It has been five long years since the last episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was aired. After seven years of working on the same project, the actors involved might have been forgiven if they never went in front of a camera professionally again! However, inquiring minds demand an answer! What happened to the eight actors who played the major roles in the TV series next? Did they go on to bigger and better things or did they disappear without a trace? Take a look at the fates that befell these actors as they struggled to cope - and find work - in their post-Buffy universe.
Sarah Michelle Gellar
The Head Honcho of the Scooby Gang, Sarah Michelle was lucky to get the role of Buffy in the first place after the original movie Buffy, Kristy Swanson, decided that she wanted to concentrate on a film career. Wrong move. The rest, as they say, is history!
However, what happened to Ms Gellar next? Lavish costume dramas? Gritty roles in art-house movies? Well, no. More of the same, really. Ms Gellar may as an actor be regretting her seven years as the vampire vanquishing valley girl, but she has certainly accepted many roles so it can only be assumed that she the bank account is still healthily in the black. Still, since Buffy ended in 2003, Gellar has struggled to get away from the “Scream Queen” image that she actively encouraged during the Buffy Years.
There seem to have been two Gellars around. The first, continuing to cash in on the Buffy tag, accepted roles in I Know What You Did Last Summer, Scream 2 (Drew got there before you, baby!) and the execrable Scooby Doo (in which she starred alongside her hubbie Freddie Prinz Jr). Then there was The Grudge.
The other Gellar has been trying to throw off the Buffy stereotype with ‘gay’ abandon. Her lesbian kiss with Selma Blair in Cruel Intentions removed her from the TV series just a little! Plus, it probably kept a lot of her fans adequately (or even perfectly) satisfied. However, the need to show off her potential as a serious actor led her to the mistake of shedding her clothes in the independent movie Harvard Man.
Several voiceovers for forgettable animations followed but Gellar now seems to have crossed a certain threshold. She is a making a return to TV, which some would argue is her natural home, in a new HBO series The Wonderful Maladys (see picture above) which is about three adult siblings living in New York, still to get over the death of their parents when they were children. The pilot was filmed using hand held cameras, so the result might be unusual for TV.
A remake of the South Korean film Pace is in Post Production, under the title of Possession. Her co-star is Lee (who?) Pace. Veronika Decides To Die – which is also in the frame for a release early next year has Gellar playing the eponymous lead who wakes up in an institution after a failed suicide attempt. She then finds out she only has days to live (why didn’t she just wait!?) and rediscovers live and love in the intervening period.
David Boreanaz
Angel - the vampire with a soul! There hadn't ever been a vampire quite like Angel before and probably never will be again. Although some accused him of being a vambore, Angel made his way in to a million hearts , but what happened to actor David Boreanaz next? He made his starring role on the big screen with the forgettable 2001 slasher ‘Valentine’. It was not a huge box office success and Boreanaz continued to play his Buffy character Angel in the eponymous spin-off until the series ended in 2005.
It was unlikely that someone with a fan base as huge as Boreanaz would be unemployed for long and in the same year the forensics and police procedural drama ‘Bones’ appeared on Prime Time. This hugely successful TV series is still in production.
Although a serious actor, of course, Boreanaz has always been ready to take off his clothes, should the role demand it. Seems that every single role he does absolutely, unequivocally and without a doubt demands it. No, screams for it - and what actor could argue with that?
His latest film is ‘Our Lady of Victory’ in which he plays a supporting rather than starring role, is still awaiting a release date (it was made in 2008). It concerns a former tomboy (played by Carla Gugino) who with the help of some nuns realizes her dream to be a basketball champion. The words straight to DVD spring immediately to mind.
Seth Green
This is the original pick and mix actor – when asking what he has done since Buffy, the answer is more likely to be what hasn’t he done? His highest profile role has been as the son of Doctor Evil, Scott, in the Austin Powers movie in which he played a similarly disaffected youth in a similar vein to Oz in Buffy.
He certainly has the ‘cult’ market tagged, giving the voice to the character of Chris in the animated (adult) toon series Family Guy, which is watched mostly by the under eighteens. He has played himself twice in ‘Entourage’ – a show about the hangers on of a celebrity and has also appeared in Will and Grace, Grey’s Anatomy and My Name is Earl.
He was reunited in 2008 with fellow Buffy actor James Marsden in
Want to find out what happened to Giles, Willow, Xander, Spike, Cordelia and Anya?
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4 comments:
Hey - there's a little misinformation here. Sex Drive does in fact start James Marsden, but the Buffy character Spike was actually played by James MARSTERS.
Cheers.
Also, Sarah Michelle Gellar didn't take off her clothes in Harvard Man. She simulated sex while fully clothed.
I think that if Whatever could have Happened to the Buffy Actors, then they may have had to Buy Viagra
in order to film some episodes
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