While the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer will forever go down in history as one of - if not the most - iconic shows of our time, specifically when it comes to female empowerment, things came crashing down for the fandom over the last few years following claims of sexism and misconduct. It all began in early 2021 with Charisma Carpenter, who played stuck-up cheerleader-turned-demon hunter Cordelia Chase on both Buffy and Angel, came out with allegations against universe creator, Joss Whedon. To barely graze the surface, Carpenter reported a terrible working environment with Whedon’s toxicity at the center of it. From there, several other franchise stars including Amber Benson and Michelle Trachtenberg aired their grievances about the upsetting conditions they faced while working on the series.
Through it all, one woman was oddly silent, giving only a vague message of support for her whistleblowing co-stars with Sarah Michelle Gellar seemingly taking a backseat to the allegations. That is, until now. The Cruel Intentions star has officially made her thoughts known surrounding what she referred to as “an extremely toxic male set” while speaking during The Wrap's Power of Women Summit in Los Angeles last week. Calling out the stressful working environment, Gellar revealed that “women were pitted against each other” in an attempt to ensure that they wouldn’t become “too powerful” as a unit. Because she was enveloped in this chaos day in and day out, the series star admits that she soon came to believe that this is “what all sets were like.”
“Now that I’ve had this opportunity to work with so many more women and men that support women as well, I realized how easy an experience it can be,” she said, recognizing that not every project would be as traumatizing as the set that she called home for seven years. But, she also knows that women aren’t completely out of the woods yet, adding that “we’re still in that place where all those departments a lot of times need to be women for us to have a voice.” Perhaps it’s with this knowledge and those unfortunate life lessons that she learned two decades ago that Gellar has made sure to sign on for more executive positions along with her acting roles.
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The actress took a major hiatus from the world of Hollywood over the last 15 or so years, mainly appearing in one-off episodes of television shows and lending her voice to animated projects including Star Wars Rebels and Masters of the Universe: Revelation. It was during this year that she made her big move back into the world of live-action when she starred as the Headmaster in Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s Do Revenge.
Next, she has an even bigger comeback on the way via Paramount+’s supernatural teen drama Wolf Pack. While at first, she was unsure about doing the series, she ultimately decided to go for it after reading the script. She also signed on as an executive producer, enabling her to have more control over the production, and likely, ensure that what happened to her and her peers on the beloved Buffy the Vampire Slayer won’t happen to anyone else.
Check out a teaser for Wolf Pack below.