Getting Melissa McCarthy to reprise her role as Sookie in Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life was “the final piece of the puzzle,” Lauren Graham told me Friday night at the premiere of the Netflix revival. “It was so important to me that she was part of this.”

Graham’s investment in a Lorelai-Sookie reunion is reflected on screen; it’s not a spoiler to say her scene with McCarthy is extremely heartfelt. “I was a complete mess,” Graham confesses of shooting the emotional (and, as the trailer confirmed, hilarious) sequence. “That was near the end of filming and I thought I [already] cried every tear that I had. And to be there with her and click back into our genuine friendship and also our Stars Hollow friendship was… really mind-blowing.” Gilmore Girls Red Carpet Premiere

Also during our quickie red-carpet Q&A, Graham shares what it was like to take Lorelai out into the proverbial real world (versus the Warner Bros. lot’s version of the real world) during the four-part revival (which drops next Friday).

Press PLAY above and then check back in the coming hours and days for more from Stars Hollow’s elite as TVLine’s “18 Days of Gilmore” scoop countdown continues.