For Gilmore Girls fans, most of the show’s characters are universally loved. Except one: April Nardini. Luke’s secret adolescent daughter showed up in Stars Hollow about halfway through season six, wreaking havoc on one of TV’s most iconic couples. Luke and Lorelai’s ensuing breakup put April, and Vanessa Marano who played her, on the receiving end of some rabid fan hatred. (She’s even been called “the Jar Jar Binks of the Stars Hollow universe.â€) So how did that feel for the young star?
“Oh, awesome,†Marano, now 24, sarcastically told Vulture at the Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life premiere in Los Angeles. “No, it was not great, but at the same time in a weird way, I feel like it was actually kind of great that that happened.â€
“I think it teaches you how to learn with criticism very early on,†the Switched at Birth star continued, “and that can be a bad thing or a good thing when you’re a teenager. But it was that weird thing of like, I’m being criticized, but at the same time I’m on the show that I love, so how upset can I actually be? And funny enough, I’ve taken that with me through life. Even when I started Switched at Birth, any negative things that anybody would say about something, that our writer would take very personally, I’d be like, ‘It’s okay! Let it slide off your back. Let me tell you about a little show called Gilmore Girls.’â€