Sarah Michelle Gellar

It’s a typical winter day in Berlin: grey clouds fly low above the city, an icy wind blows through the streets. A fire flickers in the fire place of the big suite of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Sarah Michelle Gellar is sitting in a deep armchair and holding a Starbucks coffee in a big paper cup. “I’m afraid they’re going to give this thing to me in intravenous injections soon” (NFTT: speaking of the coffee but I’m not sure about the translation...), says the delicate/thin actress, laughing. Berlin is the last stop of her promotion tour for the release of her new movie “The Grudge”, a just as grandiose as fear inspiring remake of the Japanese ???, that has already made over 100M$ dollars in the US.

Since October, the 27 years old actress has travelled across Europe. And by the way, she has even made a detour via Dubai. “One of the most beautiful place, that I’ve ever seen btw”; she says. And in fact, Sarah Michelle Gellar still seems tired and exhausted. All around her expressive green turquoise eyes you can see tiny traces of tiredness. But then she’s glowing like transformed - and speaking fast. She has a quick wit. The answers to the questions come as if shot with a revolver (NFTT : as in fast...). Her voice sounds self-confident, almost a bit determined. She has a sense of humor. And she is professional, and it makes you realize she’s been in this business for 23 years.

First question: “Do you still actually have time for yourself?” “In the last few months, I’ve been promised something resembling time over and over again between all the interviews”, she answers, “but then I was sitting again for 12 hours in some plane.” Sarah crosses her legs. She’s wearing long black pants and a black turtleneck sweater. On her feet are black boots with incredibly high heels. To (complete?) the strict look, Sarah has, once more, her long blond hair up in a ponytail. “But you know what?” she observes, “I really like travelling. I really don’t like the flights though. But I always have my own blanket next to me and lots of moisturizing cream. Then you can survive 12 hours in a plane. The biggest appeal is really to wake up every day in a different city.” The Grudge’s shooting has allowed Sarah Michelle Gellar to wake up in the city she’s dreamt her all life about: Tokyo. “It’s a breathtaking metropolis”,

The Grudge’s shooting has allowed Sarah Michelle Gellar to wake up in the city she’s dreamt her all life about: Tokyo. “It’s a breathtaking metropolis”, she says enthusiastically, “On one hand, you come here in contact with a society that is based on thousand years old traditions. And on another hand, the city is ultramodern.” She takes a big sip of coffee before going on “Everyone is so civilized/polite there. In America, we slurp our coffee out of a paper cup while walking. In Japan, you sit down and celebrate a tea ceremony with delicate pieces of porcelain and all.” And another difference with the USA: They don’t speak English in Japan. “The Grudge” is the first Japanese remake in which only the main actor have been changed. Besides that, the movie’s been shot with the original Japanese crew and the original director Takashi Shimizu. It might make a good movie, but for Sarah Michelle Gellar, it was a problem: how did I communicate with a team that spoke exclusively Japonese? Sarah’s knowledge of the Japonese language was actually limited to this day purely to a couple of everyday sentences and the names of her favourite sushis. “I had no other choice but learn a couple of sentences in Japonese. ‘I’d like a glass of water without ice’ and - very useful - ‘I could kill you.’ The Japonese were happy like crazy about every word. And then I would be invited to their tea ceremony every time. So I’ve learned that you can make friends without speaking the same language.”

Apart from these accelerated classes about bringing cultures together, the Grudge offered Sarah Michelle Gellar the freedom that she’s been looking for after seven years of gruelling work for the tv show Buffy the vampire slayer. “After the last season and two Scooby-Doo movies had been wrapped, I could for the first time in my adult life take my own decision. I did a movie because I liked the scenario and not because it could be squished in my summer hiatus.”

Sarah Michelle has in the meantime changed from coffee to water, that she pours from a bottle of Evian. She seems to have her passion for coffee temporarily under control. If she has bad habits? “I constantly help the economy, because I like shopping. But I have very little patience when it comes to shopping. I’ve had enough after an hour”, the actress explains. She prefers doing brief visits to small vintage shops or to Rebecca Taylor’s boutique, the New Yorker Cashmere designer. Her other favourite in fashion : “the Australian designer Collette Dinnigan and Vera Wang from New York. And I’m especially crazy about jeans. I wear them even when the weather’s very hot. And I have a new favourite brand every week - sometimes Juicy Couture, sometimes Citizens of humanity and of course Seven Jeans. But anyway, I have the feeling to always get the same in America (??????????). Because I spent last month on a plane, I’ve desperately buried myself in Sky-Shop Magazine. You can find the trivialest things in there.” She almost ordered a ramp for dogs from Sky Shop for her Maltese Terrier Thor. “You know, in Hollywood, we drive those huge sedans around. And when a dog is as fat and small as Thor, he really has problems getting in and out. That’s where the ramp comes in handy?! (????)” Her tiny dog is even so deseperately over-weight, that Sarah Michelle is suspecting someone has given her a “brand new breed - something strange between dog and cow”.

No compliment for Thor. But Sarah Michelle says always spontaneously what’s on her mind. She’s learned that from her mother, who’s raised her in New York and who’s still her closest counsellor. “My mother taught me to play the game”, she says and giggles. “I have to stay interesting, fresh and of course very mysterious!”