LOS ANGELES — What happens after you save the world?
That’s
not a quandary most actresses face. But if you are Sarah Michelle
Gellar, it’s a real question. Having stepped into the lead role of
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” as a teenager, she found herself a cult icon
by the time the series ended in 2003. The show’s influence lingered,
with academics writing papers about its slang, its mythology, even its
military strategies.
Gellar seemed unable to shake
Buffy’s wise and wisecracking shadow for many years, flitting through a
series of indie films and horror movies. When she took time off to have
a baby with husband Freddie Prinze Jr. in 2009, fans began to wonder if
she’d ever return.
And yet here she is, a petite
34-year-old woman dressed in a silky brown jumpsuit with a plunging
neckline. She’s sitting in her trailer on the set of her new series,
“Ringer,” which premieres Tuesday on the CW. It’s a long way from the
Hellmouth.
Not only is Gellar co-executive
producing this upscale thriller, she’s also playing the two central
roles: Bridget, an ex-stripper on the run after witnessing a murder, and
Siobahn, Bridget’s socialite twin sister, who is in so much trouble
she’s prepared to fake her own death and let Siobahn step into her own
shoes.
“The joke is that I’m playing five
characters,” Gellar explains. “I play Siobahn and Bridget present day,
both women in flashback, and then ‘Shivette,’ which is when Bridget is
pretending to be Siobahn.”
None of which quite squares with Gellar’s professed desire to make her life more manageable.
“Playing
twins — you don’t think I took the easy route?” she asks sarcastically.
Gellar says that producing her own show was crucial, allowing her to
have control over as many elements of her life as possible. She takes
naps during her lunch break so she can get up early with 1-year old
Charlotte, and she gleefully proclaims that Pottery Barn is designing an
on-set nursery for cast and crew, because a child-friendly workplace
matters to her.
“My family comes first, and you
have to be in charge to be able to protect that. You have to be the one
who says no or you don’t have a life, which is what I found out the
first time,” she says, pulling off Siobahn’s high heels and curling her
feet under her.
“She’s very savvy about a lot of
things, let’s be clear,” says “Ringer” showrunner Pam Veasey, who also
produces “CSI: NY.” “We’re of the same rhythm; we understand how to
solve problems. She’s very smart about what we accomplish in a day.”
Gellar
has surrounded herself with familiar faces from her “Buffy” years
(caterers, costume, hair and makeup people) as well as Veasey and series
creators Nicole Snyder and Eric Charmelo, who understand the demands of
parenthood. “Our kids are all the same age. It’s a big support system I
never had before.”
She says she joined a mommy
group after her daughter was born and was the last woman to return to
work. “I was trying to be supportive of everyone else, and I thought I
was doing a good job — and then I went back to work and realized how
hard it was! I literally wrote them all apologies saying, ‘Oh, my God, I
didn’t realize!’” she squeals.
“I don’t want to
feel like a failure to my daughter. She’s the best thing I’ve ever done.
Buffy — pretty great and all, but Charlotte’s way better.”
Joss
Whedon, the creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” says Gellar was
always extremely ambitious and focused. “She was such a precision
instrument. The control she applied to every syllable was incredible,”
he says. “The downside to control is trying to get energy out of her.
She used to say, ‘I can cry any time, but don’t ask me to laugh.’”
Whedon says one of her nicknames on the set was “Jimmy Stewart” because
“she suffered so well — you could turn the screws and the audience went
with her.”
She was, even at 19, “the oldest pro I knew,” Whedon says.
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Acting
since age 4, Gellar had already been a regular on “All My Children”
when she landed the role of a stake-wielding teen savior. She doesn’t
regret having spent her youth memorizing lines, though; when asked to
imagine an alter ego who didn’t go into showbiz, she says seriously, “I
feel badly for the self that didn’t do it. I wouldn’t have had my
private school education, I wouldn’t have traveled, I wouldn’t have
spent as much time with my mother because she would have had to work.”
Now
she is a working mom, playing two very adult characters in a series
rather more grown-up than the usual teen-friendly CW fare like “Vampire
Diaries.” (“Ringer” was originally created for sister network CBS.) CW
President Mark Pedowitz would be delighted to pull in a slightly older
demographic, saying at a recent TV Critics press tour, “It will be
terrific if others get to sample what the CW has to offer thanks to
‘Ringer.’”
Gellar compares her new series to
“Damages,” with complex flashbacks woven into a noirish narrative packed
with murder plots, disappearances and love triangles. There’s also a
strong ensemble cast that includes Nestor Carbonell (“Lost”), Kristoffer
Polaha (“Life Unexpected”) and Ioan Gruffudd (“Fantastic Four”). She
knows there are inherent dangers for a nonprocedural drama that dangles
clues — especially after the intense reaction to the ending of “Lost”
and recent season finale of “The Killing” — and promises that “Ringer”
will satisfy.
“I loved ‘Lost,’ but I felt it just
got deeper and deeper and we never get anything out of it,” she says.
“Nicole and Eric pitched me the first three seasons all the way through.
Some things have already changed, but the big questions we have answers
to, and we give them out a little bit every episode.”
So
what lessons has she brought to “Ringer” from her three decades in the
business and seven seasons of prime-time slaying? Gellar doesn’t have to
think hard before answering.
“We’re not shooting at night. No graveyards. I’m telling you, you learn these things.”
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©2011 the Los Angeles Times
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