Sarah Michelle Gellar turned down roles in Fight Club and American Beauty due to Buffy scheduling conflicts
The Wedding Plannerand Gangs Of New Yorkcould have featured Sarah Michelle Geller if not for her Buffyworkload
Aux News Sarah Michelle Gellar
Former TV vampire ass-kicker Sarah Michelle Gellar knows a little something about iconic roles. The Buffy The Vampire Slayer actor portrayed one of the most beloved characters of her era as the tenacious Buffy Summers, and established herself as an icon of the late 90s to early 2000s with parts in Cruel Intentions, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and in the live-action Scooby Doo.
However, it seems that Gellar’s repertoire of famous film roles could have expanded into David Fincher and rom-com territory, as revealed by the Wolf Pack actor in a recent interview with The Guardian.
According to the profile, Gellar was forced to turn down roles in significant 2000's films like Fight Club, American Beauty, and Martin Scorsese’s Gangs Of New York due to the heavy production schedule of filming Buffy, which jumped from 12 episodes in season one to 22 for the rest of the series’ run.
While Gellar’s presence would’ve been welcome in those films (and her dynamic acting chops may have gotten some much-deserved awards attention), she seems content with what she got to create on Buffy. “I also made a great television show,” said Gellar about the decision of turning down those film roles.
Among some of Gellar’s almost-castings was as the lead in rom-com classic The Wedding Planner, with her husband and ‘90s heartthrob Freddie Prinze Jr. reportedly starring beside her. “Those actors were people who were talked about, but no one was ever officially cast,” revealed director Adam Shankman in an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment on the film’s 20th anniversary. Eventually, the roles would go to mega-stars of the genre Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey, whose chemistry would make the film a key addition to the ‘00s rom-com canon.
Hopefully, Gellar’s return to acting in films like Netflix’s Do Revenge and Paramount+’s supernatural teen show Wolf Pack will signify us getting to see her smash more big-screen roles in the future.
44 Comments
I think she did great work on Buffy. Not sure how I see her fitting in those other roles. I guess she likely would have been no worse than Cameron Diaz in Gangs of NY and J. Lo in The Wedding Planner
I don’t know. I agree that Buffy doesn’t work without her—but Diaz and Lopez have their strengths, too. Would be nice to see her get another role to fuckin’ own, though.
I assume the Diaz role is the one she’d have been competing for since I can’t think of any other women’s part of note. I actually think Lopez was probably the better choice for Wedding Planner. Gellar’s got more of an edge to her.
I wonder if she was up for a more minor role in the film like “Hellcat Maggie” who attacked people with claws. Seems closer to her Buffy role (athletic) and I think Cameron was the bigger star at the time. Interestingly, she starred in Scooby Doo, which was released in 2002 (the same year as Gangs of New York) but I’m not sure what the shooting schedule for each movie would have been.That’s Hellcat Maggie on the left.
i could see her nailing the wedding planner tbh
I love SMG and I love Fight Club but not sure she’d be a good swap-in for Meatloaf.
Her name is Roberta Paulson!
Maybe she was up for the Brad Pitt part, just thinking of the ending. Because that would make more sense I think than her playing the Helena Bonham Carter part.
she would have played the once frame insert spliced into the kids film, clearly
She did play pornstar Krista Now in Southland Tales.
Buffy saying “I haven’t been fucked like that since grade school” would have been a weird feeling.
Different than the weird feeling in Cruel Intentions?
Well, that’s the answer to that question, since SMG was pretty freaking horrible in Cruel Intentions, and it feels like a 100% chance that she would’ve tried to play Marla the exact same way.
We were clearly watching that movie for different reasons.
Oh, I watched it plenty, for probably the same reasons, but it’s still Tiny Toons Dangerous Liaisons (h/t We Hate Movies), and a big part of the reason is that SMG’s performance feels like a Zucker Brothers parody.
But she won best kiss at the MTV Movie Awards for it!
You could practically smell HBC through the screen.I’m guessing Gellar would have been considered for the Witherspoon fiance role.
Witherspoon fiancee role? You still talking about Fight Club? Because she wasn’t in that…she did play Patrick Bateman’s fiancee in American Psycho around that same time though.
You’re right – I got my movies backwards.
Buffy ANYBODY saying “I haven’t been fucked like that since grade school” would have been a weird feeling.
FTFY, you toxic garbage person. Please self immolate yourself.
“FTFY, you toxic garbage person. Please self immolate yourself.”
They were quoting the movie, you fucking toxic loser cunthole fuck.
Holy hell, she stole David Byrne’s suit.
It does look like someone photoshopped her head onto that photo.
While Wolfpack isn’t going to take the nation by storm, I do hope it’s the start the SMG-renaissance.
The Wedding Plannerand Gangs Of New Yorkcould have featured Sarah Michelle Geller if not for her BuffyworkloadThere needs to be a space between Planner and and, between York and could, and between Buffy and workload.
an icon of the late 90s to early 2000s
*’90s
her husband and ‘90s heartthrob Freddie Prinze Jr.
*’90s
a key addition to the ‘00s rom-com canon
*’00s
what are you fixing in the bottom two?
The last two changes replace an opening single quotation mark with an apostrophe.
Those are the same button. I would have no way of doing that on my keyboard
he’s fixing a hole . . . in the bottom . . .
She used an opening single quotation mark instead of an apostrophe.
Shut the fuck up.*’Shut the fuck up.**’`I miss you, Volunteer Proofreader. You did it with class.
Did you know Freddie Prinze Jr. is a very talented voice actor?
In my mind, Gangs of New York came out way later than the end of Buffy. However, Gangs of New York came out in 2002(!) and Buffy ended in 2003. Now, I’m feeling extra old.
It’s a weird thing to realise that movie came out about four or five months before the show ended.
It seems weird to me to speculate about what might have been. This article says she was “forced” to turn down roles, like her bosses wouldn’t grant her permission or something, but that’s not the sentiment she gives in the interview. She couldn’t be in two places at once – I assume nobody wanted to go back to the days when Michael J. Fox would literally work 24 hours in order to moonlight on Family Ties to film Back to the Future – so she could either continue leading the prime-time juggernaut that was Buffy or she could risk it all on an uncertain movie career.For the former, hundreds of people’s jobs and the success of a whole franchise was basically sitting on her shoulders. (Not saying they’d all wind up homeless if she quit, but the show would probably not have lasted long as it did if they needed to write out or replace SMG.) Not strangers, either, but her closest friends and colleagues. For the latter, who knows? The opportunity cost isn’t remotely the same as if she was just still a recurring character on All My Children.
“Forced” is also used to describe someone making a tough, internal decision.
I assume nobody wanted to go back to the days when Michael J. Fox would literally work 24 hours in order to moonlight on Family Ties to film Back to the Future…Well if she didn’t want to take her cocaine and forgo sleep like a big girl then I guess she didn’t want to ride on when the day is done. She’s just lazy.
Fuck off.
It’s really hard to see her as Marla in Fight Club and if she was up for any other female role in that she didn’t miss out on anything better than Buffy for that one at least.
Thankfully she was still able to make Harvard Man and Scooby-Doo
The Scooby Doo films are far better than they have any right to be. The second one is my 24-year old daughter’s go-to when needing cheering up.
I remember reading she was up for the role of Yvaine in “Stardust” but turned it down. Shame.
So if she was up for American Beauty, it was either the Thora Birch or Mena Suvari parts. I’m guessing Mena Suvari? Would have been a different movie with SMG in either of those roles.
Not sure she would have been down for the nudity of those roles, though I suppose it wasn’t a huge part of Birch’s character.