Sarah Michelle Gellar ’felt degraded’ After Sex Scenes
POSTED BY: Angeldove
UPDATED: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 13:25
VIEWED: 45612
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Buffy?!? Degraded!?! And no one told me!!!
I must've missed those episodes.
Which ones were they so I can go back and watch the degredation? JK
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Originally posted by ManiacNumberOne:
Buffy?!? Degraded!?! And no one told me!!!
I must've missed those episodes.
Which ones were they so I can go back and watch the degredation? JK
Year six! Lots of degradation going on in numerous episodes, my goodness! Here degradation, there degradation....they were just degradating all over the place.
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No wonder. I'm borrowing Tash's Buffy dvd sets, and he won't let me watch them out of order. He's a buffy/angel continuity nazi. 
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Ah, the thread that won't die...
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As long as this thread won't die...
Joss makes a comment on one of the Firefly DVDs about someone being "as cranky as a 7th year TV actress." (Probably not the exact quote, but real close.)
The obvious conclusion was that he was referring to SMG. But I'm someone who likes to imagine the non-obvious possibilities (I think they call that 'contrarian'), and it seemed to me that the public relations between Joss & CC got weird that year as well (and they wrote her off of Angel). And she was also in her 7th year of starring in his shows.
Or maybe the effect of dealing with both of them (particularly when contrasted with his shiny new cast of BDHs) caused him to make a comment about 7th year actresses as a class.
It's all just stupid speculation anyway. I just like alternate theories, because the whole SMG-bashing thing is so boring & overplayed.
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Degraded as an actress? This is from the star of the Scooby Doo movies.
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Degraded? I would give anything to do those acting scene with Spike! What heterosexual woman (or homosexual man) wouldn't!
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To be fair -
Because Sarah was so young (18-19) when she started playing Buffy she hadn't learnt how to seperate herself from Buffy (English Style) and she's actually very attatched to the character, this is what she said about Graduation Day Part Two:
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"Last year, with Angel and the heartbreak, I would go home and cry. My body wouldn't work properly. I don't take demons home with me, but I do take Buffy's pain. The vampires I'm immune to, but not the emotion. When we filmed the episode where Angel breaks up with her, I cried for 25 minutes. I thought I was having a breakdown. They had to shut down the set. When they say rip your heart out, that's really what unfulfilled love does."
I think Buffy as a character mattered a lot to her, and that's why everyone was so careful about asking her if she minded bringing people in and letting her know where the plot was going - but she didn't actually have a choice. She's contractually oblidged - she can't just NOT do something because she doesn't want to.
As far as doing sex scenes with Spike goes Sarah wasn't particularly happy with the idea of Buffy sleeping with anyone that wasn't Angel -
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"Every time they try and bring someone new in for Buffy, all I can think is, 'But it's not Angel!'. I'm not really sure what we're going to do now. We just did an interesting episode where Buffy spent the summer moping over her boyfriend -- like everybody who loses their first love -- and then this cute sophomore in college asks her out and she's so excited and he says all the right things, and does all the right things, and she sleeps with him on the first date and then he dumps her. I ran into Joss' office, screaming, 'Buffy would never do this! All this history with Angel – this is WRONG!' And Joss said to me, 'Sarah, try going to college. This is what people do and this is how they learn and these are the mistakes they make'"
Basically Joss had complete control over them, there's more than just Sarah quotes from people saying that the Buffy set wasn't as happy families as they liked to make out. There's another Sarah quote...
Quote:I think there must have been some kind of clause in all of there contracts where they couldn't tell the press if they were unhappy with the direction of the show - if Sarah had turned around and said before the beginning of Season Six, I think this is awful and I wish I wasn't contractually oblidged to do it, then I think the ratings would have hit rock bottom (I think they did in season six anyway - because a lot of fans didn't like it without her saying anything) Anyway, the networks wouldn't have wanted that so they probably weren't allowed to say anything negative. Actually if you notice a lot of the season six promo interviews they did, Sarah goes around with Marti and Marti pretty much carries the conversation. It's interesting. Maybe they didn't trust her not to be honest.
She joined the show when she was 18, and when in the sixth season she felt that the show had lost it's way, becoming much darker in tone, she was reluctant to say anything to Joss Whedon, Buffy's creative mastermind. "I really didn't have any [input]. Maybe I should have, 'cause then we wouldn't have got so lost. It took me a while to work up the nerve to say something... It didn't feel like Buffy... but it's easy to be vocal now, because Joss isn't going to be yelling at me tomorrow when I get to work."
If you think about it all that season six stuff *was* horribly abusive, Buffy was depressed and doing anything to feel *Something* - if you don't know that's generally why people self-harm.
When she was so attatched to her character I'm not surprised that she didn't really want to do it, or talk about it. Not to put too much of a stress on this she was acting out the darkest most awful moments of essentially a close-friends life.
I'm not surprised she felt degraded. Who cares if James Marsters is fit (hello, she's married I'm sure she doesn't care) I sure as hell wouldn't have wanted to film those scenes.
As for her o
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Quote:
Originally posted by Weasy:
I think there must have been some kind of clause in all of there contracts where they couldn't tell the press if they were unhappy with the direction of the show - ... Maybe they didn't trust her not to be honest.
Doubt there was anything in the contracts - sometimes when someone terminates a contract such a clause is part of the agreement, but there are plenty of examples of TV and film people making their feelings known on things (whether directly or indirectly).
The fact is, she was on a gravy train, and it was in her interests to not lay into the show in public.
I always find it interesting how some actors in shows seem to start re-writing history. SMG didn't create Buffy, Joss Whedon did - so if he says "that's what Buffy would do", that's what Buffy would do. If the fans don't like it, fair enough, but that's not the point about how the character developed.
"I threw up on your bed"
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Doubt there was anything in the contracts - sometimes when someone terminates a contract such a clause is part of the agreement, but there are plenty of examples of TV and film people making their feelings known on things (whether directly or indirectly).
The fact is, she was on a gravy train, and it was in her interests to not lay into the show in public.
No, you're right, it is in her best interests to do whatever the networks and Joss say. Because otherwise she'd get fired. And I think you'll find most people will put up with things they don't agree with at the time in order to keep their jobs.
I just don't see why it's considered horribly unfair of her to say she didn't like it later on - when her job isn't at risk.
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I always find it interesting how some actors in shows seem to start re-writing history. SMG didn't create Buffy, Joss Whedon did - so if he says "that's what Buffy would do", that's what Buffy would do. If the fans don't like it, fair enough, but that's not the point about how the character developed.
Well, not exactly - if you think about it, Buffy was a team written show, and it's obvious on occasion that the networks got their way instead of Joss. He didn't have complete control over the show either.
Plus season six was mostly Marti Noxon's baby - and she didn't even come into Buffy until after the first series and I'm not sure ever actually watched the first series, she hadn't when she did the season two dvd commenteries. So quite frankly, I'm not sure that she has a right to decide what Buffy would do either.
The things is - despite the fact I couldn't quite bring myself to watch season six, I understand the logic of why Buffy does what she does and sleeps with Spike - but because I understand it, I think I also undertsand why SMG didn't like having to film it very much.
And knowing that, I think it's unfair to criticise her for stating her opinion. Which after all is just an opinion - she didn't actually refuse to do any of it.
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