http://www.looper.com/25763/hollywood-wont-cast-sarah-michelle-gellar-anymore/
Sarah Michelle Gellar was on a roll in the late ’90s, but lately her career seems to have sputtered out. She was once in command of both the big and small screens, but nowadays her most consistent work seems to be within the world of TV animation voice-overs. Why has she had so much trouble maintaining the spotlight?share
Well I'm a huge fan but the reasons for her lacklustre career post Buffy are obvious :
1) She is Buffy Summers, the Vampire Slayer. Like it or not fans & critics see Sarah as Buffy. I have two reasons for this :
There's very little of her private life shown, her professional/personal relationships are not train wrecks and even in her teens, at the height of her popularity she wasn't pictured going out to nightclubs all boozy, fag in hand laughing... She has and always will be a private person!
Two: She owned that role. No-one would dare touch the character of Buffy, as she literally IS her! They have tried to get a few attempts going at a re-boot and these have been shot down in flames... no matter how greedy the Kazui's are there's not another actress on the planet would step into her shoes...
2) Marriage and children came first :
She got married in 2002, starred alongside her hubby in those Scooby movies then pretty much quit acting for a while to start her family. She has two kids, a home, family business and hubby - those things have to come first for some people. I actually respect her for that. She isn't going to travel miles and miles from her home and kids... that's just awful parenting! She obviously wants to see her kids grow up and be there for them as a mom. Props to her I say!
3) Poor choices and bad luck...
Her film career won't set anything ablaze now would it? Even at her height of popularity I'm guessing people went to see Scream 2 for Sidney/Dewy/Gale... err I mean Neve, David & Courtney... not because "that chick from Buffy's in it"...
And I know what You Did Last Summer was Freddie & Jennifer love Hewitt's leading roles... if anything Helen was the bit player role. Yeah I get she had a classic 'Scream Queen' chase scene but meh they were in every horror movie at that time. And the less said about that rom-com Simply Irresistible the better!
Cruel Intentions was her first major film that truly made use of her acting abilities. She oozed sex appeal and owned the bitchy, rich coke whore-tramp sociopath - oh so well! The role made people sit up and take notice. I watched CI at my gran's house... a terrible mistake... I know but I can still remember even my gran crying out for Kathryn to get her comeuppance! Quite possibly this is the only film role she is NOT SMG but actually believable as her character!
We all know the rest, not doing Stardust, Gangs of New York rumours and no R&J... it's a sad state of affairs. She could have had a decent movie and TV show going at the same time, but one has to wonder if maybe Buffy would suffer had she went on more movie shoots? Her acting in Buffy was top level as thats pretty much all she was doing. Well I'd say top level for S1-5... 6 she was not herself at all, didn't like the direction and fought with Joss. By S7 she was ready to hang up the stake... not much else to say really. Seven years is a long time to play that one role.
After her family break, choices like The Return, Veronika, The Grudge 2 - really 5 million for sitting on a bed then being thrown from a rooftop? :\ None of these helped her at all. Either too small a role or just a straight up DVD job... then there's her fallout with a movie studio...
4) She waited too long to return to TV
And when she did return it was with some campy, trying too hard to be serious and yet somehow amusingly comedy like - sister-swap drama RINGER...
I watched it all, yes every god damned episode and you know what I thought? It was quite dull, never a whisker of excitement... and certainly NOT a patch on ABC's Revenge with Madeline Stowe & Emily Van-camp.
One has to wonder: Could SMG not simply have guest starred on that show instead? It puzzles me both these shows, about women out for revenge were in development at the same time yet no-one thought, maybe the CW one will be a duffer...
Revenge got 4 great season, Gellar's - much touted first return to tv made it all of 22 episodes... YIKES!
The Crazy Ones was also terrible. Bless the late Robin Williams, he did try everything to make it work and his chemistry with some actors on the show was fab! James Wolk and him are great on that show! Gellar... not so much. Sidney was a horrid character, like a frigid Ice Queen and too far up her own arse to warm too. Gellar also looks painfully thin, poorly styled and her acting was way off the mark, like seriously BAD!
Now we have the upcoming Cruel Intentions updated series... as i've said before this is the biggest gamble of her career - could be brilliant, could be a disaster. But I do somehow think she is quite a bit to blame for her career going the way it has...
Why cast Gellar when all you end up with is a washed up & less hot version of Buffy...
As someone else mentioned, she has a successful business and is obviously happy with her family.
Also, she's been working since the age of 6. That might have something to do with it too.
Also how much more successful as an actor can you be than lead a cult-classic pop-hit series for 7 years and become a timeless TV icon? I'm not getting into the merit of why her career is in decline but I hope she knows that she reached the very top of what an actress can be and so early on at that!
Really, I challenge anyone to tell me an actor who tops SMG in terms of achievements! DeNiro, Keanu Reeves for his role in Matrix, Julia Roberts, Nic Cage? Yes I admire all of them but I think they're all roughly in the same level as SMG - the very top.
It seems like Gellar's life goals have changed. I think she's more concerned with her start-up business and being a mom to her children. Hollywood isn't for everyone, even for the people already with their foot in the door.
"I wish I wasn't afraid all the time, but I am."
-V for Vendetta
She made some bad career choices + her priorities seem to have changed.
I disagree with anyone saying she's not a very good actress. She was fantastic in movies like The Air I Breathe and Veronika Decides to Die (and the critics agree), even if these movies aren't well known.
I see her as a Jamie Lee Curtis like actress, huge early success in a specific genre then reinventing herself later for a more mainstream career.
shareQuite simple, Ageism. It is the exact same reason why they are looking to do a Charmed remake with new actresses in their early 20s over a continuation with the original cast when Alyssa Milano, Holly Marie Combs and Shannen Doherty have all said they would like to do a continuation show in interviews and the majority of the fans strongly oppose a remake and want a continuation. If Charmed starred 3 male actors it would be a different story. Sarah Michelle Gellar is only 39 but in Hollywood that is considered WAY too old for an actress now while male actors 20 years older than her can easily get roles but are paired with actresses who are young enough to be their daughters (or even granddaughters in some cases) 'cause we can't have a male being paired with somebody around his age.
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It don't matter if it's raining
Nothing can phase me
I make my own sunshine
And if you think you can break me
Baby, you're crazy
I make my own sunshine
She got typecast sadly.
She had the lead in Gangs of New York but had to turn it down due to scheduling with Buffy during season 5. Shame as it could have been a breakout role.
She also had the lead in Stardust film back in 07 but turned it down.
I'm sure her decision to focus on being a mom for a few years caused her to lose some roles. Honestly during early 2000's her competition for film roles were Cameron Diaz and Reese Witherspoon (she was the cheapest of the 3).
I'm surprised she didn't try to do any comedy films or romantic comedies/dramas. But again she kept getting cast in horror films.
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But the trajectory her career has taken is not some unslavageable tragedy like Cory Haim's or Elizabeth Berkley's.
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It's quite sad reading those comments on the youtube vid coming from some Buffy fans who say she was an insufferable bitch during the later years of BTVS... and the feud with Alyson... and leaving without telling the actors/crew.
She also did the same thing on the Ringer set apparently, according to gossip.
I watched the Playfest 2008 Buffy Reunion panel on youtube recently and it's telling that Alyson wasn't present yet SMG was...Some of the cast looked very awkward and uncomfortable with her being centre stadge, even Joss was little 'dear in the headlights' when sitting next to Sarah. She also stuck her oar in more then any of the panel... felt sorry for the actors who used to attend these events and meet with fans. Likes of James Marsters, Mark Metcalfe, Nick Brendan, Emma C, Julie B, Mercades Mc, Charisma C etc. She was only there for Seth and Michelle.
Could she really have been that bad to work with? I get that fame can go to your head but seriously she must have been in some diva mode to get everyones back up. If Hannigan ever decides to write a tell all book I'd buy it! She seems the most outspoken regarding Sarah's diva attitude on set.
Could also be why she isn't getting job offers. Reputation will follow like a bad smell. Did Robin Williams ever say what he thought of SMG after TCO was cancelled?
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SMG very clearly ADORED Robin Williams (along with her kids) and was gushing about him constantly and clearly shattered when he died. The memoriams just kept coming on her Twitter feed. It was when she heard he was coming back to television that she called up her agent and wanted on the show. She posted tons of photos taken with Robin. You can also see him in interviews and outtakes commenting on how pretty she is (and if you're familiar with Robin, he's spent his whole career calling himself short and furry). SMG basically grew up without a father and was making comments on how Robin had turned into the father she never had on that set and he was "Uncle Robin" to her kids. She also made a comment on how many of the outtakes would never be airable due to Robin's improv (well-known to go wildly off-color and a censor's nightmare).
SMG was visiting DB on the set of Bones and taking advantage of the better catering while doing The Crazy Ones. Interestingly, DB was also posting a fair bit about Robin when he died, mentioning his love for Moscow on the Hudson. The Crazy Ones goes as far as to mention DB by name, characters having a Bones marathon, a snow globe in the same episode that recalls Amends and SMG ad-libbing a line about getting her experience from Sunnydale in the bloopers. Robin's past career is joked about a lot, too (Patch Adams' red nose is one reference and Pam Dawber appeared for a Mork & Mindy reunion).
Whatever her reputation might be, she has people who she pretty much acts awed by and Robin was a big one. DB was also noted as someone who was constantly teasing her on BtVS and her longtime crushes on both actor and character are well-noted (she riles Spuffies on Reddit, Facebook and Twitter constantly). She and DB do birthday tweets every year, usually with SMG doing collages of photos of them (one from the Becoming sword fight of them smiling at each other which has never been released elsewhere). SMG's real-life friends are clearly David Boreanaz, Seth Green (whom she's known since they were children) and Michelle Trachtenberg (known since she was a child). DB and Seth seem to be the ones she has hung out with the most post-BtVS. DB ran into her and Freddie at a poolside vacation and that's how Freddie got a part on Bones. SMG has also mentioned that their kids are similarly aged (the daughters). And SMG has done lots of Robot Chicken for Seth.
SMG does have friends from BtVS, but they're not any of Joss' clique (and yes, there's a painfully obvious clique there who used to hang at his house to do Shakespeare--SMG, DB, CC, etc... are ones who either weren't invited or didn't care to be part of it). Charisma Carpenter being besties to this day with Julie Benz and Clare Kramer makes that another clique (and I suspect they'd take CC's side in the Joss feud--CC and Clare were Julie's bridesmaids), and I've gotten the vibe that DB used to also get along really well with Julie and Eliza Dushku (Eliza has mentioned their mutual love of sports and calling him "DBo"). David and Christian Kane were best friends well before the show started.
The cast of BtVS snubbed SMG in season 7 by not inviting her to the after-party and waited for her to go home before they started it. It was a two-way street with the strain on set. Despite Alyson's public bashing of SMG, they've hung out together in recent years. Alyson came under fire from Spuffies when she said that SMG stopped caring about the show after season 3 and had to walk it back. Alyson has had feuds with more than just SMG, though. She and Alexis have both bashed Julie Benz for her apparently being mean to Alyson back in BtVS season 1.
There were also some incidents where crew got annoyed with SMG when she demanded a chair for James Marsters back when he was only a guest star. And JM told a story about her leaving him with her cigarette (as his smoking addiction was no secret) when fans approached, as she wanted to project Buffy as a role model (she was clashing with Joss over this back during the Parker plotline), which he didn't appreciate. Both JM and SMG were also really upset with Joss and Marti over season 6 with the degrading sex scenes and that's well-known. SMG wasn't happy when JM told her that their intimate scenes were awkward because he viewed her as a sister. JM also mentioned that their difference in acting styles (he's a method actor, which caused him a lot of problems on a long-running television show, especially when his character was in a bad place, while she breaks character as soon as a scene is over) would throw him off. And of course, the infamous comment about how he enjoyed kissing John Barrowman more than SMG. SMG has likewise talked a lot about how DB is better in romantic scenes than the many actors she's worked with over the years.
You'll note that SMG is pretty much left out of all the officially released blooper reels, despite having moments of levity where she does come off well (she laughs pretty hard when DB accidentally says "wops" instead of "wasps" and you can see him reassuring her because she's so tired filming IOHEFY), but she also has some HORRIBLE behind-the-scenes footage where she's telling a makeup artist to not touch her hands and making a big stink about starving children when she has to put jam on bread (a crew member tells her that they'll eat all the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to get her on with the scene). The Helpless outtakes are not SMG coming off at her best. Yikes. You can also see her complaining about there being too many sex scenes during the Bronze scene from Dead Things.
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Heigl had the b!tch reputation all the way back when she was a nobody on Roswell. She was demanding that the show be more about Isobel when her character was NOT the main character and season 3 got utterly ruined and derailed with her demands to be the star. She was a huge diva even in her Roswell days. The reputation is quite earned.
James has talked about not having any romantic interest in SMG and saw her as his little sister (it didn't make her happy to know that). James was so cozy with Juliet Landau, however, that his then-girlfriend got incredibly jealous and made a comment about preferring DB. James thus ended up having feelings of rivalry with him due to that. JM and JL have being method actors in common (which SMG definitely was not).
James did get into some hot water for writing a dirty song about underage Michelle Trachtenberg, which resulted in them having almost no scenes together in season 7 (Michelle had a big teenage crush). The lyrics are... awkward.
There were a bunch of tabloids saying that DB's first wife (the Claddagh ring, by the way, was his wedding ring) suspected him and SMG of an affair and was following him to work. SMG did deny it one time with a comment about how the tabloid reporting that they were seen at a healthy restaurant was ridiculous as she never saw him put anything in his mouth that wasn't deep-fried. But there was also a French interview where she made a statement about DB's first marriage not being made in heaven. The tabloids published quite a few photos of them out at clubs together and there are all those photos of her sitting on his lap constantly. But SMG is notoriously tight-lipped about her romantic life, even denying she was dating Freddie when it was actually true. There is some evidence that she was the one with the big crush, rather than the attention being on his side. This is the big 'did they or not?' question that has been gossiped about salaciously. Clearly nothing that got in the way of them being friends.
And despite it being exaggerated a lot as if it were all their scenes, it was actually only during their first kiss in 1x07 where they ate the gross foods (coincidentally, the HD version revealed DB using a lot of tongue--also during the bedroom Surprise kiss and there's a really visible spit trail in IOHEFY).
SMG caused the set to be shut down twice because she was inconsolable over the breakup scene in The Prom and was begging for the end of IWRY to be changed. You can hear DB softly break character to say "Shh, Sarah, please." because SMG was so genuinely distraught during IWRY. IOHEFY, as I mentioned before, also has outtakes where DB is softly telling SMG to keep going when she tells him how tired she is during the ghost reenactment scenes. And apparently it was so tough to do the scene where Angelus breaks Buffy's heart the morning after that DB would hug SMG after every take.
Despite the rivalry due to Juliet and the ex-girlfriend situation, James has said nothing but praise for DB's work ethic, especially when he was injured and would act like nothing had happened (DB's head went through and broke a 2x4 of the Summerses' house set during Lovers' Walk at the door because of a malfunctioning cable, but got up like nothing happened + DB was in a car accident with hospitalized whiplash the morning he was chained to the ceiling for In the Dark--he was saying he was fine, but JM noted him wincing when he thought no one was looking). There was also an incident with a guest star who said some crude things about/to SMG that had JM and DB talking about which one of them would hold the guy down and which one would pummel. Both were very protective of SMG. JM also seemed really pleased to be on AtS with a bunch of guys after the overload of women at the end of BtVS. When being the lead in Hellbound was so overwhelming for JM, he asked DB how he did it every week.
tukkekThere are TV actors who manage to go from creating one iconic, long spanning role, then do it again with a different series; the really lucky ones even more. It's not necessarily easy, and there probably aren't many. Carroll O'Connor is one that comes to mind. Tim Allen seems to have struck a second round of mild success after Home Improvement, with Last Man Standing, along with several movie franchises. Bryan Cranston, David Douchovny, Courtney Cox, Bea Arthur, Betty White, Richard Dean Anderson, Matthew Fox, Michael J Fox, Alyssa Milano, David Hasselhoff, Larry Hagman.
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Also how much more successful as an actor can you be than lead a cult-classic pop-hit series for 7 years and become a timeless TV icon?
She retired Buffy and chose to live the quiet life. Nothing wrong with that. She could still be actively working in multiple projects yearly if she wanted to but she became a mom instead.
Yeah well, you know that’s just like, your opinion man. - The Dude