One on One: Peter Klausner

Published Dec 22, 2022, 5:00 AM

From Laundry Room Guy to Attorney at Law!  I guess Yale really paid off!  
Peter Klausner aka William the Laundry Room Guy is here.  Like Rory, we noticed him when he walked in to that laundry room...but it's his second appearance on Gilmore Girls that was so significant!

I am all in, Kiss you, I am all in with Scott Patterson and I Heart Radio podcast Everybody, Scott Patterson, I am all in podcast one eleven productions, I Heart Radio. We are going to be talking with William, the laundry guy portrayed by Peter Klausner. Uh, let me tell you a little bit about Peter. He portrayed William for two episodes uh season four episode five, The Fundamental Things Apply, and the last episode was season four episode eleven, So Short but Sweet, Tenure at Gilmore and the Clamor and the Clanger. His bio was born in Los Angeles, California. As an actor and a writer known for Gilmore Girls, Amigo, Undead in Six Degrees of Everything in two haus in fifteen, and now he is an attorney dealing with class action lawsuits against Big Pharma and Little Farma. Peter, welcome, thanks for coming on. Take us back to two thousand and four and tell us how you got the role of William. Sure, so it actually goes back to two thousand and three. Um, I had just graduated from college. I was twenty one, and I didn't even have an agent at that time. I had been a theater student at USC but I had a manager and UM. Towards the end of the summer, she let me know I had an audition or the show The Gilmore Girls, which up to that point I had never seen. UM. So I started asking around with friends. I said, what what kind of show is this? UM? Is it any good? And I was told, well, the writing is really good and they talk really fast on the show, so when you go to the audition, show them that you can talk fast. And so I I looked into it. UM. I saw that Edward Herman was on the show, who I loved, and UM went in for the audition and it was interesting because UM as I, as I later found out, I think somebody showed me an article and it was right while this was going on. But you know, this was the season that I was auditioning for was Rory's first year at Yale, and there was some article that had been written and I think Amy had been quoted saying, well, now that she's left behind these two guys uh in stars Hollow, we are going to parade you know, every young man in town in front of her. And I guess I was. I was one of those young men because when I went to the audition. Um, you know, these auditions are always staggered and scheduling wise for forever reason, everybody showed up at the same time, and it was just an entire lobby filled with with people. It was like you know, looking into a mirror, but but or multiplicity. With Michael Keaton. There was thirty of us, um and every everybody insecure, everybody uh, you know, staring each other down. And I went in for the audition and I just immediately clicked with the casting directors and they brought me back to to read for Amy and I think some of the other producers, and then I I got the gig and they told me to show up, and I think I was still twenty one at this point. Showed up to the to the sound stage in Burbank and and that's where the real kind of adventure began. What do you remember about being on set? I mean I was I was terrified. I mean, you know, my this was this was not I mean, this was this was my first professional audition, much less gig and um there you know, there there were people there that were established now celebrities, and I had never worked on a sound stage like that before. They were just all. You know, there were bells and literally bells going off and I didn't know what they meant. They sounded like fire alarms. Fine that you know, that just means they're filming. Um. Then you've got those those big hot lights, these big alien cameras staring at you and um and that's before you Then you get to the fact that that that you then have to perform, and you're performing within again and established famous actress um and and you know, the people on set really did everything they could to make me feel comfortable. UM and and and by the way, and the when I went in for the costume fitting, I don't know what a couple of days earlier. UM, they liked the jeans I was wearing and my Chuck Taylor Converse shoes, so they just had me wear those um for the shooting. I think that that made me feel comfortable. You know, I was in my comfortable warning jeans and shoes. UM. And the director whose name I can't recall at the moment, although it's knowable, she was great and she really tried to put me at ease. Uh. And you know it was it was a couple couple hours. You know, we filmed the scene from as you do, from multiple angles, and I was just trying to relax and be chatty with Alexis bladell getting nowhere with that, um you know, you know, I I was there for one scene in the first episode. I was in that scene in the laundry room. So it was just a very very quick scene. She had a whole day ahead of her and just just was not I wouldn't I wouldn't take it personally. She was just probably trying to conserve, conserve her because those are those are tough long days to get through. Yeah. Yeah, and I could even sense that. Um, I think she and other cast members, I could just tell we're just exhausted, you know, from from that from that grind, I don't think it's easy for anybody. And uh um, but you know, I'm always trying to lighten the mood and always getting nowhere over that. So um yeah, it was. It was a couple of hours and of just you know that that one scene and uh, you know, I left the set and of course it did what I called my mom right away, like like she demanded I do, uh, and you know, told her all about it, and so it was a lot of fun. So she got the scoop, all right, okay, yeah, yeah. Now the second episode I was in, it was a little bit different because I had multiple scenes and I wasn't cast on the fly, so I actually got to go to the table read for that one. I sat next to Lauren Graham, um, and got to meet some of the other cast members as well and some of the other people that worked on the show and go through that whole table read experience. And that wasn't much that that that was also filmed in one day. I think it was four scenes filmed over the course of one day, But that was a much longer day than the first time, so I actually started to feel pretty beat by the end of it. Yeah, do you remember what you had for lunch? I don't know that I had lunch, but I think I think I knew if I ate anything, I would just get tired. But but in the in the scene that uh that in in I think there's a scene in the second episode where Rory and I are in a in a classroom having a discussion at some sort of debating Middle East politics or something like that, and um, you know, there were there were snacks in the room. Um. On the set that were there as as essentially props. But I think they said something to the effect that if you want, you know, you can grab some of that and bring it to the table, because everybody's supposed to be kind of munching in this scene. And so I saw a bunch of bagels there and just there's a little nod to my Jewish roots. Um took a bagel, took a big bite out of it to demonstate so that it would look like I had been in the process of eating it, and put it on the table in front of me. But that bite of the bagel might have been the only thing I actually ate that day. I think I was just otherwise too nervous to get So your scenes with Alexis, and we have people writing in questions. This is from Amanda and uh Knoxville, Tennessee your scenes with Alexis in episode eleven, from the argument in the International Relations Club and the confrontation of the dining hall were so good? Were there a lot of takes with the pencil twirling. She wants to know that is a good question, that's very obscure. I was. I was, no, it's it's it's a great question, because I was obviously very very conscious of the pencil twirling at the time. Um, by the way, for what it's worth, I don't think I ever understood what I was saying in that scene. And I think I've even gone back and and listened to the dialogue more carefully, and I still don't even know if I know what it was I was really ultimately saying. But as far as the pencil goes, no, I don't recall there being a number. I don't think there were many takes. I think I was such a good pencil twirler at that point already that it was natural, that was second nature. Well, there was a this is from Mary Beth from Seattle. Uh, the tension between you two, you could feel we could we feel we could have taken it further and maybe a love interest. Was there a discussion with the writers for that at all? Yeah, I think that. I think going back to what I said earlier about having a bunch of young men parade in front of her over the course of her freshman year. Um, you know, I think they just after a number after she had had a number of encounters and a number of episodes have been filmed. I think they they made a decision to just take stock and see who the best candidates were from potential love interests. So certainly, I think when those scenes were being filmed, it was understood that there was a potential love interest angle there that was in the works, just depending on with which actor she she had the most chemistry. And uh, I guess, I guess I wasn't that actor. So um, you know, I I don't know about that. There's all kinds of reasons people get parts and uh don't get parts and has nothing to do with with their acting, you know what I mean. There's all kinds of stuff. I don't know. I think that I think that maybe they were looking to see who had like a natural rapport with her winning character and that sort of thing, you know. As I said that, that show is very specific about the writing and the characters and how things play out, and I think they really just, you know, they just wanted to take stock and see who the best candidate was, just in terms of that rapport with Rory or Alexis. Did you, uh, did you watch the episode when it came out and did you watch it before you came on here today? Um? So yes and no, um, And I certainly considered watching again in preparation for this so I definitely watched it when it came out. I watched, I watched with my family. You know, my mom was my biggest fan. I think acting and me being an actor was really her dream for me more than it really was mine. Um And, and she actually passed away shortly after I filmed these episodes. Um but and I I was just always very very thankful that that she got to have that experience of seeing her boy on TV, which I think was a bigger thrill for her than it was for me. Um So that was awesome. And I and I and I watched with them with my with my parents, and I think some other family was there. Um But as for watching in preparation for this podcast, you know, I really wanted to. But I I I'm one of those actors. I have a really difficult time watching myself after the fact. Uh it is. I find it to be a thoroughly painful experience, and I think and interestingly, as more time goes on, I find it even more difficult. And at some point, I guess I'll have to show this stuff. I have two little girls. I'll have to show them. You know, these episodes from that time Daddy was on TV. But I I can't. I can't watch the Gilmore Girls episode. I can't watch any of the other shows that I did. So that's a that's a common theme with many many of my actor friends. UM. I share that with you as well. UM, it's hard for me to watch these episodes. I have to do the podcast, and I'm twenty two years removed from it, so it's a little easier. But I know how you feel. UM. Uh do people remember you from the show? People come up to you on the street and said, Hey, you're William the laundry guy. So that's that's a good question. So for for so long, there no UM. And for a while there now UM and and uh. But UM as the years went on, and that whole um, the whole binge watching experience exploded and and and people started streaming and all that UM and it and it had been in uh circulation for a while or extumeing syndication. UM. Once in a while, I would get noticed. I got I got noticed and I got noticed by a by a flight attendant when I was flying to Las Vegas from my bachelor party. And I remember and she recognized me and was fawning over me. And I remember thinking, well, why didn't this happen before I was going to a bachelor party and then and then and then and then and then, um when a when a makeup artist actually came to our when I was getting married. Um, a makeup artist came to my apartment to do a trial run with my wife to make sure they were getting everything right for the wedding. And I was only there for a minute. I left the apartment, and apparently after I left, she said, So, this is so random, but was your husband on the Gilmore Girls? And um and so um so so again and so odd that all these things keep happening in the context of my my wedding. But yeah, and so it's happened a couple other times since then, but but only once people started bingering, I think, once they had seen these episodes three or four times and become experts on them. So, um, so you haven't acted in a while. What are you up to now? So I'm actually a um uh an attorney and I do um consumer work, um sort of class action mass towards stuff on the on the planiff side and so um and so uh I've been heavily involved in some of those opioids cases that you're reading about, um uh in the news. I was just in New Mexico for a two month opioids trial against pharmacies. UM. I've taken on to other pharmaceutical companies Bristol Myers, squib sanit Fee for the pharmaceutical drug Clavits. I've represented um classes of plaintiffs against banks, mortgage servicers, medical device manufacturers, that sort of thing. And you know, by the way, and I hate to I hate to sort of skip around a derail, but I actually remember in the in the table read for the for I guess it was episode eleven of that season. UM, I think you had a scene involving a shovel that you had loaned somebody. Am I getting this right? Or does this even ring a bell? No? Keep talking about maybe it'll bring it back, but go ahead. Well, I think it was something like you were you were shoveling a walkway with her shop with with UM with Laurel I shovel and as you walked away with it, she said you guys had a fight, and she saithing like you better bring that back, and you said something like I lent this to you six years ago, and I remember actually laughing out loud uh in the read. I don't know if that sounds from anyway. Getting getting back to your question, I've basically been an attorney for the last twelve years. I got after acting, I got um politically involved in some campaigns, and that was when I really realized that, you know, I think this acting thing was really my my mom's dream for me and not my own. I didn't have. I always enjoyed it. I always loved television movies. I shouldn't have a passion for it, you know. And I think that when I think that, you know, you get one chance at life, and and let people always say you find that thing that you love, you will never work a day in your life. And that just was not acting for me. Too many nerves, um and no real passion. So got into law and I really never looked back. Well, good for you. Your sounds like you're really helping out humanity, trying to you know, clawback some of those dollars in exchange for Well, that's just a wonderful wonderfulness. You're ready to play rapid fire, Okay, So I'm gonna I'm gonna fire question that you gotta it's gonna be Gilmore esque in its speed. How many comes to coffee? Do you have a day? Oh? God? Three to four? Are your team Logan, Team Jeser, Team Dean? How could it don't make me a fine team? Uh? You just? What's your favorite Gilmore Girls character? I would probably have to go with William the guy in the laundry. There you go short of that, listen, I come on, that's it's such so many great characters, so many great actors. But because I grew up in the eighties and was a big Lost Boys fan, I I just I always loved Edward Herman. But but it's just so many great characters. Sorry, I'm not being wrapping. No, no, no, no, that's okay, that's okay. What would you order at Luke's Diner? Oh? Man? Uh? You know my diets changed so much since those days. You know, I can't really eat. I get reflux with so many You really are a lawyer, aren't you? Yeah? You really are? You take the floor, man. I would just say I would just get a coffee and just sim to all the clever conversations people were having. Would you would you rather go on road trip with Taylor or Michelle? Would it break hearts if I said I didn't really know who does know? It would not uh finish the no, No, I get it, I get it. Finish the lyric. And where you lead, I will follow dot dot dot. I don't know, but my mom would know anywhere that right, Um, Jackson's Vegetables or Suki's baked goods. You don't even know what that means to know, but I but I remember Sukiya Suki's bake goods. Would you rather listen to Drella's harp or the Troubadours cover songs? The harp? Because I just need to put my mind at easy these days. Chiltern Prepper stars hollow high, come on, of course stars hollow alright, So I'm gonna wrap this up, but stay with me because we'll do the intro to all right. Peter, Thank you, Peter Klausner. Thank you so much for coming on board and sharing your experiences with us. Uh fascinating, insightful and surprising, and thank you so much. Be well, my friend, and hopefully we'll talk to you soon if you do. But that's it, you don't, that's it. Two episodes. You're out right. That's right, that's it, all right. I appreciate it, my pleasure. It's always fun to go back and run. You got it, buddy, all right, take care now, have a good one, hey everybody, and don't forget Follow us on Instagram at I Am all In podcast and email us at Gilmore at I heart radio dot com. Oh you, Gilmore fans. If you're looking for the best cup of coffee in the world, go to my website for my company, scott EP dot com, s C O T T y P dot com, scott ep dot com Grade one Specialty Coffee. Yeah.