Sarah Michelle Gellar on the Legacy of Buffy the Vampire Slayer After Joss Whedon Cancellation

Back in 2012 Joss Whedon was probably one of the most celebrated figures in pop-culture, but after the rise of the #MeToo Movement, Whedon has effectively been ‘cancelled’ with several stories coming out of his toxic behavior from the sets of Justice League way back to Buffy the Vampire slayer.

With Buffy being the property that cemented her fame, Sarah Michelle Gellar takes a look back at the show’s legacy with The Hollywood Reporter, and says, “While I am proud to have my name associated with Buffy Summers… I don’t want to be forever associated with the name Joss Whedon.”

On the legacy of Buffy in pop-culture, Gellar says:

“I’m not the only person facing this, and I hope the legacy hasn’t changed… I hope that it gives the success back to the people that put in all of the work. I will always be proud of Buffy. I will always be proud of what my castmates did, what I did. Was it an ideal working situation? Absolutely not. But it’s OK to love Buffy for what we created because I think it’s pretty spectacular.”

Admittedly, Gellar won’t go into specifics of what her problems were when she was shooting Buffy, but a lot of her co-stars have been implying that there was a huge clash with Whedon who was making things difficult for the star. “It was obvious that Sarah lacked the support to be the leader she needed and wanted to be,” says Buffy co-star Emma Caulfield, “There was a tremendous amount of resentment and animosity [toward her] from a certain someone — and I suppose now we can all guess who.”

Gellar’s husband Freddie Prinze Jr. also shared, “The stuff they pressed upon her, without any credit or real salary, while she was often the only one doing 15-hour days … yet she was still able to get the message of that character out every single week and do it with pride and do it professionally.”

If anything, Gellar is still celebrated as a pop-culture icon, and I hope we get to see more of her in the future. As for Joss Whedon, I think the allegations are going to be sticking around for a long while.