If there was ever a person who didn't really seem like he belonged in Gilmore Girls' small Connecticut town, it was Michel Gerard. The easily annoyed hotel concierge doesn't like people, pets, children, or really anything cheerful. So, why is Michel in Stars Hollow in Gilmore Girls, anyway? What possessed him to leave France behind and move to a veritable snowglobe version of a town? According to the actor who plays him, Yanic Truesdale, it wasn't the knit-a-thons or basket auctions that drew the testy Frenchman to the sleepy town (shocking, I know). In an interview with Bustle, the actor explains that since his character never got a canon backstory, Truesdale invented his own along the way. "I think I saw [Michel] as wanting to explore something other than France, and having found this quaint, little, in some ways sophisticated village where you can find good bread and this and that ... That's how I justified him being there," Truesdale says.
The actor feels as though, these days, many young people are quick to leave France behind and start over elsewhere. In Truesdale's opinion, "It's a society that lives a little bit in the past and is really proud of their past, but [is] not so much living in the future. So the kids and younger generations tend to leave. We have a lot in Montreal. We have a huge French community in Montreal." Truesdale was born in Montreal himself, but his Gilmore Girls counterpart left France and took up residence south from Canada, in the fictional Stars Hollow, Connecticut. And, Michel may have left his home behind, but, Truesdale says, "The funny thing is, [French people] bring who they are wherever they go." So, Michel brought his feisty, Celine Dion-loving, quick-tempered self to settle down in the picture perfect GG town.
But, since he's definitely not filling his days with town meetings or winter carnivals, what does Michel do when he's done with a hard day's work of talking to particularly stupid people? For that, Truesdale again turned to his own invented backstory. "Do you remember the episode where [Michel] went to LA? He got veneers and Botox and got really into all of that stuff," Truesdale recalls. "So, I think he's probably surrounded by all of those people that are either in the fashion industry or intellectuals that are like journalists, because he has a really sharp mind ... I just think he would want to hang out with smart people."
Surprisingly (or not, because this is Michel we're talking about), Truesdale never really pictured the concierge as having many friends. "I imagined him having very few, but very good friends that he would talk to every day," he says. And, Truesdale rightly points out that Michel didn't have much time for large groups of friends, since he was busy helping run a business — one that depended on him considering that the other owners of the inn often had propensities to dash off at a moment's notice.
"In my head, I was the adult and [Lorelai and Sookie] were the kids," Truesdale says of his character's relationship with his co-workers. "That was the dynamic for me. Every time I would have to deal with them, I was dealing with kids and people that have no maturity." He continues, "[Michel] was very much a workaholic, because Lorelai was always running around, so he was the one holding the fort. So, you couldn't give him too much of a social life with that kind of commitment that he's made to his job."
And, that's probably for the best considering the Stars Hollow social life doesn't really seem to be Michel's scene anyway.
Images: The WB; Giphy (2)
