Sarah Michelle Gellar attends the 2022 People’s Choice Awards in December. (Photo: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
For a generation of pop culture addicts, the narratives of Buffy Summers and Sarah Michelle Gellar will forever be woven together. But that actress-character relationship has been elusive in recent years, as new reports have pulled back the curtain on what happened on the set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer during its seven-year run as a cult TV favorite. Allegations of the “toxic” behavior of the series’ controversial creator Joss Whedon have been documented by Buffy co-stars including Charisma Carpenter and Amber Benson. And while Gellar has publicly called Buffy an “extremely toxic male set,” she has avoided speaking at length about what she experienced during her years working with Whedon.
In a new interview with , Gellar hints that her silence is likely to continue. “I’m never going to tell my whole story because I don’t get anything from it,” says the 45-year-old actress, who returns to the small screen this month as a cast member of the Paramount+ series Wolf Pack. “I’ve said everything I’m going to say because nobody wins. All lose.”
Gellar has not mentioned Whedon by name since a 2021 Instagram post that followed Carpenter’s public allegations. “While I’m proud to have my name associated with Buffy Summers, I don’t want to be associated with the name Joss Whedon forever,” she wrote at the time, adding, “I stand by all abuse survivors and… I’m proud of them for speaking out.”
Buffy Summers (Gellar) leads the charge against the forces of evil in the 2003 series finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Photo: 20th Century Fox Film Corp/Courtesy Everett Collection)
Speaking to THR, Gellar reiterates her pride in creating a character who has had a demonstrable impact on television. “I’ll always be proud of Buffy. I will always be proud of what my castmates have done, what I have done. Was it an ideal work situation? Absolutely not. But it’s okay to love Buffy for what we’ve created because I think it’s quite spectacular.”
Still, she admits she has her own complicated feelings about the series, having recently rewatched it with her two children and husband Freddie Prinze Jr. According to Gellar, the family watched the first five seasons in full, but took time off before reaching the divisive season 6, which features an attempted rape and other mature themes. “I have problems with [season] Six,” she admits. “It wasn’t appropriate for her at the time, and I just don’t want to look at it again.”
The story goes on
While Gellar declined to share her “full story,” Prinze offered a little insight into what she was facing. “She dealt with a lot of bulls*** on this show in the seven years that it ran,” the actor tells THR. “The stuff that they foisted on her, with no credit or real salary, while she was often the only one who worked 15-hour days … yet she was still able to get that character’s message out there every single week and.” do it with pride and do it professionally.”
David Boreanaz, Alyson Hannigan and Gellar in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Photo: 20th Century Fox Film Corp/Courtesy Everett Collection)
Meanwhile, Gellar’s co-star Emma Caulfield hints that Whedon was jealous of his star’s profile over the course of the show. “It was obvious Sarah lacked the support to be the leader she needed and wanted to be,” says the actress, who recently starred in the Disney+ hit WandaVision. “There was a tremendous amount of resentment and hostility [toward her] by a specific person – and I suppose now we can all guess who.”
Rather than looking back, Gellar spends much of her THR profile looking ahead and pointing out how she’s turned her own negative experiences into positive change for the new generation of actors she’s working with on Wolf Pack. “I hope I built an infrastructure, a safety net for these actors that I didn’t have,” she notes. “My generation just didn’t have that.”
wolf pack Premieres January 26 on Paramount+