.......The first Sunday of October, Beverly Hills, and Sarah Michelle Gellar? Can you even think of a better day? Having attended a sneak-screening of I Know What You Did Last Summer the preceding Friday, I set off to chat with Ms. Gellar, the star of...Last Summer, as well as the driving force behind Warner Bros. hit TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Myself sipping coffee, Sarah arrived more ravishing than ever, although after speaking with her it became quite apparent that there is far more to her than mere beauty. She was spontaneous, engaging, and most of all, intelligent. After a brief introduction, and an odd moment of early morning silence, we began...

So you slay vampires regularly on 'Buffy,' as well as having not only I Know What You Did Last Summer coming out but also the sequel to 'Scream.' Do you have a certain affinity for the horror genre?
......."I hate it. (Laughs.) Actually no, I really do enjoy it, but I think what I enjoy more than anything else, is people say, 'Do you like horror movies? Are you a big fan of the 'Halloween' and 'Friday the 13th' films?' And I don't really consider those movies to be in the same genre. I think with 'Scream' Kevin Williamson almost began a new genre of horror. It's intelligent horror, it's horror that scares your mind, and I think that what can be done is that the audience can be scared in reality. He's brought things that actually can happen, and that's what scares us the most. The thought of actually killing someone on the road; the thought of someone stalking you in your school or house, all these kinds of things, and it plays with the mind, and to me that is frightening."
(Freddy is trying to climb into the window. At this point I turn to look towards the hotel window, followed by Sarah's own laughter.) How as it that you came upon the role of Helen in ...Last Summer?
......."The way that it happened was that we finished 'Buffy,' and it was abut two weeks before it aired, and they put me on a press-junket for the show, and I heard about 'I Know What You Did' and I went in and auditioned for it.. I found out that I got the part the day before 'Buffy' aired on March 10th of last year. I went to North Carolina and started filming, and the day that I finished filming 'I Know What You Did' I flew to Atlanta and started the sequel to 'Scream,' and then flew back and started 'Buffy' again and was doing both."
How is it that you are able to attend to all of these projects?
......."Now that I have done two Kevin Williamson movies? (Laughs.) It's confusing, I mean I am definitely tired. 'Buffy' is a really difficult show to shoot. There's nothing easy about it. I never have a day off, I finish at 2 a.m. I kept looking at Neve Campbell though, and I kept thinking, 'My role in 'Scream' is nowhere near the size of hers.' She was sort of an inspiration, although she doesn't work everyday nine to five. Basically I would work Monday through Thursday on 'Buffy' and then start 'Scream' on Friday and sometimes I wouldn't finish until Sunday morning and then go straight to 'Buffy.' But I'm not complaining; I'm doing what I want to do and at twenty years-old I guess it is the time to do it."
How much preparation did you have for the sequel to 'Scream?'
......."Not nearly enough. It was interesting; the rest of the cast had already been hired I think since Christmas. I really only got into it a week before I left North Carolina (from the set of I Know What You Did...'). I got down there and was so intimidated and in awe that the day before we finished the read-through (for 'Scream') I literally called my manager and said, 'I'm going to pack my bags, I'm going to be fired, I'm coming home!' I do that at every job after a read-through though. It's funny, I did that at the first read-through for the first season of 'Buffy,' and after the second season I still thought I was going to be fired. Luckily for 'Summer' we had a week of rehearsal, and Jim (Gillespie) really spent that time with us, and Ryan was amazing, and we would all go out and talk about our characters."
Is there a difference between fighting vampires on 'Buffy' and screaming a lot as you did on 'Summer?'
......."Well, that's interesting, the whole fighting issue, because when I got down there I was still in 'Buffy' mode; I was still 'kick to the left' and 'punch to the right.' Jim would give me notes like, 'Sarah, this is not a triathlon here, you can't hit the guy.' And I'd say, 'Well, sure you can, watch!' And he'd say, 'Barry can hit the guy, but Helen cannot hit the guy.' And so I'd untie my shoes and run, or put pebbles in my shoes. I mean, I'm so used to being the aggressor in a fight scene. I couldn't even be defensive, I had to be flailing. It was interesting, but then it became fun."
I don't recall you ever having to scream on 'Buffy'.
......."No, I do scream on 'Buffy,' but not as much as Charisma though. I do my fair share of screaming, but it's a different kind of scream. A lot of times I go on talk-shows and they are like, 'Scream for us.' It's really hard, because you understand that it's a cute gag, but what people don't realize is that in a movie like this ('Summer'), and what makes this movie work is that Jim Gillespie wanted this based in reality. Those screams came from a different place. Those screams came from the terror and the horror, and the primal side within you."
Regarding the final chase scene in which your character appears, I really was expecting you to find some type of weapon in which to confront him. While you may not have been as aggressive as the character of Buffy, it was still a very physical scene on your part, and very unlike the stalker films of the past.
......."In my opinion I think that in the eighties horror films became almost comical in a sense. It was almost funny. It was the 'babe' running in the woods, it was decapitation and gore and guts and blood and truthfully, after a while it's not scary; it's funny. I think the thing about Kevin is that he scares you, and then he makes you laugh, and then he has a really touching scene that you can relate to and then 'boom,' he scares you. The big thing in 'Scream,' it was Neve's joke, was that in horror films there's always a big- breasted girl that's always running upstairs when she should run outside, and that's what Kevin tries to do. I mean, even though my character of Helen is technically the 'babe' in the woods character, she still does intelligent things; she tries to make decisions. Someone was asking me yesterday, 'How is it that you can run so fast and the killer always catches you?' You know, the killer in horror movies always walks really slowly, and this is exactly what it is; it's panic. You know, Helen is in a place... , I mean, think about it; a man with a hook is going to kill her, she's not thinking about what the smarter thing to do would be, she's panicked. I think she made fairly decent decisions; locking the door, calling the police, she really tried. But the killer is always going to have one up on you, because he's calm, he's planning, he's thinking. You expect that in horror movies, but Kevin's been able to make it a little more real."
How closely to the script were the final characters seen in 'Summer?'
......."Luckily we had a week worth of rehearsal, and Kevin was there everyday, and Jim was there everyday, and we really had a chance to talk about things that we felt would help our characters, and things that didn't work for us. Especially for me, because I'm not your stereotypical blonde, I'm not even a blonde in real life (she laughs) so to play the quintessential dumb blonde character was a big stretch for me, and I wanted to make sure that she wasn't a joke, that she was funny but that she wasn't a character that you would laugh at. I read the book a long time ago in Jr. High so when I got the movie I read it again before I left (for North Carolina). The Helen in the book is not a character I would have ever played. This would not have been a role I wanted to take, and the thing about Helen in the script and Kevin's characters in general is that he writes three dimensional characters for young people. It is very rare when you play the age that I play to see well-written, strongly developed characters."
Are there any differences between Lois Duncan's novel and the film?
......."It's very, very different. In the book they hit and kill an eight year-old little boy, which of course would make a horror movie, but there is nothing redeemable about four teenagers that hit and kill and eight year-old boy on a bicycle (she laughs). The ending was completely different, and Helen was just this horribly vain person. What did it for me (in the script) was the transition. This is a girl who grew up solely on her looks. All that was expected of her was to be the beautiful girl, to have the perfect boyfriend and to be a model and that's what she gave them. But the transition she makes is that by the end she realizes that her looks aren't going to get her through the situation, and that she is capable of more."
What are your feelings towards the character of Helen's older sister?
......."The thing about Elsa (Helen's sister, portrayed by Bridgette Wilson) is that, I bet you that she wanted to be the Croaker Queen (the title held by Helen) and probably didn't win, but she was probably the same character as in the book, and couldn't get out of town. So for Helen, although she relied on her looks, she was going to use her looks to get out; there was always a glimmer of something that was there. I think that is the basis of her friendship with Julie (Love Hewitt's character) is that Julie was the first person that really thought of Helen more than what she just looked like. She was probably the first person in Helen's life to give her that and to think more of her."
The final scene in which your character appeared was terrifying, not only in it's realism but also in it's symbolism. I was amazed at the brilliance of the shot; the fireworks, the seeming safety merely five feet away...what was it like to shoot that?
......."It was interesting. We had a lot of talks about it, because the way it was written. Jim and I had talked about it, and when you think about it, if some guy is coming after you, and this is the last chance, I don't care who you are, you are going to give it everything. And that is the thing about these stalker films in general, is that the main characters run away. You know it's a 'jiggle' scene. It's like, I'm wearing a tight tank-top and I'm going to stop this bad man! I can remember going into the last day of production thinking that it was going to be fun, that I was going to run and see the bad man and say, 'Look, scary man!' and then run away. That's not what it's about; it takes much more than that. A lot of it was Jim's direction, and from the beginning when I saw who was cast I knew that it was not going to be a movie about the way we looked, that it was going to be a serious movie. But it was still fun. In that scene Jim made horror beautiful, it was visual, it had an aesthetic. From that first scene upon the cliff when we came out you just have this foreboding kind of morose overtone that carries through. I mean, even on the Fourth of July at the Croaker Festival it is gray and over-cast, and I think that it helps the movie. Jim is just an amazing director."
Having done as much work as you have in the horror genre, from 'Buffy' to 'Summer' to the forthcoming 'Scream,' have you any fear of being typecast?
......."It's random that I worked these three jobs in a row. The reason that I have is because of all of the offers that have come to me and the scripts that I have read, these were the three that were the most interesting, diverse roles. With this genre that Kevin has sort of created for everybody, it's action, it's drama, it's horror, it's comedy, it's all of those things, and when you are my age it is the best opportunity. And if I get stuck doing work like this, I mean, God help me, I should be so lucky!"
What can you tell me about the sequel to 'Scream?'
......."I can basically tell you nothing; Kevin gave me the lecture every morning. All I can tell you is that it's two years later (after the original) and Sydney's at college, and I play one of the sorority girls. That's about it. (Laughs.) Wes (Craven) was amazing to work with. I mean, when you speak about someone who really re-invented a genre. He just knows every little nuance."
What are your feelings on 'Buffy' in regards to story- line, and how do you feel being a role-model?
......."Well, we are showing real situations, real people. Buffy is not the prettiest girl in school, she's not the most popular and she's not the smartest. She makes mistakes; she makes good decisions and bad decisions, and these are characters that people can look up to. Kevin has (regarding his series 'Dawson's Creek') gotten a lot of flak for dealing with real teenage issues, just as we do on 'Buffy.' This is what happens to teenagers, sex is what's on teenager's minds, and Kevin deals with it in a way that I think kids can really relate to. As far as 'Buffy' I think people can actually relate to the show as well. When you think about the situations, we take real situations and we put them on a fantasy level. I mean, everyone has felt or either known someone who felt invisible in school. Well, on one show we had a character who actually became invisible. Buffy is really dealing with, 'Well, am I an adult? Am I a child? I don't know what I want. It's career-week and I don't get to have a career!' It's interesting to watch the character do things because she makes decisions like a teenager. You'll be seeing the Buffy and Angel relationship really develop this season, and what it's like to be a teenager in love with the wrong person. It's your typical 'Romeo and Juliet' story, which is very common in high school, only in our sense, he's a vampire, and I'm a slayer. (Laughs.) It's very difficult!"
Were you to find yourself in the same position as your character did in 'Summer,' striking and killing someone on a deserted road, what would be your decision?
......."It's interesting; it's something we thought about a lot. We were shooting in Southport, and the nearest Starbuck's and Barnes & Noble and gym was in Wilmington, so I was driving there all of the time. A lot of times I was the only one off, so I would drive there, and it is one very long road; only two lanes and no lights, so at night I would literally get freaked out to the point of, Oh my God. Do I know what decision I would make? No, I can't say. I gave it so much thought. I think I would behave differently (than in the film), but I don't think I would honestly know until I was there, in that situation."