Though Lane Kim and Rory Gilmore were besties on screen, the relationship on Gilmore Girls didn’t exactly translate into real life. Keiko Agena, who played the music-obsessed Stars Hollow resident, opened up about her relationship with Alexis Bledel, who played the studious youngest Gilmore.
“I wish we had more of a friendship,” 47-year-old Agena admitted of her relationship with 39-year-old Bledel on Scott Patterson’s Gilmore-themed podcast, I Am All In. “That was probably a lot to do with me not making as much of an effort as I should have.”
She noted that Bledel and Lauren Graham (Lorelai Gilmore) had such busy schedules that she wanted to be respectful of their time.
“I also think I was so — worried is the wrong word — but, you know, they worked so many hours that their off-set time, I thought, was so precious to them and I didn’t want to insert myself into that time of their lives,” she explained.
Despite not being close friends in real life, Agena praised her on-screen pal, saying, “Alexis is such a wonderful person, and I do think that as soon as I met her as a person you just recognize that she’s an intelligent, special individual. And I think that there’s part of me that felt protective of her right away as a fellow actor and someone that recognizes how unique of a person she is.”
She added, “I think some of that is just instinctual and I think that probably shows in how our characters related to each other that we like and respect each other right off the bat.”
As the pal who got to meet all of Rory’s three main men — Dean (Jared Padalecki), Jess (Milo Ventimiglia), and Logan (Matt Czuchry) — Agena has some clear thoughts on who Rory should have ended up with.
“I am Team Jess,” she said. “I say that because I always felt that the main problem with Jess is that he needed to mature and find some vulnerability. I thought that was his only flaw — and it’s a big flaw — but that was something that would happen over time. I thought that their chemistry together and the way that they matched intellectually, he really did, their love for each other seemed genuine. And I didn’t think that once he grew up that he would ever cheat on Rory or that sort of thing, whereas I always questioned Logan. That’s the downside of Logan, and Dean was never the right match for her.”
