‘Gilmore Girls’ Star Scott Patterson Calls out Creator for Objectifying Luke in Season 3 Episode

Gilmore Girls star Scott Patterson is looking back on the most “disturbing” experience he ever had on the hit show’s set. Patterson, who played Luke Danes, recalled in a new episode of the rewatch podcast I Am All In feeling uncomfortable with series creator Amy Sherman-Palladino objectifying his character in the Season 3 episode “Keg! Max!” In the episode, Lauren Graham’s Lorelai Gilmore and Melissa McCarthy’s Sookie St. James have a discussion about Luke’s butt.

“I realized it wasn’t OK, and it didn’t make me feel comfortable at all. It made me feel really embarrassed, actually,” Patterson says on the podcast. “It’s infuriating to be treated that way. It is infuriating because you’re being treated like an object. It’s disturbing and it’s disgusting, and I had to endure that through that entire scene and many takes. It was all about the butt, the butt, the butt, the butt. When we weren’t filming, we were sitting down – people were still talking about the butt, the butt, the butt.”

“It was the most disturbing time I have ever spent on that set, and I couldn’t wait for that day to be over,” he continued, asking fans to put themselves in his place. “Stand there in front of all those people filming, and this is how the creator of that show sees that character – that you can humiliate him and take away his dignity that entire scene and that’s OK. And it wasn’t OK with me, and I hated that scene,” Patterson recalled. “I had to go to work and shoot that. I had to learn those lines. I had to rehearse that scene. I had to shoot that scene many, many, many times. We had to do that scene at a table read with the entire production present – the crew, the cast, all the executives.”

In the end, Patterson pointed out that “it’s as disgusting for women to objectify men as it is for men to objectify women, and it’s as harmful,” noting that just because the episode was filmed in 2003 “doesn’t mean it was OK.” The actor continued, “It’s never OK, and I didn’t feel comfortable doing it, and it pissed me off. And I never said anything, so I was angry at myself for never saying anything. But I had this job, and I didn’t want to make waves and all that.”