On-screen romance becoming something more?
A child hidden from the press? “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 3”?
Alexis Bledel has transformed from television sweetheart to Emmy award winning actor.
Alexis Bledel grew up acting at a young age. As she told Kitsap Sun, she was 8 years old when
she first started on stage. However, Bledel was quite shy as a child. In fact, she was so
shy that her parents suggested she try acting in community plays to help her get out of her shell.
During a press tour for her film "The Good Guy," Bledel recalled in an interview,
"I thought it was utterly terrifying — like, terrifying to go out on the stage.
But then once you start to speak or to dance or to sing or whatever it is you're doing,
then it's kind of exhilarating [...] or comfortable."
Bledel added that eventually she grew to love acting,
as it let her express herself in ways she couldn't in real life.
As Alexis Bledel told Elle Girl in 2005,
she was discovered by a modeling agent at a local mall when she was 14 years old.
Even though getting in front of the camera had never been her ambition, she gave it a
try. She proved to be very successful as a model. In fact, as she told Seventeen,
"I ended up taking senior year off because I traveled a little bit for
my modeling career — Seventeen was actually my first job!"
For Bledel, working as a model helped her to continue coming out of her shell.
Of course, her modeling career could have had a very different effect. For one thing,
as she told Elle Girl, it could have damaged her self-esteem. Bledel said,
"When I was modeling as a teenager — which is probably the most sensitive time of a person's
life, I just ignored it when people said to lose two inches off my hips."
Luckily, Bledel had plenty of job offers and could ignore these requests.
It sounds like modeling not only taught her about being comfortable in front of a camera,
but also taught her how to stick up for herself.
Alexis Bledel soon landed her first big role — playing Rory on "Gilmore Girls."
She moved to L.A. and quickly shot to fame. As she told Elle Girl,
the job certainly wasn't easy at first. She recalled,
"I was completely overwhelmed [...] I was working 18-hour days, and weekends too."
A lot of the time, she felt unsure about how to even act in certain scenes. Soon enough,
however, she hit her stride and learned the ropes.
She also had to deal with the pressures of fame. In an interview with Marie Claire,
she admitted that she hadn't been prepared for the show's cult-like success.
As she told the Kitsap Sun in 2005, being famous, quote, "slightly skews everything." In fact, being
famous was so unattractive to Bledel that she even spoke about giving up acting after a few years.
As she later told E! News, while the role brought with it many challenges,
it also served as a crash course in TV acting. She explained,
"It really helped me learn how to memorize dialogue quickly and really comprehensively,
which is great for auditioning and any work I get after."
As Rory Gilmore, Alexis Bledel got to experience being the lead of a successful TV show. In 2002,
she got to experience leading a feature film when she played Winnie in "Tuck Everlasting." As
Bledel told Crosswalk at the time, the character also presented some new challenges. She said,
"I liked playing someone who was rebellious,
because I've never gotten to do that before because it was something kind of different."
It was also her first period film. As Bledel told IGN, starring in "Tuck
Everlasting" also gave her a chance to see the differences between television and film.
Before making the movie, she had assumed that filmmaking was a little easier. She explained,
"On 'Tuck' I was able to see up close how much work it really is,
and how it basically is a portion of your life that you basically devote to
the project and it's sort of all-consuming and I didn't realize that there's no way
you can really realize that, until you take a stab at it, you know?"
“I’m right here.”
Playing Lena in the hugely successful "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" movies
wasn't just a big career move for Alexis Bledel — it also introduced her to some lifelong friends.
The films followed four teenage friends who go their separate ways after high
school and send each other a pair of jeans to stay in touch with each other.
The four young actresses quickly bonded — especially as, by the second movie, each of
them had experience starring in their own TV show, as Bledel pointed out in an interview with CNN.
Years later, the four costars have remained in touch. In fact, they seem to have formed a sort
of actor support system. As Bledel's costar America Ferrera told "Busy Tonight" in 2019,
"We have a text thread. Breaking news! There is a 'Sisterhood of the Traveling
Pants' text thread. I go to them for everything."
Another costar, Amber Tamblyn, also spoke about their friendship in an interview with MTV.
She revealed that the foursome almost chat, quote, "every single day."
"Gilmore Girls" ended in 2007 after seven seasons. For Alexis Bledel,
who had gone from shy and unsure to a confident actress, the ending
of "Gilmore Girls" was an opportunity to take stock and plan her next career move.
As she told Entertainment Weekly at the time,
she was initially eager to move away from the world of television. She explained,
"It would have to be at least 10 years before I'd do [a series] again,
because it is such an all-consuming experience.”
Instead, the actress turned her focus to film. She appeared in "The Good Guy," a romantic comedy and
"Post Grad," a comedy starring Michael Keaton and Carol Burnett. Also, "The Conspirator," a period
film about Abraham Lincoln, and "The Kate Logan Affair," a movie about a police woman who starts
an affair with a married man. She also starred in projects like "Girl Walks Into a Bar," a comedy,
and "Violet and Daisy," in which she played a teenage assassin alongside Saoirse Ronan.
For Bledel, all of these various roles were important. As she later told Collider,
after "Gilmore Girls," she wanted to move away from the character of Rory. She added,
“[I] tried to play as many different characters as I could and reach as far as I could,
sometimes in strange directions."
Well, she did, and it definitely worked!
In 2012, Alexis played Beth Dawes in "Mad Men."
Her character has a brief affair with Pete Campbell, played by Vincent Kartheiser,
before she decides to return to her husband. It turns out, the pair had real chemistry. In fact,
they actually started dating in real life. They first appeared in public later that year.
By March 2013, they were engaged, and by 2014, they had tied the knot.
The pair have kept their relationship incredibly private over the years.
However, in 2014, Kartheiser gave Vulture a few details.
He explained that the pair only started dating a few months after working together. He said,
"We were completely professional [...] We never [sought] each other out."
Several of their "Mad Men" colleagues, however,
saw it coming. As the show's creator Matthew Weiner said,
"They're both very down to earth, with a sense of responsibility and strong family ties. And they've
been acting since before they can remember, which makes for a very special personality."
Sounds like these two really were meant to be.
Alexis Bledel gave birth to her first son with Vincent Kartheiser in 2015. The notoriously
private couple kept the baby a secret from the media until Bledel's "Gilmore Girls" costar,
Scott Patterson, let the news slip in an interview with Glamour in 2016. He said,
"Now she's a proud new mother and married and happy."
He also added that his son was about a year and half older than her son.
This means Bledel's son was likely born in the fall of 2015.
While she and her husband have kept details of their son's life private, the actress has opened
up about how becoming a mother has shifted her perspective on both life and acting. In 2017,
she told Entertainment Tonight it had made her more picky about choosing roles. She said,
"​​More than anything, I just think about what roles I take on, and make sure that
it's really something that I feel passionate about if I'm going to leave home and go work."
It's clear that motherhood has really transformed the way Bledel looks at
life — we can't wait to find out a little more about her son in the years to come.
In 2016, Alexis Bledel returned to the role that made her famous,
with the "Gilmore Girls" revival. She had, of course,
changed a lot since the first time around. As her costar, Scott Patterson, told Glamour,
"She's really blossomed as a woman."
Her feelings towards the show itself had also changed over time. As she told Collider,
"Having the time between the end of the series and the beginning of these episodes really gave
us a lot of perspective on what this show meant to people and what it means for us, creatively."
Even though she loved coming back to see her old colleagues,
there were parts of the experience that she found disappointing. For one thing,
Bledel initially struggled to accept her character's cliffhanger ending.
Spoiler alert: Rory drops some big news at the very end of the show.
“Mom?” “Yeah?”
“I’m pregnant.”
She told Entertainment Tonight,
"[Creator Amy Sherman-Palladino knew what reaction she was going to get out of the audience [...]
She's delighted by throwing everyone a curveball. I knew that's what she wanted, and I trusted her."
Alexis Bledel first rose to fame for playing the sparky,
endearing Rory in the comedy "Gilmore Girls." While she has branched out into
other genres over the years, it's safe to say that her ongoing role in the dystopian drama
"The Handmaid's Tale" is one of her biggest departures from her days in Stars Hollow.
As Ofglen, a.k.a. Emily, Bledel played a woman resisting an authoritarian regime.
For Bledel, the role brought new challenges and new rewards. She explained to Deadline,
"I love the challenge of the role. The physical challenge of shooting
in The Colonies just required a commitment to withstanding the elements for a week or so,
alongside all the women who were in those scenes."
Bledel ended up winning an Emmy for her performance.
As it turns out, she even surprised herself with the role. As she told E! News,
"I always wanted to do dramatic work, but I didn't know that [I could],
I guess, delve into roles like this one. It's been really fulfilling in
a way I didn't know this job could be. It's really been incredible."
With a new season of "The Handmaid's Tale" coming in the unknown future,
fans of Alexis Bledel may be wondering — where will we see her next? We already know
that she's been pretty picky about her roles since becoming a mother. However,
it turns out, there is one project that the actress would always be thrilled to take on.
As she told Jimmy Fallon on "The Tonight Show," she would
love to do a third "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" movie.
In fact, she and her fellow cast mates even pitched an idea for the movie! She said,
"I hope it comes together, it would be so great."
There hasn't been any more word on whether the producers accepted the actress' pitch,
the film does appear on Bledel's IMDb page. We can only hope that we get to
see her come back as Lena soon — it's just the throwback we need!
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