BUFFY'S
A TOUGHIE
Welcome to the clean-living, workaholic world of a seriously-scary vampire
slayer by Pippa Smith.
On screen, she's the
vampire-battling babe who puts the fear of God into even the ghastliest
ghoul.
Off screen, Buffy
The Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar is not a girl to mess
with, either. Fluffy she ain't.
It began as a teen
cult, but Buffy now has an international telly audience only
slightly less than Friends and Baywatch.
And as a new series
kicks into action tonight (BBC2, 6.45pm), it looks set to win even more
fans.
Kids like the
monsters, women like the devilishly dishy male vampires and blokes - well,
they can't get enough of Buffy herself.
Sarah has more awards
as World's Sexiest Woman under her belt than any other actress.
Yet the endless
fascination with her body and love life has lead her to be even scarier
than anything Buffy has to face.
"I'm definitely
no push-over when it comes to men," says the 23-year-old star.
"I'm only interested in a man if he is very driven and very serious.
"I take
everything I say very seriously. You can't take back words.
"And I don't do
anything halfway. I don't really date in the business, yet it's hard
to meet people out of it because of what I do."
Life in the spotlight
- and the fact that her dad walked out on the family - seems to have had a
big impact on her relationships.
Painful
"Going through a
break-up is the most painful, personal experience in the world," she
says. "The last thing I want to do is read about it, or have
other people making judgments.
"I don't know how
stars who have these big public relationships and break-ups get through
it."
Sarah may only be a
petite 5ft 3in tall, blonde and with huge doe eyes, but make no mistake -
she's nobody's fool.
Her father left when
she was still in nappies and, from a young age, the New York-born only
child vowed to put her career first.
She is now a showbiz
veteran, with 18 years of experience.
Sarah has appeared in
more than 100 adverts, hit teen films Scream 2, Cruel Intentions
and I Know What You Did Last Summer plus five series of Buffy.
"I might have
been an immaculate conception - you never know," she says with a hint
of bitterness, speaking about her lost father for the first time.
"My father, you
can just say, is not in the picture. I'm not being deliberately
evasive about him, it's just that there's so little to say. He is
not a person who exists in my life.
"Just because you
donate sperm does not make you a father. I don't have a father - I
would never give him the credit to acknowledge him as my father.
"My mum, on the
other hand, is the most amazing woman I've ever met and probably will ever
meet in my entire life. We're incredibly close, despite the fact
that I've lived on my own for nine years already.
"I wanted for
nothing when I was growing up. I never felt a lack of affection.
Cute
"And I am, I
believe, a perfectly content and very well-adjusted person - probably more
so than most people who have two parents.
"Everything I am
is because of my mum. We were scraping by and there were times when
we didn't know if we'd be able to pay the rent.
"But Mum never
let me want for anything, emotionally or materially. I can't say
enough about how she gave up everything to raise me.
"Mum's so cute,
too. She still cuts out little articles from local papers and brings
them to me. One of the greatest gifts my job affords me is that my
mum, who gave up her entire life for me, does not have to work any more.
"Now I can give
in return and she can take it easy and do whatever she wants, because I
bought her a house and paid off the mortgage."
Happily, Sarah has not
been put off men entirely. She's been dating actor Freddie Prinze
Jnr for the past seven months.
It's her first
"public" relationship, although she's reluctant to talk much
about it.
"I don't have
much of a life beyond work," she says. "I get all my
energy from work. I scream. I yell. I come home and I go
to sleep. I'm never home. I even feel sorry for my cat!
Whenever I'm not working, I'm asleep - and I don't do much of that.
"Still, I can
sleep when I'm dead. I'm the kind of person who gets bored if I
don't work for two days. Weekends are boring, anyway.
"I don't drink, I
don't smoke and I've never done any drugs. I avoid fried food and
have even quit coffee.
"My work provides
all the caffeine I need. I have remarkably few vices, and I'm never
late. Being late is rude."
Mention the fact that
this might make her slightly boring and Sarah is genuinely confused.
Surely she realises
that being such a workaholic makes her miss out on so much else in
life? "My goodness, no! I've gained so much," she
insists. "In the beginning, my working was paying for my
education, which we could never have afforded otherwise.
"And I've
travelled all over. My friends would have holidays in Europe, but
the only way I'd get there was to get a job in whatever country I wanted
to visit.
"I learned very
young to have a very good work ethic. Even if I didn't continue in
this industry, I would have been able to really hold a job well.
"I understand the
importance of work which a lot of young people today don't.
"Oh God - I hope
I don't sound too perfect! I do have plenty of flaws, too. I'm
human, not a superhero.
"But I'm
grateful. Just remember that is the most important thing - how
grateful I am to be in the position I'm in."
Skinny
Sarah is painfully
aware that Buffy has become a role model for teenage girls across the
world. So even if she wanted to go and get off her head on shandies
- which, of course, she never would - she knows she'd be letting her fans
down.
Which is why she's
particularly annoyed about the latest rumour doing the rounds - that she's
anorexic.
"I've always been
a skinny thing," she says. "Yes, I did at one point have a
little baby fat and I did lose that. But I'm a tiny-boned person and
I work like a dog on this show.
"Maybe some
actresses have anorexia, but I certainly don't.
"All the rubbish
Calista Flockheart has to put up with breaks my heart for her. She's
the nicest girl and such a talented actress. She's a skinny girl -
it's just her natural body type.
"Let's be honest,
we have a tendency to see models as being beautiful and we like beautiful
people. But I know how airbrushed I am in magazines, and I know that
those models are airbrushed, too.
"I have to work
out for the show. I keep myself in good shape by training in the
ancient Japanese art of Tae Kwon-Do and eat a healthy, balanced diet.
Giggles
"I don't do all
of my stunts, but I do a good portion. I can't do mad with them,
because I have to turn up for work the next day and it wouldn't be good
news if I did that in plaster."
The only time Sarah
really breaks down in girlie giggles is when she's quizzed on her
countless awards for being a sex goddess and having the best bum in the
world.
"If someone
thinks I have a good butt, then I take that as a compliment," she
says with a laugh. "It's Buffy who men think of as sexy, not
me. I certainly don't see myself as a sex symbol.
"I think of
myself as smart before I would ever think of myself as beautiful.
It's annoying, because sometimes you meet people and they think,
'Look! Another cute little blonde actress.'
"That's not who I
am. I mean, I'm re-reading all the major Greek tragedies in my spare
time!" After chatting to her for an hour, it's certainly
getting increasingly difficult to think of Sarah as ever having sex, let
alone being worshipped by lust-struck blokes across the globe.
But - shock horror -
she's recently filmed her first sex scene, for her new film, The
Harvard Man. So what was that like?
"I have two
steamy love scenes," she admits. "One was on my first
day. It was 110 degrees and it was so hot. The scene is in the
wood with an actor I'd only just met.
"It was like,
'Hey, it's nice to meet you - now let's have sex!' The entire crew
was watching and I didn't know anyone. It was quite an experience.
"It took a few
takes to make us more comfortable. I was fully clothed, though.
"I don't think my
fans will be too shocked. After all, it's not Buffy having sex up
against a tree. It's me, Sarah, the actress."
With the end of her
five-year Buffy contract approaching, the future for the Vampire
Slayer and Sarah herself looks uncertain.
But Sarah loves the
character so much that she admits she's keen to continue.
Plus, of course, what
on earth would she do with all that spare time? Surely there's only
so many Greek tragedies a girl can read?
"Oh, I do go out
with my friends and have a good time too, you know," she insists.
"I've been
travelling a lot lately - Mexico, San Diego and hey, I went to the Super
Bowl.
"To be totally
honest, though, I think I was born a workaholic. I don't know
whether 'wild and fun' is part of my nature."
Back
to the top
|
