Why doesn't SMG ever speak in the commentaries and special features?

POSTED BY: IndigoStarblaster
UPDATED: Friday, September 1, 2006 17:59
VIEWED: 7543
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INDIGOSTARBLASTER

Friday, August 25, 2006 2:45 PM

This is something I definitely noticed when we were watching the Buffy DVDs. Is she a really bad off-the-cuff speaker? Was it to preserve the Buffy mystique? Did she actively hate the role and do no more than her professionalism demanded of her (which was more than sufficient, in my opinion)?

Any insights would be appreciated,

Indigo S.

ELDUSTO

Friday, August 25, 2006 7:57 PM

I always got the notion that she was a bit of a prude in real life, just based off of what certain big name radio personalities and the like have said.
I mean, she couldn't even do the voice for her character in the two BtVS video games, but all of the other cast members could. She wouldn't do a guest appearance on Angel's 5th season, either.
As I think about it. I don't think she really does interviews, either. I can't remember any off of the top of my head.

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SPIKEANDJEZEBEL

Friday, August 25, 2006 8:44 PM

Actually, that's not quite accurate - SMG was asked to appear in an episode (The Girl in Question) that was being filmed when she was in Japan filming the Grudge - she couldn't appear in it. She then offered to appear in Angel's finale, but there wasn't a good way to work her into the script.

Sarah has done commentaries for other DVDs, including The Grudge and Robot Chicken. I think the lack of her appearing on the Buffy DVDs is because the early seasons did not have cast commentaries (Season 4 is the first that did), and by the time they started doing them, the series was over and she was too busy doing other things.

"I have never understood why it should be necessary to become irrational in order to prove that you care. Or indeed, why it should be necessary to prove it at all." -Kerr Avon

GROOSALUGG

Friday, August 25, 2006 8:53 PM

According to her, because she was involved in nearly every scene, every day of filming, she didn't have the time to sit down for 45 minutes straight and record an audio commentary, the way other cast members did. Makes sense--the only Angel commentary David Boreanaz did was for a S5 episode, after the show had finished and he had plenty of free time.

Doesn't explain why Sarah's not in any of the featurettes, tho. David, despite also being the star and title character of his own show, is included in sit-down interviews in nearly every Angel featurette.

An even better question is, why isn't Sarah included even once in any of the gag reels on the S5-S7 DVDs? All the other cast members are in there, screwing up and goofing around--so why not her?

But about the Angel S5 appearance--gotta defend her on that one. Everything I've read says that they wanted her back and she wanted to come back! But she was in Japan filming "The Grudge" at the time, and her schedule would only allow her to make it back in time to appear in the very final episode. The Angel producers wanted her for the next-to-last ep

Select to view spoiler:

(confronting Angel and Spike over their brief trip to Rome)

but not the finale, however, because they felt, even with just a brief appearance, she would've been the biggest story in the episode, and they wanted to make sure that in the last episode ever, the focus was all about the cast of Angel. Apparently, they even briefly toyed with filming episode 22 (the finale) first, followed by 21 to accomodate Sarah's schedule, but the script for 22 just wasn't ready in time to make that happen. So, no Buffy at the end of AtS...

EMBERS

Friday, August 25, 2006 9:02 PM

I think people have been a little hard on SMG,
she did work really hard on Buffy,
and then over the summer 'breaks' she was making movies (working just as hard)

I think she may not be in the gag(out-takes)reel because she was not one to forget her lines, or laugh when other people did...
but she is in a lot of the OMWF extra video thing..
there again, really working hard because she had never done any singing or dancing before.

CHRISISALL

Friday, August 25, 2006 9:08 PM

Quote:
Why doesn't SMG ever speak in the commentaries and special features?

Nobody ever offered her a *cookie*!

Chrisisall

SIGMANUNKI

Friday, August 25, 2006 9:27 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by IndigoStarblaster:

Did she actively hate the role and do no more than her professionalism demanded of her (which was more than sufficient, in my opinion)?

She did distance herself from the character afterward and actively refused to do anything related to Buffy. And after 7 years of the same character, I tend to agree... to a point.

I've read some interviews with her and she's not only actively trying to distance herself from the Buffy character, but it seems that SMG and Joss had a falling out. I've read transcripts of interviews where she's basically called him names, that he's power hungry, etc.

So, I'd gather that's probably more the reason why than anything else.

Regarding her not being in gag reels, etc. I get from her (interviews, etc) that she's quite stuck up as a person. She's probably "too good" to involve herself in such things. That or she's too stuck up to let that out and made a fuss about being in them.

At any rate, that's my 2 cents.

----
I am on The List. We are The Forsaken and we aim to burn!
"We don't fear the reaper"

DAVESHAYNE

Friday, August 25, 2006 9:56 PM

Perhaps she prefers to have her work speak for itself.

David

"Not completely as well as the series of Firefly..." - From a review of Serenity at amazon.de

CALHOUN

Friday, August 25, 2006 10:20 PM

As Leonard Nimoy says "I AM NOT SPOCK!". Perhaps SMG feels a bit like that.. Still, Nimoy at least does occasionally talk about it all. I think SMG is a bloody ingrate, snobbing the fans, cast and Joss the way she does is why I dont watch any of her movies.

RUGBUG

Friday, August 25, 2006 11:54 PM

SMG has always been set apart from the rest of the cast. You always hear she's nice, great to work with, etc, but you never get the 'friend' feeling you get with some of the other characters.

Joss has made comments about temperamental casts. About how Angel's 100th episode party was fun with implications that the personality difficulties on Buffy made that one less than fun.

I think there are a multitude of reasons why SMG isn't on commentaries or gag reels, and her own desires are just one of them.

***************
"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it." - George Bernard Shaw

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