Sarah Michelle Gellar
by Elizabeth Kuster, Seventeen Magazine

It's hard for us to put into words how much we're going to miss watching Sarah Michelle Gellar kick monster butt every week. You may say that it's just a TV show, but we would argue that witnessing Buffy's brand of incredible female strength has made the world a better place for all girlkind. And now it's over. Why, Sarah? Why?

Just four days after announcing she wouldn't be returning to the show that made her a houseold name, we called Sarah to talk about her decision.

17: You're starting a whole new life. People are usually so afraid of change, because it involves risk...

SMG: The rewards don't come unless you take the risks. It's funny. My whole life, my mother always wanted to move to California. And I was always dead-set against it: "I am not leaving New York! I will run away form home!" And then I moved to California, and I love it here. It only goes to show that sometimes you have to open yourself up to those things. Leaving high school is probably the scariest, because it's one of the first times you have to make that decision of "What do I want to do as an adult?" The one thing I've learned now is, change is really good. Change is what keeps you healthy.

17: Awesome! Tell us more.

SMG: There are just so many possibilities out there. You know, doing Buffy was a risk in the beginning! Nobody wanted to be on a show that was based on a failed movie. I remember telling friends, "I'm going to do a show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer!" And I remember my friend Lindsay's family going, "Wha-? That movie? That didn't do real well, Sarah." But life is full of metamorphoses. Can you hold on? [Screams] Mom! [Back to normal voice] Sorry, but my mom just walked in and my dog's having a heart attack. Can you hear him whining?

17: Yeah. How do you keep that positive attitude when things are uncertain?

SMG: First of all, nothing's written in stone. I've been telling this to Michelle Trachtenberg: "If you go to college and don't like it, you can go to a different college." You have to stick with a decision long enough to give it a chance, but if it's not for you, that's it.

17: So what do you want to do now?

SMG: There's so much! For me it's a little bit of time and decompression and... well, to be able to go out. I've worked an incredible amount of hours on this show. All my friends call and they're going out on Friday night and I'm like, "Guys, I just can't go, I'm working tonight." There was this space where I'd go "Guys! Don't invite me! It makes me mad!" I was kidding, but...

17: So for seven years you've kind of put your personal life on hold.

SMG: I'm very lucky that I have such an understanding guy. But I love my job. And that's what's so hard about this! I've been in a great place, and now I'm all those things everybody feels: I'm nervous about the future; I'm really excited to take a chance and do something new, because sometimes if you wait too long, the chances just go away. [Sound of a doorbell ringing incessantly] Oh... [Sighs] I'm so sorry. Hold on. [She goes away and comes back] After all that ringing, there's no one there. Can you imagine?

17: Maybe it was your future calling!

SMG: Yeah, really! Well, I hope it wasn't, because there was nobody there!

17: Opportunity just rang the bell, and you missed it! [Laughs]

SMG: Oh my God! [Laughs] You're making me want to crawl back under the covers! Geez! Anyway, so it's scary. I'm leaving something secure and familial and successful to take my chances that I'll find happiness doing something else. It's just about doing what's innately in your gut, what you feel is best and more important for you. I was 18 when I started on the show, and I'll be 26 by the time it's over - that's a big chunk of my life! It just seemed right.

17: How much are you going to miss your cast-mates?

SMG: That's going to be so weird. I think of james Marsters and me. We're basically like brother and sister.

17: What was your first meeting like?

SMG: James came in for "School Hard," I remember that. It was the second season, third or fourth episode. It was one of our longest days ever on the show. And I remember that he wore these big boots, and he wasn't that great at stunt fighting yet because he came from theater, where everything was a little more real. I had these bruises up and down my arms from James's big boots. I still tease him about it to this day.

17: And what about Alyson?

SMG: Alyson came in and I rembember thinking, "Ahh! Girlfriend! Finally!" Her favorite story that she tells about how busy and crazy I was, is when she got her tonsils out and I picked her up at the hospital and brought her home and she was supposed to only have yogurt but I didn't have time to buy any because I was so busy, so I took all the yogurt from my refrigerator - 'cause I eat yogurt - to her house and she called me the next day and I guess all the yogurt had like, super-expired. And Alyson said, "Are you trying to kill me?"

17: That's hilarious - and I love that you said it in one breath! How have you changed since the show began?

SMG: Well, I've gone from being 18 and on my own for the first time and leaving this big show [All My Children] to suddenly my new show [Buffy] being incredibly successful. That changed my life, and it was kind of scary all of a sudden being in the public eye. Now I'm married and I'm more stable and older and more mature.

17: What have you learned about your strengths and weaknesses?

SMG: You can't ask a person that one! [Laughs] I don't know what my strengths and weaknesses are! Ask my friend Nicole! She'll tell you! No, I've certainly learned how to be a better friend, because my time is limited. I'm a busy working girl, so Nicole and I have learned how to make our friendship really good and strong and make the quality time that we do spend together really important, because it is really important. As important as a man in a girl's life! Her girlfriends are just as important.

17: Are you going to miss the physical aspects of the show?

SMG: No! I will not miss the bruises, the hurt back, the aching legs. Literally, if I went for an X-ray and you didn't tell the X-ray technician my age, they'd probably think I'm, like, an 80-year-old woman.

17: Ha ha. OK, here's another beginning-slash-ending type of thing: breakups. Any breakup advice for the girl who's traumatized right now?

SMG: I'm so not the person to ask, because I so was the person who was traumatized. The other day I started watching Driven on VH1. You watched Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera lose on Star Search, and The Mickey Mouse Club gets cancelled, and you watch all these really disappointing things happen to them. And what I took from that was that all of those disappointments - the same ones that I experienced for years - is what made them the performers that they are today. And the same goes for breaking up with someone. It's so traumatic, but then you get into a new relationship and you realize, "Wow! This is better! This is why that happened." You're a better person for the experience that you go through. It's about what you take away from them and what you learn from them, versus how traumatic or how miserable you are at the moment.

17: And what do you think you're going to take away form Buffy?

SMG: What am I not going to take away from Buffy? And that probably means the clothing and the furniture. So if there's clothing missing, it wasn't me! Seriously, I will never have another experience like this. And that's OK, because I will always have this experience. No one can take that away from me. And luckily I have a lot of DVDs to prove it!

17: Are you going to be a different girl, do you think?

SMG: Absolutely. I'll have to learn what to do when I don't work every day. That's something I've never known.

17: You'll have to learn how to relax.

SMG: Exactly. I took up knitting. Hopefully that will help.

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