Sarah Michelle Gellar

HOLLYWOOD — Sarah Michelle Gellar insists she is not trying to become Hollywood’s reigning scream queen. It certainly looked that way back in 1997 when she starred in I Know What You Did Last Summer, Scream 2 and kicked off her hit TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Now she’s starring in The Grudge the English language version of the dark Japanese haunted house chiller Ju-On: The Grudge.

"I don’t scream in The Grudge. I yell a lot and yelp a little, but my character is not a screamer," says Gellar, 27, who says there are several reasons she pursued this low-budget horror flick.

The Grudge, which opens Friday, was made for $10 million US by producers Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert through their Ghost House Pictures.

It was directed by Takashi Shimizu, who wrote and directed the three incarnations of the ghost story in his native Japan.

Ju-On: The Grudge and its sequel were originally made for video. They proved so popular that Shimizu then made a theatrical version, which was an enormous box-office hit in Asia.

Now he is at the helm of the English Language version and is preparing a Japanese theatrical sequel.

"The Grudge was the hottest project in Hollywood two years ago. The video of the original Japanese version was circulating everywhere because Sam Raimi had announced his English version," recalls Gellar. "I have been fascinated with Asian culture for years. Sushi is my favourite food, and Japan was the one country I wanted desperately to visit, so those were added incentives."

She was also aware of what The Ring — another movie based on a Japanese ghost flick — did for Naomi Watts.

"Naomi was a respected actress, but The Ring really made studios, audiences and producers take notice of her."

Gellar says there is a reason women want to star in horror films.

"It is the one film genre where women can rule. In The Grudge I am not the girlfriend or the wife. I am the central character. It’s my movie. I’m not set decoration."

The Grudge was filmed in Tokyo last year. Ironically Gellar arrived at the same time Buffy the Vampire Slayer was making its debut in Japan.

"The series hadn’t caught on yet, so no one really knew who I was, and that was great," she recalls. "I didn’t have to sneak into buildings through a back door or wear a baseball cap and keep my head down when I went to tourist attractions.

"I was just another blonde American girl walking the streets of the city or trying to figure out how to use the transit systems."

Gellar returned this summer to do some reshoots, and things had changed.

"Buffy is a hit over in Japan now so it was not as easy for me to go out in public. It wasn’t nearly as bad as it is sometimes in the States but it definitely limited my activities."

Gellar returned with her costar Jason Behr, who played Max Evans on Roswell and plays her boyfriend in The Grudge.

"The movie was testing so well that the studio gave us more money. That allowed us to film exteriors in Tokyo. It was all studio interiors before."

Gellar says several new scenes were added to "give the audience more of a background to the relationship between me and Jason, and we even added a few additional scares."

Gellar’s husband, Freddie Prinze Jr., was unable to accompany her on either of her trips to Japan.

"I saw that as payback time.

"Freddie went to Japan to promote his movie She’s All That. I couldn’t go with him because I was filming Buffy. I was so jealous.

"The tables got turned this time so I teased him every moment I could. He made me promise to get him a samurai sword, which I did."

Gellar and Prinze met in 1996 on the set of I Know What You Did Last Summer. They dated sporadically at first until 1999 when they moved in with each other.

The married in September of 2002.

"Marriage is a partnership. The more you put into it, the more you get out of it.

"It’s been a lot easier for me to do my part now that I don’t have Buffy. A TV series really drains your energy and focus.

"Freddie is filming (Nailed Right In) with Alec Baldwin, so I’m just going to visit him and hang out with him on the set until I start my next film."

Gellar has been cast opposite Seann William Scott and Jason Lee in Southland Tales, the new film from Richard Kelly, the creator of the cult hit Donnie Darko.

"I feel I’ve entered the third phase of my career with films like The Grudge and Southland Tales," says Gellar.

Her first phase was in New York as a child actor doing commercials and starring in TV movies and soap operas.

"When I was 18 I headed for Los Angeles. People said I wouldn’t make it because the competition is so great, but I wanted to try at least."

In record time, Gellar was making feature films and snagged the lead in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

"I put eight years into Buffy. During that time, I could only do films that fell within my hiatus period. That cancelled out so many films I wanted to do."

Gellar says she worked almost non stop for those eight years because "the feature films I did during my hiatus rejuvenated me when I returned to the set of Buffy each new season.

"Now that I don’t have Buffy ruling my life I can pick and choose my projects.

"I see this as the beginning of the adult phase in my career and I am going to make it as rewarding as possible for me."