Sarah Michelle Gellar says she loved the way Buffy the Vampire Slayer's monsters were a metaphor for the "horrors of adolescence".
Buffy Summers is perhaps one if not the most iconic female heroes of the late 1990s. Speaking during a masterclass at the Canneseries festival, which she attended to receive the Canal+ Icon Award, the star addressed her role on a TV show that was not only about teenagers fighting monsters but mostly about adolescents finding themselves.
"What the show was about at its core was this girl who was caught between two worlds and that's what adolescence is, you’re not quite an adult yet but you’re growing out of being a young person and you’re trying to figure out how you fit in the world, how people see you," Gellar said.
"One of the key things that I’ve always loved about Buffy was that the monsters were just a metaphor for the horrors of adolescence," the actress added when she pointed out what interested her in coming back to television through the series Wolf Pack on Paramount Plus. She liked that this show had a similar idea of using monsters as a metaphor for what teenagers are going through today, like high levels of anxiety and isolation.
Through Buffy, Gellar became a role model for generations but the 46-year-old actress didn't always know the show would have such an impact.
"When I read the script I loved it. It was so different because at this point they weren't giving people that age storylines that had that much meaning and I was desperate to be a part of it," Gellar recalled. "To be honest, I don't think we thought we'd make it past the first 12 episodes. We thought it was something special but we didn’t know if the audience would get it. It was only during season 2, when we found our footing, that we realized ‘people are getting this, it’s meaning something."
A feminist icon, Buffy helped countless women grow up, but to Gellar the character isn't only meaningful for females.
"Buffy voiced something that I always believed," she said. "When women, or anyone, when people get together and build each other up, we can accomplish anything. I think it’s important to know that even early on, the show wasn’t just about every girl, it was about every person that was maybe a little different, that didn’t quite fit in, and that the power was in you, it was about finding it."
However, Gellar admitted not everyone sees her as the most badass TV character of all time. She explained she watched Buffy with her son and daughter during the COVID-19 pandemic and that her daughter doesn’t quite see her as the icon others see thanks to Buffy.
"I don't think that’s how she looks at me," Gellar laughed. "I think I’m the person that takes her phone away and tells her to go to bed, I think that’s how she sees me, sadly."
All episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer are available to stream on Disney Plus.
