Lauren Graham Talks Typecasting: ‘What’s Next? Cranky Grandma?’

A version of this article originally appeared on EW.com.

It’s not exactly a stretch if the name Lauren Graham brings to mind a loving, supportive mother. She’s played the role multiple times, most notably on Gilmore Girls and Parenthood, and, in a chat with Anna Faris, the actress spoke about the pattern.

During a recent stop on Faris’s podcast Anna Faris Is Unqualified, Graham elaborated on her history of being typecast, a topic she originally addressed in her 2016 book, Talking as Fast as I Can.

“It’s funny because at a certain point, I thought, ‘Oh, all the stuff I learned in drama school about, like, stock characters and commedia dell’arte, it’s really what we do,” she said. “You have your leading lady, you have a side clown, you have an elder. You have these sort of things that recur, and within that, there’s the amount of space something takes up, and I’ve played a lot of characters who we call ‘real estate.’ If I’m in a kid’s movie, I’m playing the kid’s mom.”

Graham, 49, went on to explain how even early on in her career, she gravitated toward “funny” roles as opposed to “attractive” roles, a habit that’s stuck with her throughout her time in Hollywood.

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“For so many years, I was the best friend, and then I kind of graduated into moms,” she told Faris, 40. “So in this book, I sort of was asking the question, ‘What’s next? Cranky grandma?’ I don’t know what I’d go into.”

Faris, who currently stars on the CBS sitcom Mom, expressed a similar concern, eventually revealing she’d love to play the role of “insane stepmom.”

Graham also managed to drop a word in about her former Parenthood costar and current boyfriend Peter Krause, albeit indirectly.

“My boyfriend, who I live with, is extremely outdoorsy and from Minnesota, and ,” she told Faris after noting the “creepiness” of the house Faris shares with husband Chris Pratt.