Sarah Michelle Gellar may have chosen to step away from the limelight for some time but now, she’s accepting roles once again. After making a surprise cameo on the Netflix film Do Revenge, the veteran actress went on to executive produce and star in the new series Wolf Pack.
Due to the nature of the series, fans, of course, couldn’t help but compare the series to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Created by Joss Whedon, the show launched Gellar to superstardom. And now, years after she worked on its final season, the actress is also voicing her support for reviving it.
Sarah Michelle Gellar Landed Her Buffy Role After Years Of Working As A Child Actor
By the time Gellar was tapped to play vampire-slaying teen, she had been around. The actress earned her first acting credit when she was just five, debuting in a Burger King commercial (that resulted in a lifelong ban from McDonald’s).
A few years later, Gellar landed the role of Kendall Hart in All My Children. The actress has also since appeared in series such as Spenser: For Hire and Swans Crossing.
By the time Buffy came around, Whedon was convinced that the actress could carry a show. He also instinctively knew that she is Buffy.
“Sarah Michelle Gellar embodies Buffy extraordinarily, and she brings an intelligence and depth to the character that I certainly couldn't write. She is so incredibly sympathetic—she's somebody that you just love to watch—but she's also this extremely intelligent actress who thinks her way through everything,” he once told Vice.
“So she makes Buffy an emotionally very-connected character, which is huge. It's never, ‘Oh, look at her, she's a dork,’ even though she's kind of an eccentric. It's never, ‘Oh, laugh at her and her silly ways.’ You're completely sucked into her story, because Sarah is so gifted.”
She Gave Up Major Film Roles Just To Do The Show
In the years that followed, Buffy essentially took over Gellar’s life. She even missed out on roles in major films such as American Beauty, Fight Club, Gangs of New York, and The Wedding Planner because of the show although, Gellar didn’t mind. “I also made a great television show,” the actress remarked.
Gellar also loved everything that Buffy stood for. That said, playing a lead character on that show also came with a lot of challenges for the actress.
“That show was just hard,” Seth Green, who co-starred with Gellar, said. “We were working crazy hours, and a lot of things that got pushed weren’t necessarily safe or under the best conditions.”
He also recalled Gellar trying to use her lead status to make changes in production practices.
“Sarah was always the first one to say, ‘We agreed this was a 13-hour day and it’s hour 15 — we’ve got to wrap,’ or, ‘Hey, this shot doesn’t seem safe,’ when nobody else would stick up for the cast and crew,” the actor continued.
“I saw her get called a b****, a diva, all these things that she’s not — just because she was taking the mantle of saying and doing the right thing.”
Buffy went on for seven seasons and despite all its problems behind the scenes, Gellar remains incredibly proud of what the show accomplished. “I will always be proud of Buffy. I will always be proud of what my castmates did, what I did,” the actress said.
“Was it an ideal working situation? Absolutely not. But it’s OK to love Buffy for what we created because I think it’s pretty spectacular.”
Gellar has also since addressed the recent controversy surrounding Whedon as she voiced support for women who came forward with allegations against her former boss.
“While I am proud to have my name associated with Buffy Summers. I don’t want to be forever associated with the name Joss Whedon,” Gellar wrote in a statement.
She later added. “I’ll never tell my full story because I don’t get anything out of it. I’ve said all I’m going to say because nobody wins. Everybody loses.”
She Is ‘One Hundred Percent’ Behind A Buffy Reboot
At a time when more and more reboots are being done, Gellar herself is open to the idea of having Buffy return. “One hundred percent, if the story is right,” she remarked.
That said, the Buffy star doesn’t necessarily see herself returning as Buffy. Instead, Gellar is also hinting that it’s time to pass the torch.
“The way the show was left, any girl who wants the power can have the power. It doesn’t even have to be Buffy’s story, per se; it could be any of the slayers’ stories when you open it up like that,” she explained.
“But it’s hard – we were a TV series based on a movie that maybe wasn’t as popular, and it was already hard to overcome what we faced. Now, to have to come in and do it and inevitably have the comparisons to the show that is indelibly in people’s minds and holds up, it’s a huge uphill battle. You have to be really willing to take that on, and you have to have a very specific point of view to do that. I wouldn’t want to be the one to do it. That’s too much pressure for me.”
Gellar also ruled out even doing a blink-and-you’ll-miss appearance should the reboot proceed. “I’m really happy with what I contributed,” she said.
“Even if I did a cameo, it would just be compared. You want to give someone a chance to create from scratch.”
Back in 2022, executive producer Gail Berman, who had been attached to the Buffy reboot revealed that the project had been put “on pause.” Since then, it’s been unclear if it will ever move forward since it was never attached to a network or streamer.
