Sarah's Acting Career

[white avenger]

Do you think that the role of Buffy The Vampire Slayer actually hurt Sarah's career,rather than advanced it? Type casting is potentially the worst thing that can ever happen to an actor in regard to their career, and the role of Buffy seems to follow Sarah wherever she goes, and whatever she does. I've never seen her appear anywhere that some reference to Buffy isn't made, despite all of her efforts to move on into bigger, and, hopefully, better roles.

So, in your opinion, do you think that Sarah is forever, or, at least, long term, typecast as Buffy The Vampire Slayer?

 

[Black Eye Guy]

I dont think so, I don't think she is the best actress to be honest.

She's fantastic in Buffy, but I haven't really liked her performance in anything else except for Cruel Intentons.

I'd put that down to me not being able to see her as anyone else but Buffy, but I really love Cruel Intentions, she was brilliant in that, so I'm not sure it's that.

I also don't think, from what I've read, that she focuses on her career 100%, I remember reading/watching an interview were she says her and Freddie dont work at the same time so someone was always with the kid. I think you can do that when you get to massive movie star status, but on your way up you probably can't be that picky.
(Just to point out that I think it's great the way her and Freddie do that for the kids, I just mean I think it would make it allot harder to becoming the massive movie star.)

I also think she isn't the most accepting of her fans, she seems very personal and after Buffy it seemed she tried to distance herself a little bit, and chose some real stinkers of movies (seriously Scooby Doo?!?) I think she should have stayed a bit closer to the genre (I wouldn't count The Grudge as on Genre, that whole Japanese remake thing was kinda it's own genre, but it was close) and tried to make the transition to movie star from her genre, like she'd be great in the Superhero genre of movies that have been coming out they lack some of the cooler kick ass female super heroes.

 

[Kenimowy]

I think she will always be Buffy for some people. I have seen her in other roles, and I think she does a great job in anything she is in, but the fact she played such a huge icon for so long, she will always be associated with Buffy.
I have seen her in a few other things and personally I think she does great! I wish she did more 🙂
I think Sarah Michelle Gellar is a very underrated, under appreciated actress. I also do think she tried too hard to separate herself from Buffy because I personally felt she was above the whole Scooby Doo thing but that may have really been something she wanted to do, regardless of what others thought. If anything hurt her career it would be scooby doo, but that is just my personal opinion. Either way, I think she is a fantastic actress.

 

[white avenger]

I dont think so, I don't think she is the best actress to be honest.

She's fantastic in Buffy, but I haven't really liked her performance in anything else except for Cruel Intentons.

I pretty much agree. Buffy was the role of a lifetime. and she played it perfectly, though I'm sure the same thing could have been said for just about any relatively talented actress if she had had the role from the beginning. Joss seems to have a talent for creating unforgettable characters, then casting the parts perfectly.

I can't say anything about "Cruel Intentions," but, to me, at least, her non-Buffy roles have been consistently underwhelming at best.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

How do you get over success?

There was a program hosted by William Shatner, the original James Tiberius Kirk of Star Trek fame, where he interviewed all of the Enterprise captains and they all had the same problem - what do you do after you have become known for something? There were only 79 episodes of the original Star Trek and Shatner was in the last 78 of them, but they defined his life forever after. He finally decided that he wouldn't fight it - when some fan said "Beam me up", instead of getting irritated as he had originally been, he would just say, "I would if I could" and he could finally live with it.

If you are in a creative business of any kind, you will have projects that stand out in your career and other projects where you were just marking time. Sarah has been one of very few actresses to become an iconic figure in a long-running popular series. She has made enough money to last the rest of her life if she doesn't spend like an idiot. I have had a long career in design engineering. The high points were spacecraft in 1973 - 1976, cockpit displays in 1988, design auditing in 2003 and a patent that issued in 2000. The rest of the time, I had work that paid the bills, but that was OK - you can't have high points without low points.

Sarah comes from a soap opera background and this carried on through Buffy. She could emote with the best of them. Anyone in the Whedonverse has aced an intelligence test - he only hires people who can read the script and bring something to the table. Sure, she will always be Buffy to everyone on this board, but time has passed, new projects keep coming and she will adapt and find new fans in another project.

David Boreanaz is probably known as FBI agent Seely Booth on "Bones" more than as Angel, Alison Hannigan is probably better known for, "One time, at band camp..." and is now Lily Aldrin on "How I Met Your Mother", a comedy that appears to be in stealth mode is still paying work, just like her shampoo commercials. It may take longer for Sarah to develop another persona, but it has been almost a decade - she should be able to do pretty much anything at this point.

 

[Wild At Heart]

I don't think Buffy was bad for her at all. She has done some amazing films, I just wish she'd get to do some more soon.

 

[VisionGirl]

Maybe it's just the kind of roles she's getting, I don't know. Then again, she's done a lot of horror, and I'm not a horror fan. I tried with Ringer, I really really did. I watched every episode. And it was worthy of cancellation. There were some good moments but the writing was subpar. I think she can do better. Heck, maybe she needs to go back to soaps! I like soaps! I could really see her doing some romantic comedy (she did a rom com movie, right?). I wonder how she would do with sci fi, with the right script & director?

---------- Post added at 02:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:40 AM ----------

David Boreanaz is probably known as FBI agent Seely Booth on "Bones" more than as Angel, Alison Hannigan is probably better known for, "One time, at band camp..." and is now Lily Aldrin on "How I Met Your Mother", a comedy that appears to be in stealth mode is still paying work, just like her shampoo commercials. It may take longer for Sarah to develop another persona, but it has been almost a decade - she should be able to do pretty much anything at this point.

I'm a big Bones fan, and as much as like that show & Booth in it, I still think Angel was a more interesting & multidimensional character. And I've decided that I'm not a HIMYM fan, despite liking almost all the actors in it! Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that both David & Alison are having big success.