Gilmore Girls’ Matt Czuchry and Jared Padalecki Reveal If They’re Team Logan, Dean or Jess Even Though ‘They All Were Flawed’

The two ‘Gilmore Girls’ stars reunite for PEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alive issue

Gilmore Girls will never stop debating which of Rory’s boyfriends was the best.

Jared Padalecki, 43, who played her first beau, Dean Forester, and Matt Czuchry, 48, who starred as her college love, Logan Huntzberger, reveal where they stand (you’ll be surprised by their answers!) in PEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alive issue.

They also reflect on their roles, the show’s generational legacy and the “boyfriend bond” they share.

How does it feel to be featured in PEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alive issue?

MATT CZUCHRY: I have no good answer for that. Embarrassing?

JARED PADALECKI: Try not to blush.

CZUCHRY: Thrilled to have had this experience with you. Thrilled that hopefully fans of Gilmore Girls will like seeing that and some of the behind-the-scenes stuff and the pictures, being able to reminisce. I’m grateful for that. And I do have a story.

PADALECKI: I want to hear it.

CZUCHRY: This is a true story. This was a long time ago — it may have been the first season of Gilmore Girls — I came back to Tennessee for Thanksgiving, and all my family was already there, and they had put my picture on the front of a magazine with Sexiest Man Alive written on it. So I have that. And now it’s come true. I think that my family manifested this moment.

Do you remember your first day on set?

PADALECKI: I didn’t know what a set was. I acted in high school and all that, but I had never really been on a set. I wasn’t used to marks and lights and everything going on. I’m like, okay, I’ll just try and act. It was in Stars Hollow, and we had a few scenes that day. I was leaning up against the post and trying to be brooding and sexy, and I had a leather jacket.

CZUCHRY: I remember going to set the first time. I got lost on my first day, so I was walking around and I asked a tour group for help. When I told them I was looking for Gilmore Girls, they were like, “We want Chad Michael Murray back.”  [Editor’s note: Chad Michael Murray had a recurring role in the first two seasons.] I was like, “I think I’m going to be on the show in a little bit.” They’re like, “Well, we want Chad Michael Murray to come back.”

You two only ever had one scene together. Do you remember meeting?

PADALECKI: I remember that day. I remember shooting it. I remember that very well. We chatted. He’s a nice guy. It’s obvious. He was a nice guy even then. I’d like to say it felt like a changing of the guard, but I think Rory [played by Alexis Bledel] had already broken up with Dean. I knew she was in good hands.

CZUCHRY: Whenever I think of Jared, I think of Milo Ventimiglia as well, and that connection the three of us have because of our Gilmore Girls storylines. That’s always been special for me when I’m thinking about you, that we’ve been in it all together. It started with that scene. We weren’t in the scene together, so to speak, but we were on set and we’re talking. That friendship has only increased.

Can you guys chime in on the debate: Are you team Logan, Dean or Jess?

PADALECKI: I’m team Jess, funny enough. Just knowing the show and having some idea of where Rory was in her life. They all were flawed, let’s be clear. Well, I’ll say Dean was flawed. They all had their issues, but today I’m team Jess.

CZUCHRY: It’s kind of changed for me over the course of time. I think right now, because we had that part on Netflix that went back, and we had that whole aspect too, which was great, it was so much fun — but I think if he changes his life, then I could see Logan coming back and being with Rory. He would be in a completely different place in his life.

Do you remember your first impression of Alexis Bledel and Lauren Graham?

PADALECKI: I’m from San Antonio, Alexis is from Houston. At the time, I was 17, and I think she was 18, but we both were small fish from Texas in a big pond. She was sweet and hardworking, and smart. I wouldn’t say she was quiet, but she was always working. Lauren was really sweet and really welcoming, too. She became a mentor of sorts, watching her work and watching them work together.

CZUCHRY: It’s interesting to hear you talk about the beginnings of the show because I came on in season five when the show was more popular and getting more success. What I have always admired about Alexis is just how she handled that stress, that pressure. We were talking about how many pages she had to do in a day, and obviously, everybody loves that fast dialogue, but that’s a challenge to do. She just shouldered all of that with such ease and presence and calm.

PADALECKI: There was one scene where Dean and Rory fall asleep in Miss Patty’s on a bean bag, and it was one of those long-ass days, like 18, 20 hours. I think it was season one. We had been shooting all day and were so tired. The shot was just going to be an overhead shot of them sleeping, so we laid down on the bean bag so they could set up the lights. Suddenly they’re like, “Okay, we’re good.” We’re like, “Okay, we’re ready to shoot,” and the crew said, “No, no, we shot it. Y’all were sleeping.” It was wild.

What was your favorite scene to film?

CZUCHRY: For me, it was my first season. I was just the new kid on the block, and I felt incredibly welcomed by Amy and Dan and the whole cast and crew. I hadn’t been there that long, and here we are celebrating 100 episodes. It just felt so welcoming to be a part of that experience and for them to say, “Hey, no, no, you’re a part of this. You’re making this happen.” I remember that episode fondly because of the emotional way that it connected to me and how important it was for me to feel like I belonged.

PADALECKI: I think it might’ve been season one or two, all the townspeople at a dinner table, and I think we shot it in November, December, and there were 20 of us, and we all had dialogue at some point in the scene. It was before the Lord of the Rings movies came out, and I was reading one of the books, and Ed Herrmann, rest in peace, an amazing man, came up and he said, “Have you read them before?” I was like, “No, it’s my first time.” He’s like, “Where are you right now?” When I told him, he just rattled off quotes from the scene. I think he had an eidetic memory. I remember I turned it back a page, and I was like, “That’s exactly what happened.” He’s said, “You’ll enjoy it very well.”

CZUCHRY: Those are the moments you remember as an actor — being on set and the connection with the cast, the connection with the crew, being at craft service and all those things. That connection is what’s so beautiful about the behind-the-scenes aspects.

PADALECKI: And he was Ed Herrmann. I was little Jared Padalecki from San Antonio, who may have very well had to go back to the University of Texas the next year and start my freshman year, and he just treated me like an equal. I was like, “Maybe I can do this.”

What is one scene that comes up every time you meet a fan?

PADALECKI: It’s usually about cornstarch, because Rory steals cornstarch from the market, and then we kind of do a throwback in Year in the Life. So usually I’ve taken pictures with people, and they’ll have a box of cornstarch and stuff like that. 25 years of work and I’m known for freakin’ cornstarch.

CZUCHRY: You’re known for a lot of great things. I mean, you went from Gilmore Girls to 15 years on Supernatural.

PADALECKI: Well, it takes one to know one, bro.

CZUCHRY: For me, an episode called “You Jump, I Jump, Jack.” There’s this section that I love where Logan is trying to say, “Look, if you want to be a writer, you’ve got to get out there. Some people could live a thousand years and have never lived in their entire lives.” So he had that influence on Rory that I love, and I loved the way he pushed her. A lot of people will say some of the “Life and Death Brigade” things that Logan was a part of in Omnia Paratus.

Why do you think Gilmore Girls has such a strong fandom after all these years?

CZUCHRY: It’s infused in people’s lives in such an incredible way, not just watching it. It’s more like, “How can I really carry on what this makes me feel like through my daughter or through my sister or through my mother?” That’s just an incredible layer to it. You really see the magic that this show has had for generations of people.

PADALECKI: I feel like I can’t really go anywhere without somebody wonderfully coming up and saying, “I love the show. My mom and I watch,” or “I force my boyfriend to watch it,” or “My boyfriend forces me to watch it,” or whatever. So it’s been funny, especially since COVID, people are like, “Oh, here’s a feel-good show. Let’s stream this. We love the music, and we love the setting and the characters and the writing.”

CZUCHRY: It’s just amazing after all this time that we’re here and we’re still talking about it with all the generations that have watched the show. It’s just beautiful to be a part of that history.

Do you ever watch the show back now?

PADALECKI: My daughter, Odette, and my wife Genevieve Padalecki will watch it, and Odette loves it, except for when Dean and Rory kiss. She doesn’t comprehend. She’s like, “Why is dad kissing somebody else?” And Gen, who’s an actress as well, is like, “Well, because he’s playing a character and that character and this character are in love, and they’re kissing.” Odette is like, “Hmm.” She digs her feet in: “Dad should only kiss mom.” And I don’t want to upset Odette.

CZUCHRY: I have a really hard time watching myself. If it’s my character that comes on, I’m turning away from it. But if it’s everybody else, then yeah, absolutely. Especially scenes with Lauren and Alexis.