Scott Patterson recalls feeling like 'some kind of meat stick' filming this Gilmore Girls scene
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It sounds like the residents of Stars Hollow owe Scott Patterson an apology.
The Gilmore Girls actor shared that he felt its infamous "butt scene" was so objectifying that it led him to question his entire involvement in the show.
In the season three episode "Keg! Max," Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Sookie (Melissa McCarthy) exchange comments about Luke (Patterson) and his butt as they watch him tinker with a stove, with Sookie noting that his backside has "a nice shape to it." When Luke finishes fixing the appliance, he asks the pair to "stop talking about my butt" and adds that their discussion about it is "in bad taste."
Off-screen, Patterson similarly echoed his character's sentiments.
"Oh, you mean, objectifying somebody's body part? Yeah, that was disturbing," he said on the Aug. 24 episode of the I Am All In with Scott Patterson podcast. "It is infuriating because you're being treated like an object. And it's disturbing and it's disgusting and I had to endure that through that entire scene and many takes… it was the most disturbing time I have ever spent on that set. I couldn't wait for that day to be over."
WB TV Scott Patterson felt like 'some kind of meat stick' while filming a 'Gilmore Girls' scene
The actor said the scene made him feel like "some kind of meat stick" and asked listeners to put themselves in his shoes.
"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 okay," he explained. "That's the one thing I hate about this episode is that scene."
Looking back, Patterson also recalled feeling a level of "shame" during the moment, noting, "It's as disgusting for women to objectify men as it for men to objectify women and it's as harmful."
"Just because it was 2003 didn't mean it was okay. It's never okay. And I didn't feel comfortable doing it and it pissed me off," he shared. "I never said anything so I was angry at myself for never saying anything but, you know, I had this job and I didn't want to make waves and all that."
However, upon revisiting the episode, he gets why people would initially laugh along with Sookie and Lorelai's witty back and forth.
"It's set up where you're going to almost have to giggle because you love these characters so much. Everybody's doing their job within the scene and performing it so well and the timing's there and you can't help but laugh, but I'm just pointing out how incredibly small it made me feel doing it," Patterson said. "And I think it really reduces the character and it really reduces their characters as well to be involved in something like that."
He continued, "I mean, it's happened to me before in my life—it wasn't the first time that it happened—and it always made me angry. Because, you know, it does, it devalues people. If you are just talking about somebody's body part, you're taking away that person's humanity and it's inappropriate."
It also felt personally demeaning as an actor. "I get this big break on this show, right? And you want to rise to the top of your profession if you have any kind of competitive drive," Patterson shared. "Everybody does. They just want to rise up. They want to be respected. They want to be feted. They want to win awards. They want to be recognized for their work and I end up doing a [censored] scene where people are talking about my butt?"
And caused him to worry about its implications on his career. "What are Academy members gonna say when they see this scene? 'Oh, we've gotta nominate him. That butt scene was amazing. Best Butt,'" he remarked. "I mean, really, what am I involved in here? It really questioned why I was doing the show at the time."
So yes, Patterson gets the punchline, but not without feeling the punch part of it too. "Somebody had to pay the price for that," he said. "And I'm still paying the price for it."
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