Free Press - 8/1/99
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Rules WB's Lucrative Teen Kingdom
........Buffy is looking, well, very
buff. Sarah Michelle Gellar, the prime-time princess of the teen-
appeal WB network, the energetic star of Buffy the Vampire
Slayer, isn't really a supernatural woman. She just plays one
on TV.
........But you'd never know that
from the way WB executive Brad Turell gushed about Gellar, who
chattily held court with TV critics recently while filling
everyone in on her life on the Planet Buffy. Sporting a
California dream tan, chic diamond earrings, a diamond pendant at
her neck, a white blouse and silvery gray skirt, she looked every
inch the trendy young personification of channel surfing royalty.
"Sarah Michelle Gellar has been sort of like the Johnny Depp for
the WB the way Johnny Depp was for Fox," said Turell, WB's
executive vice president of communications. "In the early days,
Johnny Depp jumped on the screen (in '21 Jump Street'), attracted
critical attention ...and he set himself apart from the pack and
became a major film star." OK, maybe a stretch. Network suits are
born to be hyperbolic about their stars. But to Gellar's credit,
she shushed Turell's puffery with a funny chant: "Stop, stop,
stop!"
........Gellar, 22, is a bundle of
high-octane pep and talent who in three years has become the WB's
signature personality. Buffy the Vampire Slayer producer
Joss Whedon's smart, engagingly droll exploration of high school
life and adolescent angst put Gellar on the fast track to teen
icon status. She's appeared in teen horror movie hits such as
I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream 2. And
more recently, she played a bawdy, conniving rich girl in
Cruel Intentions, a trashy but entertaining teenage
version of Dangerous Liaisons. But it's Buffy the Vampire
Slayer that made Gellar a TV star. And the show itself gave
the WB a blueprint for success that has led to Dawson's Creek,
Felicity and a new crop of slick teen dramas this fall. It also
has led to a WB teen idol tidal wave, including Katie Holmes and
James Van Der Beek of Dawson's Creek and Keri Russell of
Felicity. (Psssst, what about 7th Heaven? Though not officially a
teen drama, the WB's often unsung family values favorite and No.
1 show overall is home to such hot young performers as Jessica
Biel and Barry Watson. They're also key attractions in the WB
youth-quake.)
A team player for WB
........But it's pretty clear that
Gellar, a self-effacing, down-to-earth diva who has been in show
business since age 4, is the WB's pre-eminent teen queen. Turell
calls her "the kind of team player that any network would love."
What's not to love? Gellar doesn't have an entourage, with
managers and agents and bodyguards always running interference
for her. She shows up for work on time and works hard. She isn't
one of those ego-blinded young stars headed for bad tabloid
headlines. And she believes in being a role model. "I was always
very careful," said Gellar. "You know, I'm not going to drink in
public if I'm not 21, and I'm not going to say or do
inappropriate things. But I still have to be Sarah. And I think,
luckily, it's Buffy that's out there and that you see and not
very many people know me. So the pressure is sort of taken off a
little bit," Gellar said. "You're just not going to see me at the
Viper Room on a Friday night. It's just not going to happen."
........Gellar grew up in New York
and attended the Professional Children's School with Macaulay
Culkin and Ben Taylor, son of Carly Simon and James Taylor. By
the time she was 16, she was a soap opera celebrity, playing
alongside Susan Lucci as sneaky Erica Kane's devious daughter on
ABC's All My Children, where she won a Daytime Emmy Award -
- something Lucci didn't manage until this year. But when Gellar
was 19, she took a chance on a dinky little network called WB and
a new show about a vampire slayer named Buffy. "I remember when I
was on 'All My Children' and people said to me, 'Well,
you're never going to get off soaps,' "recalled Gellar. 'You
have this great job. You're Susan Lucci's daughter. Who are you
kidding? People don't make it leaving soaps.'"
Why she understands Buffy
........So much for the skeptics. And
in playing Buffy to boffo reviews, Gellar has found her alter ego
to be something of a soul mate. It's sort of a cliche in
Hollywood for pretty young actresses to insist they were chubby
geeks or ugly ducklings as children. For Gellar, it was more a
feeling of emotional geekiness, of not fitting in. "I can say I'm
an outsider, and everyone sort of rolls their head and groans.
But I was a child brought up in an adult world," said Gellar. "I
was always doing an adult's job as a child, and that makes me an
outsider. At 17 or 18, if you sent me to a frat party, I would be
an outsider. I didn't understand that world," added Gellar. "And
I think there's a very interesting relationship between Buffy and
myself in that Buffy didn't know whether to go fight vampires or
go to the prom. Well, my prom was the same night as the Emmys. I
had those same dilemmas...on a different scale."
........This fall, Buffy and her pals
from Sunnydale High School are heading to college. But they
aren't going far, just to the local state university branch, U.C.
Sunnydale, where they still will be dealing with evil demons and
supernatural baddies. Of course, all those creepy monsters and
vampires hanging out beneath Sunnydale High the last three
seasons were just metaphorical stand-ins for the horrors of high
school. "It was an experience that helped Buffy grow up," said
Gellar. "She's definitely less of the kooky Valley Girl than when
she first came to Sunnydale. She's more capable now," said
Gellar. "But the insecurity that underlies everything she does is
what I think is so endearing about her and what people can relate
to."
........There isn't much in the way
of outward insecurity, however, to the slightly hyper and
verbally vivacious young woman who plays Buffy. "I think the
reason I'm so supercharged is I'm really damn excited," said
Gellar. "I'm enjoying what I'm doing. I just want to do so much.
And I am only 22. So I'll probably slow down eventually."
New York to the Dominican Republic
........This summer hasn't been part
of the slowing down process, though. Gellar kicked it off with
two weeks back in New York City to be host of the season finale
of Saturday Night Live, celebrate her 22nd birthday with
friends and attend the VH1 Divas concert to see Tina Turner and
Cher. After that, it was a trip to Europe to promote Cruel
Intentions, doing lots of sightseeing in London and Paris.
And just to add another notch to her good-behavior belt, Gellar
spent a week doing volunteer work for Habitat for Humanity in the
Dominican Republic. She helped build a house. "It was just an
amazing experience," said Gellar, a novice handywoman who mixed
cement and helped install flooring and windowsills. "I've never
had calluses like that on my hands. I guess I've never done an
honest day's labor in my life."
........Obviously, Buffy would
approve. You slay the vampires, then you go to the prom. You mix
cement, do a good deed, then you go back to Hollywood and the
celebrity grind. For the WB, she's become the stellar Gellar.
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