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Sarah's the
world's sexiest woman with no man in her life
...but she
turns bitch in the best traditions of Glenn Close
They don't come much hotter
than actress Sarah Michelle Gellar.
The 22-year-old blonde has
enjoyed a meteoric rise - with a TV series that is now cult viewing and a
critically acclaimed new film role.
She even topped a men's
magazine poll to find the sexiest woman in the world, beating established
names including the Big Breakfast's Kelly Brook, actress Catherine
Zeta Jones and singer Louise.
It's quite a feat for the
young American star who was virtually unheard of a year ago and isn't
exactly a household name in Britain yet. Her meteoric rise is thanks
to her all-action role in the TV show Buffy The Vampire Slayer, which
has reached cult success in America and was shown here on BBC2 recently.
Now she is about to get her
teeth into her first big screen romantic lead in the new film Cruel
Intentions.
The film, which opens
tomorrow, is an updated American version of Dangerous Liaisons, the
classic tale of sexual cruelty and manipulation among French aristocrats in
the 18th-century.
Gellar is the vengeful and
spoiled New York teenager Kathryn Merteuil, who gets her kicks by
encouraging her step-brother to seduce the virginal new girl in town.
She even gets to kiss
another girl in the film played by Selma Blair.
The character couldn't be
more different from cute and fluffy school girl Buffy, but Gellar reckons
it's good to be bad once in a while.
"I think for me this
was a chance to stretch and do something a little different from what people
know me as," she says.
"I love the character
that I play on Buffy, but if I did that and only that I would never
be able to play anything else. Kathryn's lack of morals and overt
sexuality was a nice change for me, as well as playing a classic
character."
The character was made
famous by Glenn Close in the 1988 movie version and it was the prospect of
following in her footsteps which Gellar found most daunting.
"Daunting is
definitely the word," she smiles. "It's an amazing privilege
to be able to play a role already played by Annette Bening and Glenn Close,
two people for whom I have the utmost respect and am in awe of
"For me it was a
little easier to reinvent my character because when you modernise it women
have changed so much over the course of time - even just the way she sat and
spoke.
"If I had tried to
emulate those others it wouldn't have seemed truthful to the time now.
It would have been a case of 'there's a girl mocking Glenn Close and pretty
badly.'"
Gellar admits, however, it
hasn't been easy juggling her TV and movie career.
"It was definitely
difficult combining Buffy and the movie," she recalls.
"In movies it's nice
to be able to tell a story - you have a beginning a middle and an end - but
in the television show you get to grow with the character and I feel I have
experienced her life over the past three years."
But right now the only
thing on her mind is a holiday.
"I'm very
excited. I've worked straight through for three years so it'll be
great, although I don't know if I'll be able to relax," she smiles.
When she does find the time
to wind down Gellar likes nothing more than reading and collecting antique
children's books.
She rarely drinks, doesn't
do drugs and - happily for readers of FHM men's magazine who recently
voted her sexiest woman in the world - she hasn't got a man in her life
either.
It's hardly the stuff of
vampire slayers or her 'sexiest woman in the world' title, and the irony
isn't lost on her either.
"Perhaps I should be
more like my Cruel Intentions character," she says with a
grin. "My social life would be a lot better if I was, let me tell
you."
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