Celebrate the star’s 49th birthday with her beloved characters.
Thats not to say that her characters arent flawed.
Quite the opposite actually.
Credit: Warner Bros./Getty Images; Colleen Hayes/NBC
Its simply that she makes them impossible to root against.
Take Lorelai Gilmore, the single mom who loves coffee almost as much as she loves her daughter.
For seven seasons onGilmore Girls, Graham was so much more than a vessel for the writers words.
She gave Lorelai heart (and an unforgettable spirit).
She took a character who easily couldve become a caricature what with her 100-words-a-minute speaking speed and grounded her.
She was not the perfect mother, nor was she the perfect daughter.
But in Grahams hands, her flaws became part of her charm.
Suddenly, they meant something.
(And the same can be said for the great Kelly Bishop.)
But Sarah wasnt the fast-talking, upbeat woman we were used to seeing from Graham.
When we met Sarah in theParenthoodpilot, she was lost.
And to top it off, she was returning home to live with her parents.
And you better believe that when she cried, you did too.
As Sarah, Graham was as joyous and confident as she was gloomy and vulnerable.
Both Lorelai Gilmore and Sarah Braverman were well-written, solid characters before Graham came along.
And along the way, what was great in print becomes extroadinary in execution.
