"Gilmore Girls" star Keiko Agena is opening up about what it was like to play the iconic character of Lane Kim on the popular series. Agena's character was the best friend of main character Rory Gilmore, played by Alexis Bledel , on the series, which ran from 2000 to 2007. (The show returned to Netflix as a four-part revival in 2016.
) On the June 19 episode of the " Dear Felicity " podcast, Agena revealed that she sometimes feels a "disconnect" with fans who loved the character. “I think ..
. the disconnect is that I also love that person?” she said. “But I don’t know how to be that person.
" Agena said she is working on letting go of the idea of being Kim for fans and now celebrates the character instead of feeling a responsibility to be her. "I think what it was for people was different from what it was for me," Agena said. "So in a weird way, I feel like I want to honor what the experience that people had from the show and what it means to them, especially young Asian people, because I get that comment a lot about what it was like for them to see someone like that on-screen.
" She revealed that as a young person at the time, she was in "such a survival-mode situation" while on the show. “I didn’t think of it that way at the time. So now it’s just a mix of just having gratitude for having gone through that experience and having that experience," she said.
"I have to let go of the pressure that I put on myself to be the best version of who it is that I think that .
