Gellar, Sarah Michelle (The Grudge)
Dread Central Staff
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Vampires, demons and masked killers have all haunted Sarah Michelle Gellar’s on-screen personas, notably the cult television feminine icon Buffy the Vampire Slayer. With that character now behind her, Gellar now faces a creeping, malevolent menace from overseas in Takashi Shimizu’s The Grudge (due in theaters October 22nd). Dread Central participated in a junket held for the film and got to sit in on a round table discussion with the actress who touches on everything from her attraction to Asian cinema to working overseas to whether she’ll slip back into Buffy’s shoes again.
Question: Was there any hesitation on your part in accepting this role knowing the major cultural differences you would have to experience?
Sarah Michelle Gellar: It was the main reason that I took the project. The idea for me, first of all, to be able to spend three months in Japan, to be able to be part of the first film to be remade in America with the original Japanese director, they were all the reasons why I chose the project.
Question: Was there any hesitation on your part to doing a horror film again?
SMG: If it was horror in the traditional American sense, then yes there would have been. But I consider Japanese movies to be much more thriller-oriented. People ask me that question a lot and I definitely did think about it beforehand, but women still have a long way to go in this industry in terms of roles where we can really lead the film and drive it. I was thinking; look at past Oscar winners. Right after Halle Berry won, she did Gothika, and Charlize Theron is doing Aeon Flux…why is that? Because those are the big roles where women can really drive them and be successful in them.
Question: What kind of challenges do you face playing a character where characterization is not necessarily on the forefront?
SMG: You know, usually that would be the case, but it really wasn’t in this film. We spoke a lot beforehand about each character and why we were there and what our reaction was to being in Japan, because it’s important to keep that, and it was the first time I really did an experience like that where it was important. Of course the surroundings and situations make it that much easier to sort of create a character.
Question: Did you have any sort of, Lost in Translation moments?
SMG: Wow, I’ve never heard that question. You know it’s interesting, you don’t realize how literal a language is until you’re in a place like that. Someone sent me this great e-mail the other day about how English makes no sense. Why do we park in a driveway and drive in a parkway? Japanese is a very literal language and sometimes the conversations really don’t make sense. What someone says in Japanese when translated to English just doesn’t sound right and doesn’t make sense. So you constantly have those experiences because of the language. We also abbreviate everything in English. Literally in the movie, Lost in Translation when you see that scene where the director is talking and talking and the girl says, “Be happier!” That would happen constantly and it would take me a little while to understand.
Question: What do you think the Japanese people find scary as opposed to what Americans find scary in horror films?
SMG: Well, I think Japanese horror films leave a lot more to the imagination. It’s a lot more about setting it up and letting you take it to that place where it makes it scariest for you. It’s not gory, it’s not bloody, and I think because of that, it’s much more chilling.
Question: How difficult was it being away in Japan for seven months?
SMG: It’s very hard to be lonely in Japan. Clearly you miss your family, your dog, your home, but Japanese people are incredibly welcoming. The best advice I got before I left was someone said, “The best thing you can do is just learn the basics of the language.” A lot of times when you go across, especially when it comes to Europe, I’m so embarrassed because it’s like I bastardize the language and I feel like everyone’s laughing at me, but in Japan they’re so honored that you’ve taken the time to learn even the smallest bit of the language, they open up their homes to you and they’re so gracious. They invite you to dinner, and on top of that I had this great cast that was so interested in everything Japanese and Japanese culture and Japanese society.
Question: Did your husband join you?
SMG: No, he didn’t. He was in L.A. working actually.
Question: Was it tough to say goodbye to “Buffy”?
SMG: It was the most difficult thing I ever experienced. It’s all I knew, since I got that show when I was eighteen years old. It was a character I loved, it was a challenging character, and that crew was my family, whom I saw nine months a year for eight years of my life, so it was incredibly difficult.
Question: Would you do a “Buffy” movie if the opportunity presented itself?
SMG: I have a lot of hesitation about it, since it WAS a movie, and I spent the first year of the show constantly explaining to people, no, it’s not like the movie because there was such a bias to the movie, because it didn’t work as a film. That’s my initial hesitation and the other is that clearly you’re going to disappoint people. I mean, I was very happy with the finale, but I still believe that it should have been two hours. I believe there wasn’t enough Xander, that certain things got left out, and when you make a film you’re setting yourself up to disappoint people. Part of the reason I believe the show worked was because the stories were arcs and you felt for this character’s experience, and it wasn’t a beginning, middle and end. I say that now, and if in a year they send me the script, I could think it’s great and we could be at the junket a year and a half from now, but I will say that I have a lot of hesitations about it and it is not something I particularly want to do at this time.
Question: Have you found more time for your personal interests after leaving the series?
SMG: You find a lot more time for everything. Weekly television is the most incredible grind and I remember, before I left to do The Grudge, one of the producers called me and said, “Now, Sarah, this is not going to be what you’re used to. This is going to be really hard hours and really early calls and you’re going to work like five days in a row.” And I’m like, what? I’m from television. What are you talking about? You mean were doing a movie and you have dinner afterwards?
Question: What are the hobbies you have gotten around to?
SMG: Sleeping was the first one. Reading, reading for pleasure. Being able to pick up a book and sit down for two and a half hours and finish it. Just seeing your friends and being able to plan vacations, being able to sit around and not have plans, not having to manage your time wisely because this is your one day off in a month because you only get one day a month on television, and that’s the dentist and the doctor and the eye doctor and the vet.
Question: Now that you have more time are you thinking about starting a family?
SMG: Do you mean am I prioritizing having a baby? I’m not ready to start seriously thinking about that. I’m only twenty-seven years old. Please, I have some time.
Question: Can you tell us a little bit about the new Richard Kelly project Southland Tales?
SMG: It’s so hard to describe. The only thing I can sort of say is imagine trying to explain Donnie Darko to people before they saw it. Okay, it’s about a guy and there’s this six foot imaginary bunny. Richard Kelly, to me, is just a genius and part of the things I want to do is be able to work with interesting people and have different experiences, and having such an amazing time on this film just pushes me to want that more and more and more. I had seen Donnie Darko and thought this guy is so different and he has so much to say and it would be such an honor to meet him. That’s just how it all started.
Question: Will you be singing on it?
SMG: No, you can all rest assured that I will not.
Question: You sang before on “Buffy”?
SMG: That was the most miserable experience of my entire life, because I am a perfectionist. I don’t do anything unless I can train for months and months and months and we got that script three weeks out. Plus I had no days off and I would leave work and take a singing lesson and go to the dance class. To me that should’ve been the first episode after a three month hiatus when you could’ve been ready and I’m done with that, boy. So no, I will not be singing in Southland Tales.
Question: What stage is Southland Tales at?
SMG: We are hoping to start at the beginning of the year.
Question: Is it at strange as Donnie Darko?
SMG: It’s not as strange as Donnie Darko. It has a lot more characters, a lot more interwoven. It’s all in Richard Kelly’s head.
Question: Do you think you will work with your husband again?
SMG: I don’t think that audiences particularly love it. I know as an audience member, I don’t really like seeing couples together. Scooby was a great project for us because at the time I was on “Buffy” and I was very limited in what I could do and when he would go away to make films and I was on “Buffy”, I couldn’t go. I never had time. I would wrap at six a.m. Saturday morning and be back at work six a.m. Monday morning. It afforded us the opportunity to travel together, to be together, to spend that time, but at the same time, I don’t think that movie was hinging on Daphne and Fred’s relationship, clearly. It’s a movie about a talking dog. So that was a great experience, but we’re not looking to make Eyes Wide Shut part 2, I can tell you that right now. [laughs]
Question: Had you seen the previous Ju-On films before doing The Grudge?
SMG: Yes, I had seen it.
Question: What was your opinion of them?
SMG: I had always been a fan of Asian cinema. I think it is really daring. I love the idea of non-linear filmmaking. I love the idea that it is not a beginning, middle and end and that it’s not a neat package. I thought the shocks were so interesting. I think that sometimes in American film we get bogged down by trying to make our days and huge crews. We would have had triple the amount of crew members in America than what we used on this film and I just loved the idea of being part of it. I loved the idea of being part of the first Japanese film being made for American audiences.
Question: Would you do a sequel if they wanted to do another one?
SMG: I would go back to Japan in a heartbeat for anything.
Question: Did they talk to you about a sequel?
SMG: No, they haven’t.
Question: There was a Ju-On 2.
SMG: Yes, Ju-On 2 was very different from Ju-On. Tonally it is very different. It is almost like a Scream movie.
Question: So you haven’t signed on to do a sequel already if the film is a big hit?
SMG: We joke that I’m a professional commitment phobe right now. Eight years of my life, I knew what I was doing and it was all very planned. I chose my movies based on hiatuses. I didn’t choose them based on what I was dying to do. The first thing that I’m learning right now is that I can really wait until there’s something I really want to be a part of and I want to do. I don’t want to have to work nine, ten, eleven, twelve months a year and I can wait.
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