Sarah Michelle Gellar and the Curse of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

[Buffy Summers]

by CHRIS HARNICK

There's a Buffy the Vampire Slayer curse, but it's not what you think it is.

Sarah Michelle Gellar played the titular hero for seven seasons across The WB and UPN from 1997-2003. Since then she's gone on to big screen roles and returned to TV in both thrillers and comedies, but the Buffy curse still lingers.

"There is only one curse and it's not what people expect," Gellar told Confidential, an Australian publication. "The one curse is, as an actor, you get very spoiled because you think all female characters are going to be that exciting, that interesting, that flawed—and that's really not the case in Hollywood. That's the drawback—you have a standard of what to expect in the characters you play."

See? Not the curse you were expecting.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer hailed from Joss Whedon, a man known to many for his talents at bringing three-dimensional characters—particularly women—to life.

"The show proved it was OK to have a strong female character, a heroine, on television…Buffy was a human. As humans, we fight the horrors of our life to get through the day," she said. "It was an elevated drama, an elevated comedy and a metaphor for the different parts of life."

Since Buffy, Gellar starred in the short-lived Ringer, a CW drama that she also produced. Last season she appeared opposite the late Robin Williams in the David E. Kelley comedy The Crazy Ones. She won the People's Choice Award for Favorite Actress in a New TV series for the now-canceled comedy and thanked her loyal following.

"For seven years, I had the privilege to be a part of one of the most amazing television shows and I've never gotten the chance to publicly thank them, the cast, the crew, and all the fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer," she said, "so thank you!"

The adventures of Buffy Summers continue in a Whedon-sanctioned comic book series from Dark Horse. Even so, Whedon obliged a fan who asked for more Buffy the Vampire Slayer by drawing one heck of napkin doodle. Hey, it's better than nothing!

Source: E!

 

[Skanky Vamp]

I would like to hijack this thread somewhat.. "you think all female characters are going to be that exciting, that interesting, that flawed—and that's really not the case in Hollywood" how much of that is the fault of the writing in general or the fact it is mostly male writers. The last number I saw was something like only 15% of Hollywood writers are female. That has to be taken into account. So when a company like WB openly states they want a female screenwriter for the Wonder Women movie why are people surprised? If they want Wonder Woman versus Wonder Cookie Cutter their best bet would be to hire a female. It's not to say a man could not write a great Wonder Woman movie, but.. Now some can say that Whedon was not (or is not I presume) a female, yet he always had strong female writers around him and the show. Anyway.. I think there was a point in there somewhere.. but the wine has diluted it.

 

[thetopher]

Yeah, Hollywood pretends to be all these things that it's not: Open and creative, Progressive and fair, non-sexist, non-homophobic, but basically its ruled by old white men who wants to earn as much money as possible, who destest risk and therefore originality, who exclude what they can't understand/quantify, who pander to the lowest common denominator by now only going with book adaptations and re-boots which is all we ever see nowadays.

People wonder why Joss has loads of fans- he's not perfect as a writer or director, but if you look at Hollywood you'll see how damn rare he is.

Anyway, the best writing is almost all on television these days- we can only hope that fresh writing talent (and by that I mean as many good, new writers, regardless of gender) find it easier to break into the tv market than the Hollywood goliath.

 

[Fuffy Baith]

That's a funny curse, but I can see why she would feel that way. The bar was set high on Buffy, it was so versatile and she got to do everything. Drama, action, comedy, horror and even a musical. So it's understandable that anything else would be less fulfilling or exciting. I really like 'Ringer' and think she's hilarious in 'The Crazy Ones'. Definitely agree about the writers thing. We need more great writers. 
That's a funny curse, but I can see why she would feel that way. The bar was set high on Buffy, it was so versatile and she got to do everything. Drama, action, comedy, horror and even a musical. So it's understandable that anything else would be less fulfilling or exciting. I really like 'Ringer' and think she's hilarious in 'The Crazy Ones'. Definitely agree about the writers thing. We need more great writers.