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Home page > Cast > Sarah Michelle Gellar > Spoilers > Sarah Michelle Gellar’s ’Grudge’ Against Buffy - (...)
From Syfyportal.com Sarah Michelle Gellar’s ’Grudge’ Against Buffy - SpoilersBy Scott Nance Saturday 13 November 2004, by Webmaster I saw a new “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” episode last weekend. Well, at least at first I thought it was a new “Buffy” episode. It was the same blonde figure, with the familiar inflections in her voice, facing off against supernatural beings of questionable origin and even more questionable motive. But, then, it wasn’t really “Buffy” after all. We were sitting in a dark movie theater watching Sarah Michelle Gellar star in the new horror flick, “The Grudge.” But throughout the film, I couldn’t help but have these feelings ... these, well, I’ll call them “Buffy flashes.” For those moments, I wasn’t watching Gellar’s character, Karen Davis, battle vengeful Japanese ghosts. I was watching Buffy Summers. But then the illusion was broken just as quickly as it came. Because unlike the Slayer, except at the very end, Karen Davis never really fought back. As the monsters kept confronting Karen, I kept saying to myself, “Kick their ass, Buffy.” But until her boyfriend was already dead, Karen just took it. These “Buffy flashes” were certainly just brief moments throughout the film — and in general, Gellar did a fine job of portraying a terrified young woman — but as fleeting as the Buffy flashes were, they were without doubt there. Given Gellar’s ongoing public conflict with her television alter-ego, then it is surprising she would continue to take roles that are so similar to her work on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Certainly, some of the antipathy between Gellar and the character that made her famous is simply manufactured by media looking for a quick story. Last spring, for instance, she was absent from the final episodes of the spinoff “Angel,” and many gossipmongers took it to be an intentional snub. It turns out that was way offbase. She simply was busy — way over in Japan, no less — shooting “The Grudge,” and couldn’t get away to reunite with the Fang Gang. But other times, Gellar continues to vent so much spleen that it makes it actually seem as if there are some bona fide lingering bad feelings there. In comments posted on the BBC Web site, the actress recently said, "You think about it ever year for eight years [sic]: when is the right time? But all the signs pointed to the eighth year. I was emotionally and physically exhausted. I wasn’t being challenged in the way that I needed any more. “I really didn’t have any (input). Maybe I should have, ’cause then we wouldn’t have got so lost. It took me a while to work up the nerve to say something. “It didn’t feel like ’Buffy.’ But it’s easy to be vocal now, because (series creator Joss Whedon) isn’t going to be yelling at me tomorrow.” Yikes! That’s a fairly gratuitous comment to make more than a year after the show went off the air — even if there is some actual truth to it. The question to Gellar is: Why couldn’t you have just left well enough alone? Why do you feel the need to be so “vocal”? Gellar’s ongoing, public struggle with an old character, of course, is nothing new to science-fiction. Leonard Nimoy played out a similar feud with his celebrated “Star Trek” character, going as far as penning an autobiography to renounce the relationship with his alter ego, titled “I Am Not Spock.” Nimoy, however, had the good sense to realize that if you want to separate yourself from a past character, you actually have to take roles that are different from the character you’re trying to escape. After Trek originally went off the air, Nimoy threw himself in a variety of diverse roles, including Shakespearean work. But, whether it’s “The Grudge” or the “Scooby Doo” movies — in which, again she’s a member of a gang of kids fighting monsters — she keeps taking high-profile roles that invite easy comparison back to her years as Buffy. That she vacillates between bad-mouthing Buffy and taking roles that are so akin to her makes for interesting psychological speculation. It also makes for yet another comparison, this time between Gellar and her erstwhile co-star, Alyson Hannigan. Hannigan seems to made a peace with her “Buffy” character, Willow, that appears to have eluded Gellar. The redhaired actress made so much of a name for herself away from “Buffy” with her appearances in the successful “American Pie” comedies that — believe it or not — outside of sci-fi, Hannigan is arguably even better known as Michele, “the band camp girl” than as Willow, the lesbian witch. Hannigan also seems confident enough with her success that not only has she not criticized her time on “Buffy,” she was — unlike Gellar — willing to reprise her role for the planned “Buffy” animated spinoff. With her “American Pie” achievements to her credit, both creatively and financially, Hannigan clearly doesn’t need to hang on to “Buffy” forever to ensure the future of her career. However, she comes back to role clearly because she believes in her character and in “Buffy” as a quality project. Meanwhile, back to Gellar. To find her own professional peace of mind, she doesn’t have to be the next Meryl Streep tomorrow. But a nice little romantic comedy might not be bad. 
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