Sarah Michelle Gellar returns to high school drama, but as a director

The New York Times

Sarah Michelle Gellar was suffering from “jet lag” from the commute from home. She had just flown back to Los Angeles after a few days of shooting a spin-off of “Teen Wolf” in Atlanta. Her decision to participate in “Wolf Pack” as an actress and executive producer was conditioned in part by her freedom to remain in Los Angeles with her family and travel to the set only on her shooting days, carrying only her carry-on luggage for each crossing the east coast.

After a long hiatus from her acting career, Geller, 45, is starting to build what she calls her “adult career”. And this time, it is she who dictates the conditions of her work. “I think this is a privilege that I’ve earned in a very honest way,” she said in a recent video chat. “I bring with me 40 years of experience. Some of it good, some of it bad, some of it more or less.”

But first: her small role in the school black comedy “Punishers”, which premiered on the 17th on Netflix, under the direction of Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. More than 20 years after Gellar played Kathryn Merteuil, a girl who always wears a crucifix but snorts cocaine, in Cruel Intentions, she is once again surrounded by manipulative teenagers on screen. But now, Gellar is the school’s principal and advises the students.

“I would absolutely not want to go back to 17 years old,” Gellar said. “Thirty-two, who knows. But 17, no.” Gellar began acting as a child in the 1980s, before becoming one of young Hollywood’s biggest stars at the turn of the new millennium, thanks to her roles in “Cruel Intentions” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” “, and in the TV series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”.

(After “Buffy” creator Joss Whedon was accused of abusive behavior, Gellar released a statement in 2021 stating that she was on the side of “all abuse survivors” and that she was “proud that they spoke up.” Whedon disputed many of the allegations, but admitted that he had affairs with young female cast members and that there were situations he “should have handled better”).

Speaking from her Los Angeles home, which she shares with her husband, Freddie Prinze Jr., and the couple’s two children, Gellar was seated in front of a monochromatic bookshelf that held a People’s Choice Award and a book about the musical.” Hamilton” signed by the original Broadway cast (gift from Lin-Manuel Miranda). Below are edited excerpts from our conversation.

How did your role in “Justiceiras” come about?

I took a few years off, and I was starting to get into that mindset of, OK, I think I’m ready to go back to work, but I wasn’t 100% there yet. They sent me the script, and I thought there wasn’t really a role for me. I mean, if I were in my 20s, I’d be scrambling for a role in the movie. But I thought it would be nice to talk to Jenn. It took 10 minutes for me to realize that, wow, she’s my new best friend. I said I wanted to do the movie, shoot some really exaggerated scenes, and get home real quick. I just wanted to test the waters.

When the script was sent to you, was the idea for you to play the director?

There was no paper for me. Jenn is a big fan of Cruel Intentions, and she asked if I thought it would be possible for us to write something together. And we kind of created the character together. We planned her office together. We even tried to name the director, Merteuil’s real name in “Dangerous Liaisons.” But we felt the quote would be too direct.

Jenn told me that, for her, the director is the adult version of her character in Cruel Intentions. Is that how you interpreted it?

Certainly. I always wondered what Kathryn was doing right now. What would the person she become? But we also really wanted her to be an advocate for women. She is preparing the students for the things they will face as women.

In “Punishers”, Drea (played by Camila Mendes) is a similar character to Kathryn, a person almost devoid of moral sense, but she manages to have a happy ending. Do you wish Kathryn had followed a path of redemption in “Cruel Intentions”?

Not. I don’t think everything in life ends up wrapped in a gift package and with a nice ribbon bow. There would never be a happy ending because I don’t think she would allow herself to have a happy ending. Today’s youth see things differently. They feel that they deserve a happy ending, and with that, they go in search of it. I think this is a really positive thing.

You filmed a pilot for NBC’s revival of Cruel Intentions as a series before the project fell apart in 2016. Would you still be interested in revisiting the story in new ways today?

I don’t know. That time was crazy. Nothing against NBC, but “Cruel Intentions” is something that would only work on a streaming service. On the first day I started to think that it wasn’t working. It just wasn’t a series for an open network. And if it was, it wasn’t a series that interested me anyway. So I was grateful for the cancellation.

You’ve been in this business for a long time. Were your experiences in the industry generally good as a teenager and when you were younger?

Not. It was really difficult. There were no big female roles when I came to market. Just roles as a girlfriend, or someone’s wife. That’s why “Buffy” was so spectacular, because she really had something to do, and then came “I Know What You Did Last Summer”, where it was the women who figured things out. It was a turn of events in a new direction.

That’s on the script side. There is also the other side of being a young woman in this business. Because I grew up in New York, I arrived with some practical experience of urban life, which was useful. But no, it wasn’t easy. And I’ve certainly had my fair share of experiences, but I’ve simply chosen not to talk about them—emotionally, I feel I have nothing to gain from telling my stories. I see people telling their stories and I am very impressed. But in a world like ours, where people are torn apart, and victims are treated as guilty and forced to feel shame for what they’ve been through, I prefer to keep my stories locked inside.

Earlier this year, you posted a selfie with the caption “I can’t take back the past but I can fight for the future”. Is there anything else you want to share about this?

These days, I demand the executive producer position on any project I take part in. “Wolf Pack”, for example. We have two young girls and two very young boys working on the show. I made it very clear from day one that if there are things the production needs to say to them, it must be through me. Because I’ve been through that. And I want you [os artistas] always have a safe space.

But I also always try to arrive on set with a smile on my face, and set the tone. We’re all the same. It doesn’t matter what work someone does; everyone should be treated in exactly the same way. When I acted in “Buffy”, I made sure to do everyone else’s work on set at least once, so that I understood what everyone was doing. I held the microphone stand; I tried mixing the sound – and I was terrible at it; I worked as a camera assistant. I think a lot of young actors think their job is to just show up and say their lines. Not really. Their job is to be part of the whole team.

You and Freddie have been married for 20 years. To what do you attribute this longevity?

I think we live in a very disposable world right now. When I was a kid, if your TV broke, you took it to a repair shop and waited for it to be fixed. Now, if a TV has a defect, the person buys a new one. I think we sometimes think of relationships in the same way. You have to be willing to do the work. And that’s something we’ve always been willing to do. Even if there are ups and downs, none of us give up.

So, are we facing Sarah Michelle Gellar’s full renaissance?

I think so. Sometimes you have to walk away, to miss something. I spent my whole life working. I did “The Crazy Ones” (with Robin Williams) weeks after my son was born. I figured I could do that for the next five years and still be a mother. But when Robin died, I just had to reevaluate everything. I saw what the job did to him. And I needed that chance to be a mother and be there. The time I spent away from television only makes me appreciate what I have the opportunity to do now.