Sarah Michelle Gellar

The former slayer says her slaying days are over and discusses Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales.

October 11, 2004 - At the press day to promote the October 22nd release of The Grudge at the Four Seasons in Los Angeles this week, Sarah Michelle Gellar spoke briefly about the possibilities of a Buffy movie: "I have a lot of hesitation about it. It was a movie. I spent the first year of the show constantly explaining to people, ’No no, it’s not like the movie,’ because there was such a bias to the movie, because it didn’t work as a film. And that’s my initial hesitation, and the other is that clearly you’re going to disappoint people. I mean, I was very happy with the finale, but I still believe that it should have been two hours, I believe there wasn’t enough Xander, I believe that certain things got left out, and when you make a film, you’re setting your self up to disappoint people...

"Part of the reason I believe the show worked was because the story’s an arc and you felt for this character’s experience, and it wasn’t a beginning, middle and end... I don’t believe she worked like that. And I say that now, and if in a year they could send me the script and I could think it’s great and we could be at the junket a year and a half from now, but I will say that I have a lot of hesitations about it and it is not something I particularly want to do at this time."

Gellar is nearing production on the highly anticipated second directorial effort from Richard Kelly, whose 2001 debut, Donnie Darko, has already become a cult favorite. "We’re hoping to start at the beginning of the year. Goodness, it’s so hard to describe. The only thing I can sort of say is, could you imagine trying to explain Donnie Darko to people before they saw it? ’Okay, it’s about a guy and there’s this six foot imaginary bunny.’ Richard Kelly to me is just a genius and part of the things I want to do is be able to work with interesting people and have different experiences and having such an amazing time on this film just pushes me to want that more and more and more. I had seen Donnie Darko and thought this guy is so different and he has so much to say and it would be such an honor to meet him. That’s just how it all started.

"It’s less strange than Donnie Darko... Yeah, that’s kind of an obvious statement. It’s a lot more characters, a lot more interwoven story, but again, it’s all in Richard Kelly’s head and I would not do it justice attempting [to explain it]."

While the film is said to have some musical moments, Gellar promises that she won’t be a part of the singing. "No, you can all rest assured that I will not." Gellar previously sung on the critically acclaimed musical episode of Buffy. "That was the most miserable experience of my entire life. I am a perfectionist. I don’t do anything unless I can train for months and months and months. And we got that script three weeks out. And I had no days off. And I would leave work and take a singing lesson and go to the dance class and to me that should’ve been the first episode after a three-month hiatus when you could’ve been ready and I’m done with that, boy. So no, I will not be singing in Southland Tales."