This film didn’t quite wow Sarah Michelle Gellar.
The 48-year-old actress shared that initially, she wasn’t happy with the 2002 live-action film “Scooby-Doo.”
Gellar portrayed Daphne, with her husband Freddie Prince Jr. playing Fred, Matthew Lillard as Shaggy, and Linda Cardellini as Velma.
“I’ve gone through a complete journey with this film,” the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” actor explained while on the“Shut Up Evan” podcastearlier this month. “There was a period when I was genuinely upset about it. And it wasn’t the film I intended to create.”
Now, looking back after all these years, I truly appreciate it,” Gellar continued. “And I love it, and it will definitely make me laugh. But there was a time when it was disappointing in the sense of, you know, what we were promised wasn’t what it turned out to be.
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Essentially, there were those ‘Brady Bunch’ films and it was somewhat of a parody of them, which is how this was presented,” the “Ringer” contributor explained. “Fred was dating all the groupies, and I had a fantastic line where we argue and I storm out, slamming the door behind me and saying, ‘And that ascot makes you look gay.’
It was all the things you ponder while watching,” Gellar admitted. “There were more stoner jokes—everything that crosses your mind. Eventually, they made a choice for their audience, and in that regard, they were correct, as this film performed better as a children’s movie. To turn it into a family film, those elements had to be removed.
The star of “Swans Crossing” mentioned she was around 22 and aimed for a more sensual and mysterious take, but that wasn’t what the audience was looking for.
Now, I value it,” Gellar acknowledged, “but at that moment, I was somewhat thinking, ‘That wasn’t what I aimed to create.’
Two years following the original “Scooby-Doo,” the group reunited in 2004 for “Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.”
While on the podcast, the Emmy award winner shared a “little known fact” with host Evan Ross Katz about filming the first movie.
I filmed ‘Scooby-Doo’ at the same time as I was working on ‘Buffy,’ both of which were produced by Warner Bros.,” Gellar remembered. “While ‘Buffy’ was shot in Los Angeles, ‘Scooby’ was filmed in Australia. That meant I had to fly back and forth between Australia every two weeks.
“So Season 5, I returned and filmed Buffy’s major death, but I was shooting that entire scene while traveling back and forth from Australia,” she added.
Gellar appeared in “Buffy” for seven seasons, spanning from 1997 to 2003. While working on the show, she tied the knot with Prinze, who is 49, in 2002. The two have a daughter named Charlotte, who is 16, and a son named Rocky, who is 13.
During her discussion, Gellar also addressedwhy, at one point, she “removed many years” from her acting career.
In 2013, the New York-born actor appeared in the CBS comedy series “Crazy Ones” with Robin Williams. The two portrayed the father-daughter characters Sydney and Simon Roberts, respectively, for a single season.
Then, in 2014, the actor from “Mrs. Doubtfire”passed away by suicide at the age of 63.
I began ‘Crazy Ones’ when my son was three months old,” Gellar recalled. “I was nursing the whole time, and then Robin passed away, and everything just came crashing down on me. It felt like the postpartum period hit me hard. That loss was enormous, and for the first time in my life, I felt a bit lost.
She said, “And I thought maybe that’s my sign that I’m not fully present because they can disappear so fast. And at that point, I just decided I needed to take a break.”
In retrospect, Gellar is aware she made the correct choice.
I’m really happy I did it on so many levels. I’ll never get that time back with my kids,” she exclaimed. “I didn’t miss a single show, a performance, a first step, or a lost tooth. Basically, every moment I was able to be there for, and that’s something you can’t do as a working actor. Our days are long. We travel a lot.
These days, Gellar says, “I’m eager to work now that my children are older.”