Sarah Michelle Gellar makes courage look tiring and gives irritation its proper comic weight. We rate her most highly when the capable heroine is allowed to be awkward, resentful and still worth caring about.
Fi1m perspective
Buffy Summers can deal with the danger; what bothers her is having to deal with it yet again. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997), Sarah Michelle Gellar makes that impatience funny without making the responsibility seem trivial. We recommend the series chiefly for her, with some tolerance required for its uneven supernatural plotting. In Joss Whedon’s series, she lets a resourceful heroine remain awkward about saying what she wants. She is convincing both when Buffy takes charge and when she struggles to speak for herself.
Her soap work in All My Children (1993–95) preceded the seven-series lead role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The films made alongside it put her in different company: horror in I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), teenage scheming as Kathryn Merteuil in Cruel Intentions (1999). Playing Daphne alongside Freddie Prinze Jr. in Scooby-Doo (2002) took her beyond horror again. Those parts make the horror label look a little narrow, though Buffy remains the clearest reason for our interest.
What stays with us in Buffy is how little Gellar tidies up the wish to escape all that duty. We felt protective of her because she allowed Buffy’s longing for an ordinary life to sound peevish. Making her noble at every turn would have made her less believable. Her comic impatience also leaves room for embarrassment and affection, so the conversations have something to offer even when the next supernatural complication does not.
After Buffy, the work became more sporadic, with television and film roles alongside voice work. We would be wary of treating that change as a verdict on her acting; a performance sustained across seven series is substantial evidence. There are slack episodes in Buffy, and Gellar cannot make every supernatural plot worth the wait. Nor will her exasperated humour persuade anyone who finds that humour wearing. Start with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but try a few conversations before committing to seven series.
Biography
Sarah Michelle Gellar is an American actress. She was born on 14 April 1977 in New York City. Gellar began acting as a child after being spotted by an agent at the age of four. Her early credits include the television film An Invasion of Privacy (1983) and a role on the soap opera All My Children (1993–1995), for which she received a Daytime Emmy Award.
Gellar gained international recognition for her portrayal of Buffy Summers in the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003). She also appeared in films including I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Scream 2 (1997), Cruel Intentions (1999), Scooby-Doo (2002) and The Grudge (2004). Gellar is married to actor Freddie Prinze Jr.
