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Buffy The Vampire Slayer is Sarah Michelle Gellar’s most iconic role, but it doesn’t define her. Here are her most memorable TV and film roles.
Nearly 20 years since Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended, Sarah Michelle Gellar will be playing another heroine. She’ll provide the voice for Teela in Kevin Smith’s Masters of the Universe reboot at Netflix.
Gellar isn’t as active as she was in her heyday, but her work is still loved by everyone from ’90s kids to new fans who just binged Buffy for the first time. Here’s a selection of her most memorable roles, from being part of the Scooby Gang to the actual live action Scooby-Doo.
Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel)
Although she wasn’t the first actress to play the character, her tenure as Buffy Summers took the character from a pop culture footnote to an icon. Buffy is the role that Gellar’s best known for — for good reason. She took the framework the movie established and added emotional depth to what could have been a one-note character. The series’ central metaphor — growing up is hell — wouldn’t work if not for Gellar’s performance.
In an era of revivals, it’s refreshing that Gellar is steadfast in remaining retired from Buffy. She does occasionally make nods to her signature role on social media. Most importantly, Gellar has come out in support of her castmates in light of allegations against the show’s creator, Joss Whedon.
Kathryn Merteuil (Cruel Intentions)
While Gellar’s signature television role is one of the most beloved heroines in genre fiction, her most memorable film role was a true villain. Like Buffy, her turn as Kathryn Merteuil in Cruel Intentions helps make a potentially ridiculous premise — a teen version of Dangerous Liaisons — work. Merteuil’s schemes cause misery for everyone in her orbit, including her stepbrother Sebastian, who dies during the film’s climax.
Although it received mixed reviews, and was nominated for Worst Remake at 1999’s Stinkers Bad Movies Awards, Cruel Intentions has endured in the teen movie canon. Gellar’s committed performance is a large reason for that. Unlike Buffy, Gellar reprised the role of Merteuil in a Cruel Intentions TV revival, which ultimately wasn’t picked up by NBC.
Daphne Blake (Scooby-Doo movies)
Gellar played Daphne in the James Gunn-scripted 2002 live action adaptation of Scooby-Doo and its 2004 sequel, Monsters Unleashed. She starred alongside her husband Freddie Prinze Jr., who played Daphne’s boyfriend, Fred. Her version of Daphne shared a surprising amount of fighting skill with Buffy. She battled villains like the luchador Zarkos and the Black Knight Ghost.
The Scooby films weren’t critically acclaimed. The second “won” a Razzie for Worst Remake. On a positive note, she did get an MTV Movie Award for her performance in the first film. It was also the most successful film in her career to that point.
Helen Shivers (I Know What You Did Last Summer)
Gellar’s first co-starring role with Prinze was 1997’s I Know What You Did Last Summer, as well as her Cruel Intentions co-star Ryan Phillippe. Although she was in a supporting role to Jennifer Love Hewitt’s Julie James, her turn as a doomed beauty queen established her credentials as a scream queen.
Of all of her horror roles, Helen was the juiciest. Audiences got to see the way guilt over that faithful summer night affected her. While she was playing the kind of victim that Buffy was created in response to, she did at least get a harrowing chase scene before she succumbed to Ben Willis’ hook.
Seventh Sister (Star Wars Rebels)
Before her role as Teela in the Masters of the Universe reboot, Gellar played a villain in the Star Wars Universe. The Seventh Sister was a former Jedi turned Jedi hunting Inquisitor who worked for the Empire. She was tasked by Darth Vader to track down his former Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, which also brought her into conflict with The Spectres. She received a memorable death at Darth Maul’s hands.
While it wasn’t the meatiest or lengthiest role in her career, Gellar created a memorable Star Wars villain during her brief run on the show.
Gellar played twin sisters on the short-lived CW drama, Ringer. Bridget was a recovering drug addict and stripper who found herself in witness protection after agreeing to testify against her boss after witnessing him commit murder. Fearing for her life, she flees to New York to see her socialite sister. After Siobhan’s apparent suicide, Bridget begins posing as her, and inherits all of her problems.
Ringer only lasted one season, but if it winds up being Gellar’s last starring role, it’s a good one to go out on. She was able to play against type and stretch her range. It’s a dream role for any actor, even one who has an iconic role like Buffy under her belt.
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