Why Sarah Michelle Gellar Doesn't Speak In Her She's All That Cameo

"She's All That" isn't often discussed as one of the best rom-coms of all time, but it's an entertaining one that's fondly remembered by many of us who grew up in the '90s. Inspired by George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion," the Robert Iscove-directed film tells the story of Zachary (Freddie Prinze Jr.), a jock who accepts a bet to turn Laney (Rachael Leigh Cook), the high school's most socially maligned student, into a beauty queen. What some folks don't remember, though, is that "She's All That" features a dialogue-free cameo from Sarah Michelle Gellar. But why was a star of her magnitude not featured in a more prominent role?

The answer is simple: Gellar didn't want a speaking part in the rom-com, even though she was a pop culture phenomenon from playing the main character on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" at the time of its creation. While chatting with Cosmopolitan, Iscove revealed that Gellar was working on pick-up shots for "Buffy" when the cameo came about, and her friendship with a certain star factored into her set visit that day.

"She was there visiting Freddie and we asked her if she would come and do it, and she said she would come and do it, but she wouldn't speak. She wouldn't say any lines. OK, we don't know why you wouldn't say, 'Thank you,' or 'No.' But that was her thing and she did it. And to get Buffy in the movie was certainly [a big deal] — because at that point, 'Buffy' was huge."

Now that Gellar and Prinze Jr. are married, some people believe that her involvement in "She's All That" stemmed from being all loved up back then. However, the actor who plays Zachary in the movie has a different recollection of events.

If you ask Freddie Prinze Jr. about the experience, he will say the filming of "She's All That" coincided with his pre-Sarah Michelle Gellar relationship ending. The actor claims that he and Gellar were friends at the time of "She's All That," having met on the 1997 slasher "I Know What You Did Last Summer." Robert Iscove, meanwhile, believes that Prinze Jr. and the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" star were already an item when the film entered production — and if they weren't, the timeline was close enough to their relationship beginning.

Regardless of whose account is correct, Prinze Jr. was instrumental in getting his future wife involved with the project. Speaking to HuffPost, Iscove recalled how her involvement in "She's All That" came to be — and how he was more than happy to have her on board. In his own words:

"Freddie was also starting to date Sarah Michelle Gellar, and he said, 'Would you mind if Sarah came on and did a cameo? She doesn't want to talk, but...' And I said, 'Bring her on! We'll put her into the cafeteria.' And it wasn't lawyers saying, 'Oh, she's on this 'Buffy' series, and can you afford her?' It was, 'She's here, she wants to do it.'"

Maybe it was a small role in the grand scheme of things, but at least Gellar got to be part of a "She's All That" in some capacity. Unfortunately, she isn't anywhere to be found in Netflix's gender-flipped "He's All That" remake from 2021, but fans can look forward to seeing Gellar resurrect her most iconic '90s character in the upcoming "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" reboot.