Sarah Michelle Gellar is lastly coming again to TV — and a Hollywood Reporter profile printed Wednesday makes it straightforward to see why she was away for thus lengthy.
The previous “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” star is returning to her serialized horror/fantasy roots with the brand new Paramount+ present “Wolf Pack,” wherein excessive schoolers combat monsters that function metaphors for contemporary teenage life.
And whereas Gellar stated she’s blissful to participate in what feels like a non secular successor to the present that made her well-known, she additionally made it clear that she isn't keen on experiencing one other unhealthy work setting.
“I’ve come to place with it, the place it’s simpler to speak about,” Gellar advised the journal, referring to the varied accounts from her former “Buffy” forged mates in regards to the present’s allegedly poisonous set. “I’ll by no means inform my full story as a result of I don’t get something out of it. I’ve stated all I’m going to say as a result of no person wins. All people loses.”
However her refusal to supply extra particulars didn’t deter her husband, actor Freddie Prinze Jr. — or a few of her fellow “Buffy” alums — from making extra vivid allegations about what Gellar needed to endure whereas engaged on the present.
“She needed to take care of a whole lot of bullshit on that present for all seven years it was on,” Prinze advised the Reporter. “The stuff they pressed upon her, with none credit score or actual wage, whereas she was usually the one one doing 15-hour days ... but she was nonetheless in a position to get the message of that character out each single week and do it with pleasure and do it professionally.”
Gellar’s good friend, former “Buffy” actor Seth Inexperienced, advised the journal that Gellar usually leveraged her energy because the top-billed star on the present in an try to guard herself and her colleagues.
“That present was simply exhausting,” Inexperienced advised the Reporter. “We have been working loopy hours, and a whole lot of issues that bought pushed weren’t essentially secure or underneath the most effective situations. Sarah was at all times the primary one to say, ‘We agreed this was a 13-hour day and it’s hour 15 — we’ve bought to wrap,’ or, ‘Hey, this shot doesn’t appear secure,’ when no person else would stick up for the forged and crew.”
Inexperienced stated this resulted in destructive penalties for Gellar.
“I noticed her get referred to as a bitch, a diva, all these items that she’s not,” he stated. “Simply because she was taking the mantle of claiming and doing the suitable factor.”
Emma Caulfield, who additionally starred on “Buffy,” backed up Inexperienced’s allegations.
“It was apparent that Sarah lacked the assist to be the chief she wanted and wished to be,” she stated. “There was an amazing quantity of resentment and animosity [toward her] from a sure somebody — and I suppose now we are able to all guess who.”
Presumably Caulfield is referring to Joss Whedon, the creator of “Buffy,” who has obtained backlash as a consequence of his former colleagues’ allegations of his dangerous on-set habits at “Buffy” and different productions.
In 2021, Charisma Carpenter, who labored with Whedon on “Buffy” and its spinoff collection “Angel,” tweeted a two-part assertion wherein she accused Whedon of being emotionally abusive and creating “hostile and poisonous work environments.”
“He was imply and biting, disparaging about others brazenly, and sometimes performed favorites, pitting folks towards each other to compete and vie for his consideration and approval,” Carpenter wrote.
Shortly after Carpenter printed her assertion, Amber Benson, one other “Buffy” alum, spoke out as effectively, tweeting that the set of the beloved teen drama was “a poisonous setting.”
“There was a whole lot of harm executed throughout that point and many people are nonetheless processing it twenty plus years later,” Benson wrote.
Maybe probably the most startling allegation got here from “Buffy” actor Michelle Trachtenberg, who adopted up on Carpenter and Benson’s statements by saying there was a “rule” on set that Whedon was not allowed alone in a room together with her. Trachtenberg was an adolescent when she co-starred on “Buffy.”
Gellar has additionally spoken out about Whedon and the work environments he allegedly harbored, albeit in imprecise methods.
In 2021, Gellar issued a press release on Instagram in assist of Carpenter, Benson and Trachtenberg.
“Whereas I'm proud to have my identify related to Buffy Summers,” she wrote, “I don’t need to be endlessly related to the identify Joss Whedon.”
She additionally not too long ago advised the viewers at TheWrap’s “Energy of Girls” summitthat she was on “a particularly poisonous male set” for “for thus lengthy.”
Gellar advised The Hollywood Reporter that as a consequence of her experiences, it was necessary to her that she function an government producer on “Wolf Pack,” the place the principle forged members are between the ages of 19 and 21. She spoke to the outlet about an on-set incident on her new present wherein a crew member allegedly made somebody within the forged uncomfortable by providing them again rubs. Gellar stated the crew member was let go as quickly as she came upon about it.
“I hope that I’ve arrange an infrastructure, a security internet for these actors that I didn’t have,” Gellar advised the journal. “My era simply didn’t have that.”
To learn Gellar’s profile in full, head over to The Hollywood Reporter.
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