like? What was on your mind at that moment? Well, I was. I was on set in Toronto of doing a movie and my manager called me and told me. I wasn't altogether surprised. Yeah, I had heard some grumblings from other sources that negotiations weren't going well with certain parties. So I thought, all right, I guess this is this is done. Maybe I don't know, prepare yourself, So I was kind of preparing myself anyway. Yeah, I always thought it had a huge life left without Amy and Dan, though that's a that's tough sledting. I thought David Rosenthal did a really great job and his team did a really great job on season seven. I think some episodes far exceeded my expectations and were real, real quality. Some of my favorite episodes in the whole seven seasons. Other's not so much, you know, but it's hard, you know, you take Amy and Dan with those original voices in their heads that they own and that they hear and they you have to admit they both have a unique ability to draw characters and very distinct into visual characters. You know a lot of writers, right, they'll have ten characters, they'll sound the same. There's nothing terribly distinctive about them. You can't say that about Gilmore Girls. I mean even down to the uh, you know, recurring players or day players. These are unique individuals. These are unique voices coming in the show. So I can't duplicate that, you know, it's hard to do. So when they left, I thought, well, you know, they're gonna have to write a movie, or they're going to have to write, you know, a mini series or something and bring it back. But I didn't really think about it that much. But you know, you're always hopeful.
Yeah, what do you do you think if they did a Gilmore Girl's prequel, like before, you know, going back to the before the show started, is that something you would want to see or be part of?
Do you think that would be exciting? Man? Gosh, how would they do that? Right? Wow? What do you start it? Where would you start it to make it compelling? How could you possibly do that? What would you do it? Is? I know, how would you do it, you'd have to start it so far back. I mean, who could be in it from the original cast? All right?
Or do we do like like they do on a yellow Stowd and stars hallow origins and go back to like the seventeen.
Right eighteen twenty three? Yeah, I'll play. I'll play Luke's great great great great grandfa. Yeah. New We're getting somewhere. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I have no idea. I'd love to star in the prequels as Luke Dane's dad. I like this idea. Yeah, have a seventeen year old Luke or something, you know, or sixteen year old Look, I love it.
Here's here's another question from a fan. How did you record like the phone conversation scene. It's like, like was it did you film those like separately or was it done at the same time?
Yeah? Yeah, always, always separately. Yeah, yeah, it was always at the end of the day. You know, you've got that, You've got that Laurel I phone call. Oh okay, let's just knock that out and then somebody would read her lines and you know, do the phone call. Scott.
I'm having the time of my life here. We have so many more questions. I just have to ask you a few more things. But first we got to take a break, man, We got to take a breather. We'll be right back, all right, everybody. Those are great commercials, huh. I love those commercials so much. But you know what I love more talking to Scott Patterson. People want to know what's your theory on what's on the third and fourth floor of Luke's Diner, because the exterior of the building has four stories.
You know, I was not aware that there was a theory, and I was not aware that there's a third and fourth floor. That just didn't never occurred to me. But now that you mention it, I just don't know what. I mean, what could be up there? I just probably you know what I bets up there. It's probably a lot of stuff he got from his parents in the will and he stores it up there. Old furniture, old heirlooms, that kind of thing that sounds about right, looks yeah. I think I think he's very sentimental underneath it all, and he hangs on to things and that's where he keeps it.
So, when you were filming the show, how did the scripts come to you? Like, did you just get like the Luke parts or did you get the whole episode?
Oh no, you get the whole. You get the script. A messenger drops it off at your house. You know. I go out to my mailbox. I had a gated kind of compound, and I go out and there be a script. I actually shove it under the fence, and I didn't want to leave it out in case somebody, you know, the mailman, stole it, right, Yeah, of course, because you know how mail men are. You know, they're famous for leaking great scripts. Now they just shove it under the fence or throw it over the fence.
In it. So would you read the whole you would you read the whole thing? Or would you just read Oh no, of course you No, you have to read the whole thing.
Sure, the whole thing.
I could see a version where people are just like, what's the part that I need to know?
Not important? Not important? My lines? Not not important? Not my lines? Yeah maybe there are no we you know, and we'd have table reads too, every yeah, right, So we'd sit down and we'd read it as a as a group.
What happened often where like it would be late at night and there'd be a revision and they have to send like a p a.
Drop off at midnight or something. Yeah, you know, I think you know, the very first week we were shooting at War Brothers because we were filming the pilot in Toronto, Laura and I were sitting to make a chair of six a m. We had a six thirty set call and the PA came in with the ten page script, ten page sorry, ten page scene totally rewritten. WHOA. We were like whoa, And we had, you know, maybe twenty minutes to nail it, and we did. And we so we proved to ourselves in that moment like, Okay, we can handle this, right, Yeah, can handle it. Maybe she already knew she could. I didn't know if I could, But you know, it's amazing what you can do on adrenaline and effort and belief. And if you have somebody like Lauren right and uh, you know you have a great, great tennis partner there, she's gonna she's always going to hit the ball over the net and challenge you with it. So it's it's it's kind of easier in that regard. You know.
Yeah, I imagine a lot of this work got worked out during the table read. But like, was there ever a time where you're filming the scene, like you're on set, you're in ward, you're filming the scene, and then the you know, the right. I don't know if the writers were ever there, but like, are people like making changes on the fly, like after seeing it kind of happen in real time?
Very rarely, it would happen little tweaks here and there if Amy was directing an episode or Dan was directing an episode, or Amy or Dan happened to be there because they were in the writer's room so often. It was for so long, and they come out, light up the set and we'd be very happy to see them. And yeah, every once in a while there'd be a tweak, you know, nothing major that they didn't the writing really didn't need it, you know, they were very uh man were they on it?
You know?
It was very rhythmic and very musical and it was just wonderful stuff.
Yeah, and we're so lucky to exist in a universe with kilmrcirls. I think so, Yeah, I think so is there a cast member that you wish you had more scenes with?
Sally? I didn't get to work with her very much. It seemed like once every other year we had a brief scene, you know, and I would just have so much fun with her. She was such a hoot. Man, what a what a fun, lively, energetic, full of stories and humor and love. I mean, she was just loving everybody.
You know.
She she was equal opportunity, optimist. Man, she was just something. She's on set, she still is. I mean, you know, she's she's with she she does a lot of theater.
I saw her on stage during Yeah, she did a play of Young Frankenstein a couple of years ago, and I went and saw it. It was She's so and I was such a big goal in the family fancast. I was like, she's just the best. She's so cool she is. Did you have a favorite job that Kirk one of Kirk's jobs? Did you have a favorite of those?
Well? His his movie directors was just killed me. His movies were so filmed by Kirks Kirk. They're so great. I mean, can you this is the greatness of Gilmour Girls is to have a character like that and doing that and those weirdo films those great you know, they all look like n y U student films that I used to do. I've been in those films. They're so correct. Yeah. I think that's the and the and the uber driver. I remember he was, was he driving them? Yeah? Yeah, funny the hot dogs so Jesus.
And the films set up for me too, they're so good.
Yeah.
Did you well when you filmed an episode, like like an average episode. I know they're all different, but like an average Gilmore Girls episode? How long did that take to film? Like from start to finish?
Eight days, eight days? Yeah? Oh my god. Each each episode was eight days, eight weekdays. So it would be you know, Monday through Friday and then Monday through Wednesday. Wow.
Yeah, I'm curious the production schedule. Was the whole season like wrapped before it started airing or was it like airing while you were filming the like second half of it or how did that work?
Well, we would have summers off, right, so it was like high school? And when did it? Yeah? And it would it usually it would usually drop in September, right the first episode. It would it was a fall show, yeah, but it would go for twenty three weeks, twenty two weeks or twenty four weeks in the fall. Yeah, And so we were working in the fall. Yeah, Okay, yeah, we we we would start up, and god, why we start up? We had Christmas break and then we could be back to work and then we work for you know, summer, summer would come, we'd be off, we'd be Yeah. I'm curious because, like you know, I always wonder, like it starts to go to sleep for a month exactly, hybernate. Uh, it starts to air and you're getting like you're seeing reaction from from fans at that point, and it's got it. You know.
I don't know what the Palladino's how they'd react to that, but like you know, you'd at least I feel like there'd be temptation to like make changes or adjustments based on how it was airing. By that point, so many of them were in the cans. It was going to be X amount of weeks or months before it actually, you know, before the changes took effect.
I don't know. I always wondered how that worked. Well, I'm sure they're getting communicates from Warner Brothers about character popularity, but I don't know that Amy and Dan really cared about any of that. I think they just wrote what they wrote, right. I think I think they organically if they want to write for a character, if they enjoy writing for a character, if they want to create a new character because they think it would be funny and help the storytelling, they do it. You know, I don't know, I don't really see them being dictated to by charts and graphs and polls and things like that.
You know, they have such a clear vision and that it's so evident in the show coming back after summer to start up again.
What was what was that like? Was that did it feel like school?
Like? Was it like, oh, hey, I just been your break? Like I'm always curious how that was what the experience is like?
No, No, it's it's not like school at all. It's like recess. It's like going to school and then just going to recess to play. No, I mean we did a lot of work. We did some hard work, right, it was Look, acting isn't meant to do that often. Okay, they just know that to keep it real on TV is very very difficult task because you've got nine months and you've got these very long days, and it can it can break you. It really can. It's like any other job. If if you're overworked, it can break you. It can really have an effect. But we were all, you know, back then, young and strong, and you know it could kind of deal with it. Yeah, but yeah, it takes over your life. You don't really have a life. You just sort of do the show and then get your rest and hope to eat well and hit the gym once in a while, and you know, but it's it can get it can get tiresome, you know. Sure, But you know the thing that always made me get out of bed in the morning and look forward to it was I get to help tell this story today and I get to do it with these people, and it's going to be fun. And who cares if you're a little tired. Everybody's a little tired, right, Yeah. I mean I could be tired, you know, doing a job I didn't want to do, right, which is a lot of people's every day. So I'm doing something I really love doing, and I know everybody else in the cast was really happy and really grateful to be there. And we just love creating scenes. So that's kind of what we do. It's a weird thing to do with your day, but it's you know, it's very communal. It's you're doing with other people. Everybody has the same goal is to make as the great ast scene as they possibly can make, and that moment so kind of noble, right, yeah, yeah, and nobility there.
We're so grateful for you and everyone else sharing this talent with with the world and bringing these characters to life. And I want to thank you Scott for taking time to day and answering these questions. We have so many more that maybe we'll get to another time, but uh, this is just the best. I love having these moments with you and you get to just dive deep and learn more about about Scott Patterson, the actor, the man, the legend.
So thank you for doing this. You are too kind Easton. I'll tell you I'm gonna talk to Amy. You're gonna get a raise, all right, all Amy, not Amy sharp pat But yeah, let's do it again. It was fun, all right, Thanks so much? All right, take care, everybody forget Follow us on Instagram at I Am all In podcast and Nalys at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.
