15 Things You Didn't Know About 'Gilmore Girls' Star Melissa McCarthy

When you heard that Melissa McCarthy wouldn't be reprising her role as Sookie in the Netflix revival Gilmore Girls: A Year In A Life, you were pretty devastated. You couldn't imagine Stars Hollow or the Dragonfly Inn without this kooky and klutzy chef and BFF to Lorelai. Thankfully, the stars of Stars Hollow aligned and Sookie was in an amazing scene in the final episode "Fall." But a lot of things have changed for Melissa since the original show ended almost a decade ago. As in, a lot of things have changed. She's become a pretty massive star, in case you didn't realize (but of course you knew that). How much do you really know about this lovely actress? Sure, she's absolutely hilarious, you've seen her in several comedies and she's perfect as Sookie, but there's so much more to find out.

Here are 15 things you didn't know about Gilmore Girls star Melissa McCarthy.

15 Jenny McCarthy Is Her Cousin

In recent years, you have known Jenny McCarthy not as an actress but as an anti-vaccine activist. She has been super vocal about that, that is for sure. But did you know that Jenny and Melissa McCarthy are cousins? Well, now you do. There is really no way that you would know this since they do not exactly talk about it, and of course, you do not want to think that celebrities are related just because they happen to have the same last name. That is totally amateur hour. But in this case, well, these two actresses are totally and completely related. Jenny is also currently engaged to Donnie Wahlberg. We wonder how often Jenny and Melissa hang out. We figure it is not too often since they must both have pretty crazy busy schedules. It must be tough to have a whole bunch Hollywood types in the family, right?

14 She Goes To Bed At 7:30 p.m.

Just in case we thought that it was super exciting to be a famous celebrity, Melissa McCarthy is bringing us back down to earth. She actually goes to bed at 7:30 p.m. Yes, really. No, that's not a joke. Not even close. It's easy to think of celebs as people who go to bed at midnight every single night since they have such a fabulous life and they're always going to fancy parties with fabulous and fancy people. But no, that's not the way that it goes for Melissa. She has been super open and vocal about losing weight -- she's lost 75 pounds -- and has said in some interviews that she goes to bed crazy early. When OK magazine wanted to know how she lost all those pounds, Melissa said, "The real secret is a super boring life. You go to bed at 7:30[pm]. That's the trick." So now we know. Hmmm. If that's what it takes to live a healthy lifestyle and be so successful, we might start going to bed so early too. Okay, maybe not.

13 She's Almost 50

It's easy to think that celebrities stay young forever. And when we think of a celeb turning 50, we tend to put a lot of pressure on them to look youthful and beautiful. Plus there's the sad fact that a lot of good movie roles dry up for women over 40, which is a horrible double standard and a really frustrating part of Hollywood. You may not have known that Melissa McCarthy is almost 50 -- okay, she's 46, but she's a few years away from it -- but she definitely still looks absolutely young and absolutely beautiful. What's amazing is that she is in the prime of her life and of her career. It definitely seems like instead of drying up, her film roles are only getting more and more plentiful, which is definitely absolutely awesome. So if we need some inspiration about how it's never too late to become successful, we can look to the lovely Melissa.

12 She Was A Stand-Up Comedian

It can be easy to think that Melissa McCarthy has only been Sookie or has only been in several comedy films. But that's not true at all. In fact, when she started out, she did stand-up. It's not hard to believe since, of course, her comedic timing is like no one else's and she's absolutely amazing. Just think about her scenes in This Is 40 -- she definitely seemed like she was doing improv and coming up with the totally awesome and brilliant lines herself. She was also part of the improv group The Groundlings for an entire decade. It's cool to think how far Melissa has come and how successful she is now. It's also really inspiring to think about her humble stand-up beginnings since it just proves that hard work and believing in yourself really does pay off. We just love feel good stories like that. We just love them.

11 She Really Is That Funny

It can be hard to know if someone's public persona is the same as their private one, right? Sure, we think that Melissa McCarthy is pretty funny as an actress. She's hilarious as Sookie and she's just as funny as her other characters in all those movies that she's been in recently (if not even more hilarious). But is she really funny in real life? Yes, she totally is, which is a big relief for us. It would suck if the opposite was true. When asked what it was like filming Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life, she said, "It was a bloodbath." We were pretty much on the floor when we read that interview. So funny. It's nice to know that some things aren't just fantasy and really reality. Seriously, just read any interview with Melissa McCarthy or watch her on any talk show, and we can all see that she has an absolutely awesome sense of humor.

10 She Is Super Smart

We hoped that Melissa McCarthy was as intelligent as we thought, and we're happy to report that yes, she's totally brilliant. She is sassy and snarky when necessary but since she knows the exact right thing to say at the exact right time, it doesn't really come off as sass or snark at all. It just comes off as absolutely perfect. It's a skill, really. It's pretty hard to be a famous person who is interviewed all the time and there are tons of stars who give really bad interviews (sorry Kristen Stewart, you're a great actress but you've even admitted that you hate fame and all that comes with it). But Melissa McCarthy gives absolutely amazing interviews. In a recent one, the reporter asked her about the weight that she's lost since, of course, that's been on everyone's minds recently. And Melissa gave the best answer ever: "I'll be up, I'll be down, probably for the rest of my life. The thing is, if that is the most interesting thing about me, I need to go have a lavender farm in Minnesota and give this up.”

9 She's A Feminist

We would assume that most female celebrities are feminists since, well, it's kind of strange if they're not. They should care about their own rights, after all. But Melissa McCarthy is definitely a feminist. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she said of Hollywood and the double standards and gender issues, "It's an intense sickness." We always think it's cool when female celebrities stick up for themselves and other women since it must be a pretty ridiculous world to live and work in. It's crazy to think of how many insults these women get just for being women… especially since they are so talented and so successful and just so amazing. We're always inspired when we read interviews with stars like Melissa McCarthy because they prove that they are so much more than a pretty face and a funny character in a film or television series. They are real people with real thoughts and options.

8 She's Friends With Christina Aguilera

Yes, really. We were totally surprised to learn this fun fact as well. It's tough to think how these two could have met since we're sure that they don't travel in the same circles -- Melissa is a hilarious actress who focuses on film and TV, and Christina is a pop star who has been a judge on a popular singing competition TV show. Plus the two women both have spouses and kids. But hey, maybe there's a secret place where all kinds of celebrities hang out in their off time and so they all have met each other at least once. Maybe they all know each other. Wouldn't that be cool?! We sure think so. We learned that Melissa and Christina are good friends when we learned that Melissa attended her birthday party, along with a whole bunch of famous people. We would love to see them hanging out. We bet it would be super fun.

7 She Dreamed Of Being A Designer

It's interesting to think about what celebrities would have done if the whole fame thing didn't work out. It's a super popular interview question, after all, and sometimes stars say that they would have done something totally different like become an organic farmer or something. Yeah, these things do get kind of funny. When it comes to what Melissa McCarthy wanted to do when she was little, she dreamed of being a designer. She even studied fashion, too. But she ended up doing stand-up and got really into comedy, and as they say, the rest is totally amazing history. We're glad that she didn't totally give up on this clothing design dream (more on that soon) but we're super happy that she decided to really go for her acting career since, of course, that has worked out super well for her. We can't imagine a world without Melissa McCarthy as Sookie.

6 She's Pretty Normal

So here's the thing: of course Melissa McCarthy is not totally normal. After all, she's a bona fide movie star. She's got money, resources and opportunity and, oh yeah, some pretty famous friends. So calling her completely normal is kind of crazy. But the truth is also that she's pretty normal. As far as celebrities go, she's normal. She has said that it's nuts to even talk about women being "plus size" since, as she told e! online, "I don't believe in kind of sectioning and segregating people in anything. I think most women in the U.S. are a 14. I think like 72 percent of women are a 14. So I think it's a little insane if you're in this business to tell your biggest section of clientele that you don't want their business." That's so true, right? Most women are not super skinny and so it's weird to expect celebrities to be as well. We definitely have Melissa to thank for showing that it's okay to be bigger than a size zero and that it has no bearing on who you are or how successful you can be.

5 She's Got A Clothing Line

Melissa has a clothing line called Seven7 and it's for larger women. It's pretty cool to know that she has other talents besides being hilarious and acting. But it's not actually such a surprise knowing her background. She went to Southern Illinois University and one of the things that she focused on was textiles, so it seems like things are coming full circle for the star and like she is getting the chance to work on something that she is really passionate about. It's cool to learn that celebrities have more creative interests besides just singing or acting or whatever their main focus is. It seems like, in recent years, Melissa has become a real icon for plus-size women since she's lost so much weight and is now designing clothes, and we think that's pretty awesome. It just proves what we knew all along: Melissa is definitely a force to be reckoned with.

4 Sookie Was Her First Big Role

It's easy to think that Melissa McCarthy has always been a famous and fabulous actress. After all, we're so used to seeing her in movies these days, and she did have that role on Mike and Molly for a really long time. It's basically impossible to imagine a world without Melissa as a really successful, popular and hilarious actress… but before 2000, she only had a few random roles in films and television series, and she definitely wasn't anything even close to famous. Melissa's first big role was Sookie and she won the role back in 2000. Then it was all uphill from there. People started realizing her total comedic talents and now she's all over Hollywood and doing so well. We can't even imagine not having her play Sookie… and we're glad that we will never have to know an alternative reality. She's one of our favorite TV characters.

3 She Was Actually Pregnant On 'Gilmore Girls'

When Melissa got pregnant in 2007 for the first time, that became part of Gilmore Girls and Sookie was having a baby, too. It's always smart when shows will make a pregnancy part of the storyline since it can be pretty impossible to cover that up. Correction: it can be pretty impossible to cover it up in a smart, good way. Because one thing is for sure, these shows do try… and they come up with tons of silly and ridiculous things like having characters wear massive coats, sit behind pillows, hold briefcase or purses in front of their stomachs, or hide behind furniture or other objects. It's great that this beloved show didn't stoop to that level and decided to just make it part of the show. But we didn't really know until now that Melissa was actually pregnant back then, probably because she wasn't such a huge star. This would have become a bigger deal if it happened today.

2 She Wanted Hillary To Win

It is pretty inspiring when celebrities get political and prove that they honestly care about the fate of their country. Sometimes it can seem even better when an actress does this. It must be because sometimes, some actresses are just super valid and, well, superficial, and we like to know that there are some Hollywood types who are not only rich and famous but smart and caring and compassionate, too. When it comes to the recent American Presidential election, Melissa McCarthy really wanted Hillary to win. And she isn't the first celebrity to express that. Take a quick glance at her social media accounts (her Instagram and Twitter accounts in particular) and you will see that she was super into the idea of Hillary winning and becoming the leader of the United States. In fact, she hasn't tweeted since right before the election, which just proves how political and involved she is.

1 She Really Loved The Revival

For a while, we really had no clue if Melissa McCarthy would reprise her role as Sookie. We just had no idea. There are rumors that she had said no, but we didn't think that could really happen. How could she possibly not want to return? That wouldn't even make sense to us. Then she tweeted back in February that she was never asked to come back… and we find that even harder to believe. Not asked? She's a super important part of the show. When we learned that she was going to come back, we were elated and couldn't believe it at the same time. But something that we always wondered was whether or not she would enjoy the experience. What if she really didn't want to come back but felt so much pressure from fans that she thought she might as well? Well, we're happy to report that based on interviews she has given, she had a great time and thought it was a special experience. Phew. We're so glad.