Old Interview

I was roaming through GilmoreGirls.org, when I stumbled upon an old interview with Devon Michaels. It isn't that old of an interview. It actually took place May 09, 2006, not long before the season six finale. And in case you don't recall who Michaels is, then allow me to remind you. He plays Bill, one of the Yale Daily News writers on the show. If that still doesn't give you anything, well, his character wears vests and oh, yeah, giggles. Now, without further delay, here is the interview:

In a case of art imitating life, Gilmore Girls actor Devon Michaels is a real-life Yale graduate who plays Bill, a Yale Daily News writer, on the show. When Michaels was ten, he was exposed to classic pieces of theatre (Hamlet in Stratford-upon-Avon, Antigone in Greece) on a family trip to Europe and within a year asked his parents if he could take acting lessons. A full-fledged actor since his early teens, Michaels performed both on and Off-Broadway before making the move to southern California to further his career. He has gone on to appear in Frasier, The West Wing, and Numb3rs; and is currently working on a couple of short films. As Bill on Gilmore Girls, Michaels portrays a sweater vest wearing newspaper man, but in real life he's much more of a fun and relaxed guy (with a better sense of style, no doubt).

GilmoreGirls.org recently fielded fan questions specifically for Devon. Read on for Gilmore gossip in this exclusive Q&A.

Question: I'm very un-Hollywood, so I don't know anything about the casting process. How did you go from doing theater in New York to ending up on Gilmore Girls? —Amelia, Alberta

Devon Michaels: It was a pretty long road actually. After some life-changing experiences working with people like Joseph Papp and Mandy Patinkin, I wanted to have a 'normal' life as a high school senior, so I took a break from professional acting and just had a lot of fun. By the time I finished college, though, I had been out of the industry loop for half a decade, and it was quite a chore to get my career going again. (I hear Yale degrees are usually a good thing when it comes to finding work, but in the fickle world of entertainment it's hard to say). A lot of the casting directors in NY only knew me as a child actor, and I suddenly had to prove myself in a much larger pool of competition. Plus, since I wasn't a kid anymore I also needed to consider other little matters like, say, paying my rent. So, I moved to LA, hoping to find more lucrative work in film and television. I love New York. And I'm sure I'll end up living there again at some point, but the move made sense. I was fortunate enough to get an audition for a guest-star role on "Invisible Man," a show on the Sci-Fi Channel at the time. Booking that part got me the agent I still have today, and one of the first general interviews they set up for me was with Mara Casey and Jami Rudofsky (the Gilmore Girls casting directors). They called me in to read for a role that same year, but I didn't get it. After a few years passed and I had added more TV credits to my resume, they thought of me again when they were looking for a 'Bill.' From what I hear, my vibe reminded them of a writer who used to work on the show, so I think they were kind of rooting for me even before I auditioned for it. I just had to make sure I didn't suck.

Question: I see on your IMDb resume that you graduated from Yale with a degree in Theater Studies and Psychology. How does the Gilmore Girls portrayal of Yale differ from the real thing? —Ann, California

Michaels: Well, before I got this role I had only seen a couple of episodes of the show, so to be honest I'm not sure how it portrays Yale outside the Daily News. One thing I can tell you is that the set looks very accurate. The hallways look just like one of the main classroom buildings on campus, from the floors to the wood-paneled walls. Even the font used for the room numbers is exactly the same. Also, I suppose I met my fair share of Paris-type overachievers while I was there.

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