You may know her as Rory Gilmore’s intense, overachieving frenemy, or as Annalise Keating’s stoic, right-hand woman, but in Lunar Sway, Liza Weil’s character is much more difficult to describe. Coming to Canadian theatres on October 30, Weil stars alongside rising star Noah Parker, Heated Rivalry’s Kaden Connors, and Canadian indie darling Grace Glowicki in this wonderfully offbeat story about looking for love in all the wrong places. 

Lunar Sway follows Cliff, an eccentric young man living in a small desert town, pining after his ex-boyfriend. When his estranged birth mother, Marg (Weil), shows up unexpectedly, they form a bond—but she has her share of secrets and ulterior motives. As Marg’s past catches up with her, Cliff finds himself swept up in a wild adventure across the desert. 

Marg is a wounded woman on the run, a destructive force who lights a match to Cliff’s world. To prepare for the role, Weil tells us she read books about the psychology of con artists. She describes her character as a “mysterious drifter” fixated on causing suffering wherever she goes.

“It’s pretty rare that I come across a role for a middle-aged woman that has that much mess in it—a woman who’s unapologetically herself,” Weil says.

Like many of the characters in Lunar Sway, Marg is a misfit, and a little bit eccentric—traits that some viewers might connect to Paris Geller, Weil’s iconic Gilmore Girls character.

“Having such a formative experience with Gilmore Girls and being so young when I was doing that, I do feel like that has really informed what I am attracted to in characters,” Weil says. “Getting to play a young woman who is kind of too much and pretty messy, and having such skilled writers who are not interested in tidying her up—I think that’s what I gravitate to.” 

The writing was indeed what drew Weil to Lunar Sway. She tells us that the script from Canadian writer-director Nick Butler blew her away, and was unlike anything she had ever seen before. “I just found Nick’s voice so wonderfully bizarre and unique, and with such a really clear point of view about connectivity,” she says. 

The complicated relationship between Marg and Cliff is the heart of Lunar Sway. In their bids for connection, the characters push and pull each other away, and still find their way back to each other after life-altering secrets are unveiled. With only 22 days on set, Weil and her co-star, Parker, had a limited amount of time to translate this unique dynamic to the screen.

“Their relationship is so elusive and hard to define and pretty erratic,” she says. “There are so many highs and lows and different versions of themselves that sort of condensed into a very tight amount of time.”

Even though she wasn’t there for long, Weil fell in love with Cache Creek, British Columbia, which transformed into the fictional town of Mooncrest for Lunar Sway. She particularly enjoyed the scenic drive into set each morning. “That drive in every morning was like one of the most profound ways to start your day. You’re driving through the most almost violently beautiful landscape. It’s a landscape that’s pretty staggering and majestic. It almost felt like a simulation.”

Recently, Weil participated in an HBO documentary about Gilmore Girls, confirmed in a recent post by her former co-star, Danny Strong. She tells us that almost 20 years after the original series ended, she’s always happy to talk about it and meet fans of the show. 

“It’s very wonderful to be a part of something that seems to bring meaning and comfort to people the way that it does,” Weil says. “I’m deeply moved by it. It just sort of keeps existing, which is pretty wild.”

Weil tells us she appreciates the support of such a loyal and passionate fanbase, and feels that they are genuinely curious about other projects that the cast members take on. So will fans of Gilmore Girls, currently in the midst of their annual fall rewatches, find something to love about Lunar Sway? Weil tells us that the distinct, small-town setting of the film may appeal to fans who love the charm of Stars Hollow.

“There is a very bizarre throughline, maybe, from Stars Hollow to Mooncrest, in that they both are these small towns that are completely unique to themselves, with their own ecosystems and bizarre characters roaming around.”

No matter why you come to theatre this weekend to watch Lunar Sway, Weil hopes viewers leave feeling less alone. 

“I hope that they…recognize the yearning that we all have to find belonging and our people, and maybe surprise themselves with less judgment about what that looks like.”

Lunar Sway is screening in Toronto at Carlton Imagine Cinema (Oct 30-Nov 5), and Revue Cinema (Nov 1-3).