--- title: Ryan Gosling auditioned for Gilmore Girls description: Would Ryan Gosling have played a love interest for Rory Gilmore? canonical: https://time.com/4542497/ryan-gosling-almost-played-a-football-hero-on-gilmore-girls/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-24T18:32:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:37:55.803Z og:title: Ryan Gosling Came Close to Being a Gilmore Girls Hearthtrob og:description: Why the audition didn't work out og:url: https://time.com/4542497/ryan-gosling-almost-played-a-football-hero-on-gilmore-girls/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ryan Gosling Came Close to Being a Gilmore Girls Hearthtrob twitter:description: Why the audition didn't work out twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Ryan Gosling Almost Played a Football Hero on _Gilmore Girls_ by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Oct 24, 2016 6:32 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Oct 24, 2016 6:32 PM UTC Alongside Luke’s Diner and Miss Patty’s dance studio, Stars Hollow almost had an additional tourist attraction—[Ryan Gosling](http://time.com/4324413/ryan-gosling-will-ferrell-knife-guys-jimmy-kimmel-live/?iid=sr-link5). At this weekend’s inaugural [_Gilmore Girls_ ](http://time.com/4426758/gilmore-girls-revival-show-releases-the-first-trailer-and-a-premiere-date/?iid=sr-link2)Fan Festival in Connecticut, [_Vulture_](http://www.vulture.com/2016/10/ryan-gosling-was-almost-cast-on-gilmore-girls.html) reported that _Gilmore Girls_ casting director Jami Rudofsky revealed that Gosling auditioned for a part on the show back in the day before he was a mega-star. Gosling reportedly would have played “a football character,” which one can only imagine would have lead to a brilliant odd-couple romance between bookish Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel) and Gosling’s high school jock. It’s easy to imagine something like _Crazy Stupid Love_ meets [_Gilmore Girls_](http://time.com/4228983/girlmore-girls-revival-who-is-coming-back/?iid=sr-link1)in a show that would give _Friday Night Lights_ a run for the state championship of great ideas. Lorelai (Lauren Graham) undoubtedly would have approved of the relationship, too, especially now that Gosling has officially declared that “[women are better than men](http://time.com/4354950/ryan-gosling-thinks-women-are-better-than-men/?iid=sr-link1).” There was just one problem, though: Rudofsky had cast Gosling in an independent film before working on _Gilmore Girls_ and while she initially didn’t go for him “because he was late and he was blonde,” she soon realized he was actually “amazing.” When she started casting for [_Gilmore Girls_](http://time.com/4493867/netflix-gilmore-girls-teaser-hint/?iid=sr-link3), she asked him to audition. He tanked the try-out though. “Everyone was like, ‘_Really, Jami?_’” she said, according to _Vulture_. Of course, this isn’t the first Gosling audition story to hit the web. Rumor has it he was also invited to [audition for the Backstreet Boys](http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/01/15/could-ryan-gosling-have-been-in-the-backstreet-boys/?iid=sr-link8). \[[Vulture](http://www.vulture.com/2016/10/ryan-gosling-was-almost-cast-on-gilmore-girls.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4542497/ryan-gosling-almost-played-a-football-hero-on-gilmore-girls/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4542497/ryan-gosling-almost-played-a-football-hero-on-gilmore-girls/"},"headline":"Ryan Gosling Almost Played a Football Hero on Gilmore Girls","datePublished":"2016-10-24T18:32:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:37:55.803Z","description":"Would Ryan Gosling have played a love interest for Rory Gilmore?","url":"https://time.com/4542497/ryan-gosling-almost-played-a-football-hero-on-gilmore-girls/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","Netflix","Ryan Gosling","Gilmore Girls"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4542497/ryan-gosling-almost-played-a-football-hero-on-gilmore-girls/","name":"Ryan Gosling Almost Played a Football Hero on Gilmore Girls"}}]}] ```