Lauren Graham is used to moms coming up to her all the time to ask for parenting advice. “They love to rush up to me to ask very specific questions,” reveals the actress, who played know-it-all Lorelai on the Gilmore Girls for five years. “I look at them kindly and say, ‘I just don’t know!’ And they can never believe that I don’t have the answers.” No doubt, the questions will keep coming now that Lauren is once again playing a single mom on her new NBC show Parenthood, which premieres tonight. But this time her character, Sarah, “doesn’t always make the right choices,” says the 42-year-old, who is single and doesn’t have kids in real life. “She’s haphazard and isn’t always noble. And that feels so different than Lorelai.”

So you don’t feel up to offering advice to real-life moms?
The truth is my dad raised me. I don’t even have an idea of what a mom is supposed to be. I don’t have many ideas about motherhood. I can say I’ve been extremely fortunate to have kids who play my TV kids that are so easy to love. Maybe that’s why it looks natural.

What else do fans share with you?
I’ll hear, “My mom is just like you on TV,” and I’m hoping they mean that as a compliment! It’s so confusing because I don’t necessarily want anyone to be me as a mom on a TV show. Does that make any sense?

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Isn’t it true you were determined not to play a mom after Gilmore Girls?
I didn’t plan to be a mom again on TV. I didn’t plan to do an ensemble show. I thought, “Maybe comedy, maybe cable?”

So how did it happen?
I had been reading scripts since Gilmore Girls ended. At the same time, I was developing material that didn’t exactly get to the place where I wanted to go.