Sally Struthers Says She Got Her Gilmore Girls Role in Part Because of Her 'Diminutive' Size

Sometimes height matters!

Sally Struthers, who played Babette Dell Gilmore Girlsshared in a recent episode Let’s talk about it! podcast that she worked in a musical for two women in Las Vegas called Always… Patsy Cline when her manager called her about the audition.

“ ‘They want you to read at Warner Brothers for this series that’s happening there called Gilmore Girls. And it’s a character who lives next door to a wife and daughter who are Gilmore girls,’ Struthers recalled.

“‘And her name is Babette, and they’re looking for a little actress to play her,’ she continued. “’They don’t see anyone taller than five feet. And then they’ll choose someone very tall to be your jazz musician husband.’ ”

Sally Struthers at the premiere of ‘Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life’ in 2016.

Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

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She recalled working late that Sunday night before going to her audition on Monday, and when the producers and writers finally saw her, she introduced herself to them and chatted a bit—a tactic she jokingly called “deflect, deflect . ”

“AND [I] I was just talking and talking about being short and some of my experiences being this tall and all that as an adult,” said Struthers, 77. “And I mean, I was 20 minutes out of the Warner Brothers parking lot, and I got a phone call from my manager who told me: ‘You got it!’ ”

Struthers noted that she was grateful to be given the opportunity to work on the show, as “every moment” on set was “joyous” — especially since her good friend, Liz Torres, was also cast in Miss Patty, the dance teacher.

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“And again we have to work together, but we’re terrible together,” he said Everyone in the family the actress joked. “Me [would] made each other laugh a lot, so they kept separating us like teachers do at school. They kept saying, ‘Liz, you go and sit on the other side of the sound stage, and Sally, you sit over here, and you can’t sit together…’ Because we were making too much noise.

She also recalled her first day on set and bonding with her co-star Ted Rooney, who played her character Morey Dell’s tall husband. She said she eventually realized they had grown up in the same town and had a close relationship after she recognized his name on the call list.

Rob Reiner, Sally Struthers, Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton in ‘All in the Family’ 1976.

CBS via Getty

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“I said, ‘So you’re Ted Rooney, the son of Ed Rooney, my high school math teacher,'” she recalled. “He says, ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘So you grew up in Portland, too?’ “Uh huh.” “You went to Grand High School too?” “Uh huh.” ”

She continued, “I said, ‘What year were you?’ He says, ‘Well, I look older than you. because how tall and slim I am, but I’m actually younger than you. I think I was a freshman when you graduated as a senior.’ ”

Those weren’t the only relationships she made on the show, as she continued to boast Gilmore Girls stars Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel, who she said were “wonderful” to work with. She also thanked Gilmore Girls creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino for creating the series, which ran for seven seasons on The WB and was revived for Netflix in a limited series in 2016. Gilmore Girls: years in life.

“It was joyful,” she reiterated of her time on the show.

Gilmore Girls and Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life are available to stream on Netflix.

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Source: HIS Education