Kelly Bishop Reveals What She Loved About Emily Gilmore

Emily Gilmore might have been difficult and critical, but she's still a beloved TV character. Kelly Bishop loved the character because she was not a traditional mother.

Kelly Bishop has spent decades performing. She was well known for A Chorus Line before landing a role in Dirty Dancing. In the early 2000s, she landed on TV as Emily Gilmore in Gilmore Girls. She has appeared in plenty of roles since. Still, Emily Gilmore, the matriarch of the Gilmore Family, is the role Kelly Bishop is best known for today. In the lead-up to the release of her book, The Third Gilmore, Bishop revealed exactly what she loves about the character of Emily. We don’t disagree with her assessment.

Kelly Bishop reveals what she loved about Emily Gilmore

In a chat with Salon, Kelly Bishop revealed exactly what she loved about the character she spent seven years playing. The famed actor told the publication that Emily Gilmore was a woman who said what she meant and tried to get what she wanted. She revealed that she loves women like that and was honored to portray the Gilmore matriarch for so long.

Bishop went on to explain that she felt like Emily Gilmore was much different from the mothers she grew up watching on TV. Emily wasn’t a traditional wife and mother. She wasn’t overly sweet and compliant like the TV mothers of the 1950s and 1960s. Emily made demands and those demands were often met, whether by service professionals, her own staff or her stoic but doting husband, Richard Gilmore. Bishop described Emily as a “tough piece of work.”

Kelly Bishop drew inspiration from her upbringing

When Kelly Bishop was cast in

, she had already played a mother role. She had previously portrayed Marjorie Houseman in Dirty Dancing. Still, she didn’t have any real-life experience to fall back on. Bishop opted not to have children of her own. Instead, she drew inspiration for Emily Gilmore from her upbringing.

In 2017, Bishop appeared on Q with Tom Power to discuss her lengthy acting career. When asked about the role of Emily Gilmore, Kelly Bishop revealed that she pulled a great deal of inspiration from her grandmother, whom she called Louise. Bishop said her grandmother was very much like Emily, and the relationship that Emily had with her daughter, Lorelai Gilmore, mimicked the relationship her grandmother and mother had. She went on to reveal that she and her own mother were closely bonded like Rory and Lorelai.

Kelly Bishop’s memoir, The Third Gilmore Girl, was released on Sept. 17, 2024. The book covers her illustrious career and everything that happened behind the scenes. Bishop is now 80, and while she hasn’t given up acting just yet, she enjoys spending her time in her New Jersey home and neighborhood.