Scott Patterson Reveals Which Character on ‘Gilmore Girls’ He’d Want to Play Aside from Luke (Exclusive)

If he weren’t the perfect Luke Danes, Scott Patterson would have loved to play a different key character on Gilmore Girls. 

While talking exclusively with PEOPLE, Patterson, 67, revealed there was another character on the hit TV show that he thinks would have been a blast.

“If I had a chance to play any other character on that show, it would’ve been Kirk, talk about fun. I wanna be a hot dog for a day. Why not?” Patterson jokes. 

Kirk, played by Sean Gunn, was the Stars Hollow jack-of-all-trades, often taking on odd jobs around town, working at the beauty shop, being a handyman and even serving as a short film director.

As Patterson has been rewatching the episodes through his new podcast, iHeartRadio’s I Am All In…Again! with Scott Patterson, he has been reliving the beauty of Kirk’s quirky character, who he hopes we see more of in the future.

“I think there’s a world where if we don’t get to do any more episodes or do any more films, which I think we will, but don’t have any information on that, what could be really fun is if somebody financed a real full-length Kirk feature film. Like A Film by Kirk,” he says. “I think there’s a world where that could live and thrive and be number one at the box office, A Film by Kirk.” 

But, wishes aside, Patterson was cast as Danes, the grumpy but kindhearted diner owner at the heart of the show’s romance between his character and Lauren Graham’s Lorelai Gilmore. Patterson played Danes for the show’s entire run from 2000 to 2007, and then again in the 2016 miniseries Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. Patterson admits that while there are “similarities” between him and his character, he related to Lorelai more. 

“I’m not as tight as him. I like to hang out and laugh, and joke around. I’m probably more like Lorelai than I am Luke,” Patterson shares.

Despite being slightly different than Luke in real life, Patterson knew from the very beginning that he was meant to play the plaid-wearing local.

“When I read the pilot, I thought, ‘Yeah, that’s not gonna be hard.’ It felt like it was written for me,” he says. “When you feel like you don’t want anybody else to play the character, ’cause you know you can nail that, then you should probably do that role.”

Gunn, meanwhile, who perfectly captured Kirk’s eccentric yet innocent demeanor, recently paid homage to his beloved character for the 25th anniversary of Gilmore Girls. In an Instagram post, Gunn wrote that 25 years ago, he “auditioned to play the ‘DSL Installer’” on a show he “had never heard of.” 

“My agent at the time recommended I pass on the audition but I said ‘let me read the scene and if the writing’s good I’ll go.’ Spoiler alert: the writing was very good and I got the job,” Gunn shared in a caption. “Amy, the creator, liked what I did and kept asking me back to fill in small roles as the town’s jack-of-all-trades (jackass-of-all-trades?) That first year I thought the joke would wear thin and every show would be my last. But I stuck around.”

“I’m incredibly grateful to have played Kirk. It always kind of felt like a side-gig when I was young and had my whole career ahead of me; I figured soon something bigger and better would replace it,” Gunn continued. “But now I understand what a gift it is to have walked side-by-side with Kirk all these years. I can no more turn my back on him than I can on myself. It was great fun to play him and I miss him.” 

All episodes of Gilmore Girls are available to stream on Netflix. iHeartRadio’s I Am All In…Again! with Scott Patterson is available anywhere podcasts are streamed.