Why Alyson Hannigan Doesn't Think Sarah Michelle Gellar Was 'Done' With Buffy After Season 3
Sarah Michelle Gellar gave us some of the most unforgettable television moments of all time when she starred as Buffy in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," but she wasn't having quite as much fun making the show as the viewers had watching it. Shooting over 140 episodes over seven seasons of a network series is no small feat, and it consumed a lot of time in Gellar's teens and early 20s. That's not to mention series creator Joss Whedon, who was accused of being emotionally abusive on set by several of Gellar's co-stars.
Her fellow series regulars recognized the level of pressure she was under as the star of the show. Her co-star Alyson Hannigan, who played Buffy's best friend, Willow, remembered that Gellar started to run out of steam early on, which the star herself later admitted. So when Andy Cohen asked the "How I Met Your Mother" actress what season Gellar "officially started to hate doing 'Buffy'" in a rapid-fire interview on Watch What Happens Live, Hannigan blurted out "three."
However, she later walked back her on-the-spot answer. To be fair, Cohen's question was leading. It implied that Gellar "hated" doing the show at any point at all, which she has never said on the record. However, she and Hannigan would both admit that Gellar was burning the candle at both ends.
"She worked her butt off," Hannigan clarified in an interview with HuffPost Live. "I mean obviously, she was Buffy. She worked 18-hour days for years [...] she was the most tired cuz she worked the hardest."
Gellar was done with Buffy after the contract was up
Because Gellar was such a hard worker and so much was required from her, she knew that she had to use her power as the series lead to establish boundaries for herself. She wouldn't allow the top brass to push her around, and it earned her a bit of a reputation on set. But it wasn't just herself she was sticking up for, said her co-star Seth Green, who plays Oz.
"That show was just hard," he confessed to The Hollywood Reporter. "We were working crazy hours, and a lot of things that got pushed weren't necessarily safe or under the best conditions. Sarah was always the first one to say, 'We agreed this was a 13-hour day and it's hour 15 — we've got to wrap,' or, 'Hey, this shot doesn't seem safe,' when nobody else would stick up for the cast and crew. I saw her get called a b****, a diva, all these things that she's not — just because she was taking the mantle of saying and doing the right thing."
The "Wolf Pack" actress didn't mind what people said about her because she knew that she was giving her all to the job.
"There was a time when I had a reputation of being ... difficult," Sarah Michelle Gellar added in the THR interview. "Anyone that knows me knows it came from the fact that I always put in 100 percent. I never understood people who don't. I've mellowed a bit in [my expectations of others] — I think because I got burned out." So when Hannigan was asked if Gellar hated doing the show, she had to clarify that her co-star was far from difficult to work with.
"She was super professional, it's just — as she stated at the end of the show, she was done after the contract was up and everything," Hannigan explained on HuffPost Live.
22-episode seasons burned Gellar out
After the years of tireless effort she put into the series, it makes sense that Gellar wanted to take a step back from "Buffy" once her contract was up. They likely asked her to return for a cameo in the spin-off series "Angel," which ran for one season following the "Buffy" series finale and features an episode where Spike and Angel try to track her down. She may have also been asked by Amber Benson to reprise her role in the spin-off Audible series "Slayers: A Buffyverse Story," which includes some other original cast members — however, the concept does revolve around a universe without Buffy, so Benson may have anticipated that she wouldn't be interested.
The network television schedule at the time was such a massive workload for a series lead that it's easy to empathize with Gellar's point of view. "22 episodes burn everybody out, not just the writers," she told The Guardian. "Now we live in a world where TV can be eight to 10 episodes, and not murder you."
Back while Gellar was making "Buffy," it was rare for an actress to advocate for herself if she was being mistreated on set. Before the #MeToo movement, she says, this behavior was normalized. "When I grew up, people screamed on sets: actors, directors, everybody," Gellar continued. "It doesn't happen anymore. If someone comes out on set screaming, it's like: 'Peace out!' No one needs to be treated like that — we've established that.'"
The Buffy set was a toxic environment
Although Gellar attests that aggressive behavior from higher-ups was not uncommon when she first started as an actress, it's no secret at this point that Whedon was a particularly vicious boss. Gellar's co-star Charisma Carpenter accused the series creator of calling her "fat" in front of their colleagues while shooting the spin-off series, "Angel," all because she'd had the audacity to be pregnant while filming the show.
"He was mean and biting, disparaging about others openly, and often played favorites," she wrote. Gellar soon came to her support on Instagram. "While I am proud to have my name associated with Buffy Summers, I don't want to be forever associated with the name Joss Whedon," the actress stated, adding that she "stand[s] with all survivors of abuse." Whedon was also accused of conducting several public extramarital affairs with young actresses, grabbing a costume designer by the arm in a moment of anger, and other various instances of misconduct ranging from unprofessional to psychologically abusive to physically threatening, per Vulture.
Other co-stars backed up Carpenter's claims of workplace abuse as well, including Amber Benson. "Buffy was a toxic environment and it starts at the top," she wrote. "There was a lot of damage done during that time and many of us are still processing it 20-plus years later." Despite Benson's negative experience on set, she is still creating the spin-off series "Slayers." However, Whedon will not be involved, which is perhaps why Carpenter agreed to reprise her former role as well.
Given all of the allegations that have since been levied against Whedon, one is inclined to take Gellar's "diva" label with an even bigger grain of salt.
The hard work paid off
Some people would have been torn apart by developing a reputation like Gellar's but she saw it as an opportunity to rise above it. "If people think you're a b****, it's almost better," the actress mused in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "There's less expectation that way." Despite how understandable her point of view is, Gellar is the first to admit that she was a little overconfident during the making of "Buffy." She received a lot of compliments about her maturity, and it might have gone to her head a bit.
"I was a little cocky," she confessed to The Independent. "By 20 I'd had, like, 15 years of experience. But you also don't know s*** when you're that age [...] People like to think I was a lot tougher or more secure than I actually was."
But Gellar had a reason to be cocky. She was the darling of the early aughts — a fashion icon, a female role model, and a TV legend before she hit 30. She was even offered some culture-defining films like "Fight Club," "American Beauty," "The Wedding Planner," and "Gangs of New York," all of which she had to turn down because she was too busy shooting "Buffy," per The Guardian. Still, despite the hard work and the missed opportunities, she doesn't regret sticking with the series. "I also made a great television show," she concluded.
Making "Buffy" took a lot out of Gellar, but even though it burned her out, it's safe to say she never hated it.