If the quirky, small-town magic of Stars Hollow – the fictional Connecticut community in which Gilmore Girls was set – seemed a little too good to be true, it’s because it was.
Or at least according to Melissa McCarthy, who played Sookie St. James on the beloved series throughout its seven-season run and its 2016 Netflix revival, Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life.
The Little Mermaid star recently revealed to Entertainment Weekly her “least favourite” aspect of working on the beloved series from 2000 to 2007, which sounds pretty uncool.
Melissa explained that although the show was set in New England, which boasts a colder climate most of the year, its set was located in the much hotter Burbank, California.
“Sometimes we were like crammed into small things with coats on, but it was actually like 112 degrees in Burbank,” the actor told the entertainment outlet.
“And we were like, ‘Ooo, Connecticut.’ And no one’s explaining why I have malaria and why I’m in a full flop sweat.”
Melissa said things hit a boiling point while the cast was shooting the promotional poster for season one.
“When we did our first poster, someone passed out,” Melissa admitted without naming a specific cast mate. “Like, just out cold because we were all in coats and trying to look blustery. Sweat in weird places, and they’re like, ‘Look cold!’”
The Emmy winner also shared what she thinks her character Sookie and her husband, Jackson (Jackson Douglas), would be up to today.
“She has, like, 42 kids,” Melissa told Entertainment Weekly, painting a pretty stressful rhetorical situation that would make most break into a sweat. But she thinks the fictional couple would deal with that stress in the most chill ways.
“I think they’re growing weed,” Melissa added of Sookie and Jackson. “I think her and Jackson, she still cooks, but I think she does edibles.”
Despite Sookie’s predilection for being high, Melissa herself seemed dead sober when she seemingly called out Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino for telling TVLine in 2016 that McCarthy was too “f**king busy” to appear in the show’s highly-anticipated Netflix revival.
When a fan tweeted at Melissa, begging her to squeeze in the time to “return to Stars Hollow” for the revival, the Spy star tweeted back: “Thanks for the invite, but sadly no one asked me or Sookie to come back to Stars Hollow. Wish them all the best!!”
Sherman-Palladino’s remark was valid. Since Melissa’s breakout performance in 2011’s Bridesmaids, her star power has certainly risen, and she’s become a highly sought-after comedic actor in Hollywood.
Despite the drama, however, Melissa ultimately made a brief cameo in the final episode of A Year in the Life — and, thankfully, Sookie appeared coat-free in her scene.