Sarah Michelle Gellar Q&A

05 September 2008

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Sarah Michelle Gellar shot to fame when she took on the role of Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer that gained a cult following.

Having left the show behind her Gellar has slowly moved into movies enjoying success with the likes of Cruel Intentions and The Grudge and failure with Southland Tales.

The Air I Breathe is the actresses latest picture and it teams her with Brendan Fraser and Kevin Bacon.

Who are your clothes by? They're cute.

Oh, thank you. Chloe. And then my favorite... [shows shoe, refers to male journalist] You really are not going to care about this. But as a New Yorker, to have shoes that fold up and go into your bag, these are brilliant. Sue London flats. So you can wear your heels...Isn't that great? No, you put them in your bag in New York, so you walk in them, and then when you get to where you're going, you put your heels on.

This role reminded me a little about Southland Tales. What did you like about it?

Well, I mean, I guess...When anyone's in the public eye, there's a sort of assumption about them. You know, and I think that was something they were both fighting was perception. So I could sort of see part of that. And the names Krysta and Trista also does not help. [laughs]

Krysta wanted to be thought of more than just a porn star, and there's Trista trying to find who she is. And so I could see that a little bit. I mean, initially, before even the character, it was the story. You don't really read stories like this. It sort of read like poetry to me--just the idea of emotions telling the story.

And Jieho talks a lot about the Wizard of Oz version of it. And I sort of looked at it, when I first read it before I had heard his version, was that the story was just one character, and each of us represented a facet of that character.

So I was the sorrowful part, and Brendan was the pleasureful part, and Kevin Bacon was love. And it's only when you get all of us together that you get a whole. Which is, as humans, I think what we are. You don't really know true happiness until you've had the depths of sorrow to understand what that happiness is.

And until you've had that great happiness and pleasure, you don't really know how to fight through the sorrowful parts, because you don't know what else is there. And I think those are the experiences that really shape us and define us. So that whole idea that I was fascinated by, in a sense that we were all sort of one person.

And I had the fortunate character in the sense of I had probably the fullest arc, because she starts in this place of sorrow, but through knowing happiness, pleasure, and love, she finds who she really is, which is the whole being. Jieho may come in and go, "No, that's wrong." But you already saw him, so he can't say that!

Have you ever been in an uncomfortable interview, like Trista?

It's so funny, because [Indiscernible] asked me that earlier, and I said yeah, and he said, "That's not true!" Yeah. It's...right now. Nothing has gone, obviously, as haywire as that one. But you know, you've had nights on a talk show where the audience just isn't feeling your jokes and you just know you're dying, and you start to get hot.

And you're just so aware that...Or even sometimes you come into some of these rooms, can be tough, because...If you're one on one, it's four minutes, it's quick. But you can come into some of these rooms sometimes, and if they're not feeling your movie or you, and you're just dying.

Like you want them to ask you questions, but at the same time, you're kind of afraid. And it's tough, you know? It's sort of a weird dance, these situations.

And I'm sure you guys have to feel it also, which is we get this short period of time, you have to get your questions across, I have to give you a piece of me, so I have to let you in, but I don't really know you that well. Maybe I've seen some of you a couple times. It's a very odd dance. So I've had plenty of them "not go the way you hope."

More Sarah Michelle Gellar QA on page 2