Sarah Michelle Gellar turned down roles in Fight Club and American Beauty due to Buffy scheduling conflicts
The Wedding Plannerand Gangs Of New Yorkcould have featured Sarah Michelle Geller if not for her Buffyworkload
Former TV vampire ass-kicker Sarah Michelle Gellar knows a little something about iconic roles. The Buffy The Vampire Slayer actor portrayed one of the most beloved characters of her era as the tenacious Buffy Summers, and established herself as an icon of the late 90s to early 2000s with parts in Cruel Intentions, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and in the live-action Scooby Doo.
However, it seems that Gellar’s repertoire of famous film roles could have expanded into David Fincher and rom-com territory, as revealed by the Wolf Pack actor in a recent interview with The Guardian.
According to the profile, Gellar was forced to turn down roles in significant 2000's films like Fight Club, American Beauty, and Martin Scorsese’s Gangs Of New York due to the heavy production schedule of filming Buffy, which jumped from 12 episodes in season one to 22 for the rest of the series’ run.
While Gellar’s presence would’ve been welcome in those films (and her dynamic acting chops may have gotten some much-deserved awards attention), she seems content with what she got to create on Buffy. “I also made a great television show,” said Gellar about the decision of turning down those film roles.
Among some of Gellar’s almost-castings was as the lead in rom-com classic The Wedding Planner, with her husband and ‘90s heartthrob Freddie Prinze Jr. reportedly starring beside her. “Those actors were people who were talked about, but no one was ever officially cast,” revealed director Adam Shankman in an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment on the film’s 20th anniversary. Eventually, the roles would go to mega-stars of the genre Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey, whose chemistry would make the film a key addition to the ‘00s rom-com canon.
Hopefully, Gellar’s return to acting in films like Netflix’s Do Revenge and Paramount+’s supernatural teen show Wolf Pack will signify us getting to see her smash more big-screen roles in the future.