--- title: Why Actress Liza Weil Is Proud of Her Role on Gilmore Girls description: Liza Weil, who portrayed the unique, trailblazing Paris Geller on the show "Gilmore Girls," is definitely aware of her character's impact. canonical: https://time.com/4572953/liza-weil-gilmore-girls-paris-geller/ author: Megan Lasher article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-16T15:50:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:03:53.170Z og:title: Why Actress Liza Weil Is Proud of Her Role on 'Gilmore Girls' og:description: 'It was really a gift for me to not have to do that' og:url: https://time.com/4572953/liza-weil-gilmore-girls-paris-geller/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1bfa03ba247d296a/6988aeb4fb4eac3df588fe9d/liza-weil-gilmore-girls-paris-geller.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4139 og:image:height: 2328 og:image:alt: ABC TCA "Winter Press Tour 2015" Red Carpet og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Actress Liza Weil Is Proud of Her Role on 'Gilmore Girls' twitter:description: 'It was really a gift for me to not have to do that' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1bfa03ba247d296a/6988aeb4fb4eac3df588fe9d/liza-weil-gilmore-girls-paris-geller.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Actress Liza Weil Is So Proud of Her Role on 'Gilmore Girls' > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Each week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published weekly. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-worth-2026q3/newsletters?i=3cd0ac63-a8f5-425a-93cb-9553cd306984&cr=time-nl-worth-2026q3-v1) by [Megan Lasher](https://time.com/author/megan-lasher/) ## Megan Lasher Nov 16, 2016 3:50 PM UTC  Actress Liza Weil arrives at the ABC TCA "Winter Press Tour 2015" Red Carpet on January 14, 2015 in Pasadena, California. Actress Liza Weil arrives at the ABC TCA "Winter Press Tour 2015" Red Carpet on January 14, 2015 in Pasadena, California. Amanda Edwards—WireImage/Getty Images by [Megan Lasher](https://time.com/author/megan-lasher/) ## Megan Lasher Nov 16, 2016 3:50 PM UTC _Gilmore Girls_ is [set to return this month](http://time.com/4565961/gilmore-girls-netflix-review/), and the famous characters who left our screens almost a decade ago are finally easing back into our conversations. Liza Weil, who portrayed the unique, trailblazing Paris Geller, is definitely aware of her character’s impact — on her own life and on the lives of the show’s fans. “The thing that’s the most lovely to me, looking back at my time on [_Gilmore Girls_](http://time.com/4526406/gilmore-girls-quiz-facts-trivia/), was how fortunate I was to be a young actor and to be on a show that made it really cool for girls to be smart,” Weil [told Cosmopolitan](http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/tv/a8263650/liza-weil-gilmore-girls-interview/)_._ “There were a lot of beauty shows, teen soaps, a lot of attention on looking pretty and being sexualized. It was really a gift for me to not have to do that and to really be able to explore the real issues of what it is to grow up.” But Paris wasn’t immediately the role model Weil ended up bringing to the screen: In the earlier years, Weil struggled with her characters’ mean dialogue. “In season one, it was hard. I do remember feeling like, oh gosh, what is the value of portraying a mean girl on television? I’m not sure if it was helping anybody. It didn’t feel good to do it. Once we started learning more about Paris, it really made sense to me very quickly.” [_Follow Motto on Facebook._](https://www.facebook.com/mottoworkplaylive/) She says she can relate to the part of Paris that made her initially come off as mean: “I think I can get a little passionate about things that I believe in and maybe that can be a little intense for people. And I think a lot of that stuff comes out of the need of wanting to belong, and being insecure and uncomfortable. Like all of us, \[Paris\] figured out who she was and became less apologetic about it.” Weil also weighed in on the long-asked question: Dean, Jess or Logan? It turns out, [like Amy Sherman-Palladino](http://time.com/4553710/gilmore-girls-rory-boyfriends/), she doesn’t think _Gilmore Girls_ is about picking a boy. “I don’t know that when that show was on, if people were so focused on \[Rory’s boyfriends\]. I think that’s something that’s developed over time. I think like we were talking about it earlier, these are very strong women who don’t need men to go through life with or have them be a part of their identity; they’re very capable of standing on their own.” Read the full interview at [Cosmopolitan.com](http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/tv/a8263650/liza-weil-gilmore-girls-interview/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4572953/liza-weil-gilmore-girls-paris-geller/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4572953/liza-weil-gilmore-girls-paris-geller/"},"headline":"Why Actress Liza Weil Is So Proud of Her Role on 'Gilmore Girls'","datePublished":"2016-11-16T15:50:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:03:53.170Z","description":"'It was really a gift for me to not have to do that'","url":"https://time.com/4572953/liza-weil-gilmore-girls-paris-geller/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1bfa03ba247d296a/6988aeb4fb4eac3df588fe9d/liza-weil-gilmore-girls-paris-geller.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan Lasher","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-lasher/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1bfa03ba247d296a/6988aeb4fb4eac3df588fe9d/liza-weil-gilmore-girls-paris-geller.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"ABC TCA \"Winter Press Tour 2015\" Red Carpet","caption":"Actress Liza Weil arrives at the ABC TCA \"Winter Press Tour 2015\" Red Carpet on January 14, 2015 in Pasadena, California.","creditText":"Amanda Edwards—WireImage/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"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/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4572953/liza-weil-gilmore-girls-paris-geller/","name":"Why Actress Liza Weil Is So Proud of Her Role on 'Gilmore Girls'"}}]}] ```