Defending Sarah

Why Buffy fans should bow down.
by Mac -2.27.03
Since 1997, Sarah Michelle Gellar has played Buffy Anne Summers. She’s a TV star who’s made more money pushing make-up then she ever did working on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. By the end of this season she will have done 144 episodes in 7 seasons. For network executives, it’s hard to find someone who can pump out the kind of quality work Sarah has done in the quantity of time she’s done it in. There’s no doubt about it.

Yet for some strange reason Sarah has been known to have a bad reputation.

They say she’s moody. She has a bad attitude. She’s critical. Well, if you were the primary star of your own series, and you had to carry something that heavy on your back you’d feel moody sometimes too. Critisizing decisions that the producers have made, such as pulling “Earshot” after the columbine tragedy made her a target to the fans of the show. There are fans that like to say, “She’s a diva”. From my understanding, that’s far from the truth. As a matter of fact, the only people who have said this and actually have known Gellar are her former stunt woman and stunt corodinator who incidently never had their contracts renewed. It’s funny how personal vendettas make you remember history in a different light.

Does Sarah have a bad attitude? I’m sure…sometimes. Don’t you? Don’t I? But for what she made, and how well she made it, it’s understandable.

In 1997, she filmed “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and started looking for more movie roles. No matter who tells you differently, every TV star wants to be a movie star. TV is the minor leagues to real actors.

She went on to do a guest role in “Scream 2”, and co-starring roles in “Cruel Intentions” and “Simply Irresistable”. She wasn’t really quite ready for film roles yet, and you could tell Hollywood wasn’t exactly ready for her either. “Simply Irresistable” tanked at the Box Office. Being the star, it was another project she was carrying on her back. The only problem was that she didn’t have someone like Joss Whedon to help her with the horrible script.

By the end of season 2, Buffy was a cult hit. It *was* the WB. Before Buffy (and Dawson’s Creek), the WB was a joke. No one wanted to work with the network. Nothing good had come from it. Joss Whedon and Sarah Michelle Gellar made the WB what it is today (if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, you can’t deny who was there when people started talking).

At the end of season 5, Sarah began talking about leaving the series if it were to leave the WB for UPN. It was her home. She and Joss had really formed the network. Like I said, they practically made it what it was. She was the Frog Queen.

She suddenly changed her mind after some talks with UPN and Whedon.

She had 2 more years on her existing contract. She didn’t want to continue, but she did it anyway. Why? Because Sarah’s a professional.

Her contract expires at the end of May. Gellar wants to do movies. Hot off the heels of “Scooby Doo”, she thinks she’s ready for bigger roles. While “Scooby Doo” wasn’t a critical success by any stretch, it was a commercial blockbuster. It gave her hope. And when you’ve played the same character for 7 years, you would want to try something different as well. Can we as an audience really blame her for wanting to try new things?

This is someone who could’ve left at the end of Season 2, and decided to come back for 5 more seasons. It’s someone who didn’t make the real network star money, but point of fact WAS the network’s star.

She gave us great television moments. Sarah was Buffy The Vampire Slayer. We watched her every Tuesday, and we couldn’t change the channel. How could we? When she’s on the screen, her performance captivates us. We want more. Isn’t that what someone like Julia Roberts does to us on the silver screen? Why wouldn’t Sarah want to be in that company? That’s every actor’s dream.

Can she do it? I believe she can. She’s got “it”. The past doesn’t matter. It’s what she picks in the future that will determine how far she can go. Let’s all remember that the best actresses have made poor decisions in the past.

I know I’ll miss Buffy. But I also know that I’ll miss Sarah playing Buffy. I can see no one else playing that role.

“Well, we averted the apocalypse. I’ll give us points for that.” - Buffy in “Welcome To The Hellmouth”.