Interview By: Ray Dademo
Sarah Michelle Gellar is one busy lady.
Now, that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who's followed the
twenty-seven year-old's slow but sure rise to fame. After all, this is a
woman who has achieved something that can only be called rare for a child
actress -- she's worked steadily for over two decades. "I came from
always juggling school and working; All My Children right into Buffy;
to movies on every hiatus. I don't think I knew what an adult life was. I
didn't know what you do on a day when you're not working."
Consequently, work is one thing Gellar always seems to find plenty of.
Right now, she is embarking on what she affectionately calls "The Rainbow
Tour," with stops in London, Spain, Italy, and her hometown, New York
City. Traveling from press junket to press junket, Gellar shows no sign
of fatigue, and handles herself with all of the poise and sophistication
you'd expect from a Manhattan girl.
This breathless voyage is all in preparation for the release of her
hotly-anticipated new horror flick, The Grudge (opening October 22). The film, a remake of Takashi Shimizu's 2003 film Ju-On, afforded more than a few challenges for the versatile actress. "It was a character that was
very different from anything I'd ever done," Gellar says. "She was not a
confident girl, she was not adept and equipped to handle any situation.
She was definitely in over her head." Nevertheless, some might think that
a third horror film would have become old-hat by now. The Grudge is a
return to a tried-and-true genre for the blonde beauty, after battling
vampires for six years on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and running from
slashers in I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream 2. And yet,
despite her previous experience, Sarah Michelle hesitates to
consider herself the next Jamie Lee Curtis. As a matter of fact, the
phrase "scream-queen" causes her to stammer. "Is that what I am' I mean --
I -- I --," she utters in her most tentative voice. "I think there's a lot
of people that do a lot of roles and I think that for me, I just want to
go where the good women's roles are. And I don't care where they are. I
couldn't be the girlfriend or the wife. I would be so unbelievably bored
by that, and this particular genre seems to be a really good place where
women can drive stories."
Still, there must be something deeper -- something more inherent -- that
continues to draw Gellar back into the realm of the paranormal. Certainly,
her attraction to the macabre can't be limited to the breadth of strong
female roles it provides. Gellar -- unruffled, as always -- admits to
having a bit of a fascination with the supernatural. 'I believe that
emotion and feelings can transcend places. Sometimes, you walk into a
hotel room and you feel something happened there. I believe those kind of
emotions can linger. There's always a logical explanation for something
and then there's usually an illogical explanation.' When it comes to
answering questions about her own personal terrors, this seems to be
Gellar's style. She intellectualizes everything, as if removing herself
from the question. No one can ever doubt that she is an opinionated young
woman (all of her responses are peppered with 'I think...' and 'I
believe...'). At times, it looks as though she has a philosophy for
everything from voting ('a very personal thing') to education ('the most
important thing').
In spite of that, fear seems to be the one thing Sarah has a true problem expressing (which seems odd for a 'semi-scream-queen'). Nonetheless, the disturbing imagery of The Grudge must be enough to shake her unwavering elegance. Take, for example, the
oh-so-scary shower scene from the film's trailer. Isn't that creepy enough
to frighten the film's star' Completely candid, Gellar replies: 'As creepy
as any shower can be with seventeen Japanese men joining you.' She laughs
for a moment, totally unfazed by the content of the scene, then continues'
'It wasn't creepy so much as awkward. And I don't think it was as awkward
for me, as it was for the seventeen Japanese men in the shower.'
It appears, at least for the moment that nothing is terrifying enough to
crack Sarah Michelle Gellar's unflappable foundation. Calm and collected,
Gellar paints herself to be a resilient and intelligent young woman;
afraid of absolutely nothing. She evades the most important question until
it is asked point blank: 'What scares you'' With nowhere to turn, she has
no choice but to answer -- thus, revealing her horrifying truth; the one
thing with the power to shake Sarah Michelle Gellar to her very core.
With a giggle, she drops the bomb. 'Press junkets.'
RayDademo@TheCinemaSource.com
