Kimberly Alexis Bledel (born September 16, 1981 in Houston, Texas) is an American actress and model of Mexican and Argentinian descent. Alexis engaged in community theater when she was 8 years old, at the behest of her mother Nanette as a way to get over her natural shyness.
She first started modeling at the tender age of 14 after being scouted in a local mall. At 18 she was asked if she'd like to audition for some acting parts and landed the role of Lorelai Leigh "Rory" Gilmore in the show Gilmore Girls in her very first audition; probably had something to do with her big blue sparkling eyes. Her portrayal of the character earned her several honors from teen-centric media. After the end of Gilmore Girls, she has concentrated on her film work and restarted her modeling career.
She was married to fellow actor Vincent Kartheiser from 2014 to 2022, and they have a son.
Roles:
- Gilmore Girls and Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life (2000-2007, 2016)
- Tuck Everlasting: Film debut (2002)
- The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and its sequel. (2005, 2008)
- Sin City (2005)
- Post Grad (2009)
- ER (as one of the incoming interns in that show's Grand Finale, 2009)
- Mad Men: In the season five episode "Lady Lazarus" (2012), she plays an unhappy housewife Pete Campbell has a one night stand with.note
- Jenny's Wedding (2015)
- The Handmaid's Tale as Emily (2017-2021)
Associated Tropes:
- Ascended Extra:
- She can be glimpsed as a student in the Wes Anderson film Rushmore. Immediately after that she got her big break on Gilmore Girls.
- Initially supposed to be a guest star on The Handmaid's Tale, she impressed enough in her performance to make her a regular.
- Contractual Purity: The role of a prostitute in Sin City was clearly an attempt to break from her squeaky clean Rory Gilmore image.
- Dawson Casting:
- Tuck Everlasting's Winnie Foster is fifteen (though she was twelve in the original book). Alexis was twenty.
- Her character Georgie in Bride and Prejudice is implied to be younger than she was (22 at the time of filming). She's treated like a teenager at least.
- Generally she tends to play younger than she actually is.
- Fake Nationality: She has always played Anglo characters so far, never Latinas, which is likely due to the Latino Is Brown stereotype given her blue eyes and fair skin.
- Irony as She Is Cast: Rory Gilmore has limited Spanish and only knows a few conversational phrases. Alexis is fluent in Spanish. Rory likewise loves coffee; Alexis hates it and coke had to substitute for it in scenes.
- Playing Against Type:
- At the time she was most likely to be seen as wholesome good girls, she played a cowardly prostitute in Sin City (albeit a more modest one than the others).
- She commented herself on how different it was for her to play a psychologically damaged policewoman in The Kate Logan Affair.
- Romance on the Set:
- She and Milo Ventimiglia dated for four years. They had starred together on Gilmore Girls.
- Briefly dated Jared Padalecki as well.
- When she guest starred on Mad Men she dated and eventually married Vincent Kartheiser.
- Weight Woe: Defied. She was told that she had to lose an extra two inches off her hips when she was modeling. Her response?"I have more jobs than I can do. I'm in high school. I can't go to all the trouble of losing the two inches, so I'll pass."
- What Beautiful Eyes!: Her luminous blue eyes have served her well in her various roles. Her eyes are one of the few things in color in Sin City because the director liked them and insisted.
- What Could Have Been:
- Carey Mulligan dropped out of Violet & Daisy to do Drive (2011) instead, so Alexis replaced her.
- She was slated to return for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, but did not appear when it finally surfaced.
