Austrailian Big Hit Magazine
Issue 37 (April 2002)
Sister Act
As TV sisters Dawn and Buffy Summers, Michelle Trachtenberg and Sarah Michelle Gellar usually spend their days battling demons on Buffy. But sometimes they just wanna hang out and have fun! We talked to the cute pair about Buffy's fans, their friendship and BeDazzling Jackets!
Big Hits - You both starred on the daytime soap 'All My Children' before working together on Buffy, right? Did that make everything easier?
Michelle Trachtenberg - Yes. It wasn't like, ''Oh, hi nice to meet you', it was like, 'Hey, how are you?' We've kept in touch. Sarah's also very wise and very smart, and I go to her for a lot of advice.
Sarah Michelle Gellar - Michelle's an amazing talent and I cannot go on enough about what she's brought to the show and how she challenges me every day. Her performances are amazing and give such a wonderful dynamic to the show, and she's someone that has watched the show for five years and loves it, and it shows.
BH - Sarah, we hear that you suggested Michelle for the role of Dawn in the first place.
SMG - I ran into her at a high school where Marc Blucas [Riley] was having basketball practice, and I had gone to watch and support him. She goes to that school and I was just sitting in the stands and started talking to her and she told me I had to come and see her locker, which was covered in Buffy everything! I knew in the back of my mind that Joss [Whedon, the show's creator] was going to introduce this character [Dawn]. You can't convince Joss to do anything, but I thought I could help him along a little bit. So I brought Michelle to the set to visit me and meet the cast and I wound up leaving her with Joss for half-an-hour. So when Joss started looking for the actress, Michelle was always in the back of his mind once he decided that she wasn't too old for the part.
MT - Sarah was very, very supportive from the beginning. she is such a wonderful person and she totally thought I would be able to do this and do great things with Dawn, so she defiantly played a role in the support system, and it just went from there.
BH - Do you both feel like sisters on the show?
SMG - To the point where she probably hates having me around! (laughs) She already has an older sister - and I think I'm harder on her than her older sister is - but she's capable of so much, and it raises the bar that much, so I expect that much from her.
MT - Everyone on the set, especially Sarah, is really fabulous about getting me my time in school and saying, "OK, what are you learning now? You have a geometry test to take? Then go, go!" They won't let me talk to them if there is a possible opportunity for me to run to school between takes. So, they're all very supportive.
BH - But you still have fun together, right?
MT - It's really fun when I have a scene with Sarah. Especially an emotional scene, as sad as they are. We had one on Wednesday, and it wasn't a very long scene but it was a very sweet and sentimental scene. We really connected with each other, and we were able to give back to the cameras. It's almost easy to go off the script and say what we think the characters are feeling - but of course, we say what's written - but that's how in tune Sarah is with Buffy, and I think I'm getting there more and more with Dawn.
BH - What do you do when you have some spare time on the set together?
MT - We have Bedazzles and put rhinestones on our jackets, bags and T-shirts between takes!
BH - How funny!
MT - Sarah knows what the next trend will be. She's always saying, 'No, honey, that's not cool anymore.' She's the fashion queen.
BH - What about away from the set?
MT We go bowling! We may not be very good, but we have fun. My game has improved thanks to Freddie [Prinze Jr, Sarah's fiancé]. I used to bowl around 80, but the last time I got about a 170.
BH - It was tough going for the Summers girls last year. Will they ever be happy?
MT - I don't' know. I think that, just like life, we go through a lot of relationships that don't end on the happiest note, and that's kind of what the writers are showing too, is that the characters that you admire go through this as well. I don't know if in the future there will be a super happy relationship. I don't know that that's reality. In reality there are many relationships that have their faults. You can be very much together, and then there's ups and downs.
SMG - That's the whole point of the show. When someone breaks your hear, it feels like the world is ending. And in Buffy's case, that's true. But everyone feels that. And that's the point.
BH - The good times between Buffy and Dawn are really sweet, aren't they?
MT - Well I know Buffy and Dawn's relationship has always been pretty much one of love. It may not have been the happiest because of the circumstances that surround their relationship, but they've always been together.
BH - Why do you think the show has such a strong fan base?
SMG - I always knew there was something special about the show. I never imagined it would take off like it has, though. We were a mid-season replacement on The WB network called Buffy the Vampire Slayer. You can imagine how much respect we got that first year! But the wonderful thing about being on that network was that it allowed us time to progress and find our sea legs, and I think that gave us the chance to get to our second season, where we really sot of came into our own.
MT - You can read the characters. If something happened on Buffy and you could see that happening to you, and you could understand what kind of reactions well. I guess the world of Buffy, as complex as it is, is almost simple to decode, because it's just like life.
BH - So do you think it's because younger fans can relate directly to Buffy?
MT - Well, every day we act as the slayer. The slayer battles to overcome demons, wee battle obstacles. When the slayer overcomes that demon, we have overcome an obstacle and we're better for it and the people who are around us are better for it. But then when the slayer gets hurt, then we get hurt, then we feel it, and we have to deal with the repercussions.
SMG - I wouldn't change Buffy for anything and I wouldn't change the course in which she has evolved, but it's nice to be able to do something that is a little different.
MT - She [Buffy] has to deal with so many things, and then there's this horrible demon that she has to go kill, and teens have to deal with their tests and doing well in school and some eventually have to start thinking about college and then all of a sudden they have a crush on a boy and the boy likes them back and then they're not sure. it's just a whole mix of things, and that's exactly what we illustrate on the show.
BH - How much do you contribute to the storylines?
MT - I am the only person under the age of 20 on the set. Joss says, "If we write something for you and you're not comfortable saying a certain thing great, just say so." And we'll talk about certain things and lines from those conversations will pop up in the script later. We all love Harry Potter on the set, for example. Sarah and Joss introduced me to it.
SMG - (gets excited) I have this brilliant storyline all written out! We did a silent episode (Hush), and this year I think it should be the invisible episode where you don't see me at all but things move and you can hear my voice - so I get eight days off and I only do one day of voice-over work! (laughs) That's the storyline that would come after the coma storyline, of course!
BH - What's the best part of being on the show?
MT - I love acting. It's not a job for me. I guess it's more like hobby, because a hobby is something that you really like to do. A hobby is something that you specifically pick yourself ... so the second I start viewing it as a job, when I have to struggle to get up in the morning to go to work, then I know that there's something else that I need to do.
SMG - Actually, people always ask me if I'm burnt out and if I still want to continue doing it. Every summer you sort of sit back and take that look, and I couldn't do this show if it wasn't something that I was still proud of and still loved doing. I'm not going to say I don't get tired and the hours are long, but I feel like we're doing something really special and I feel it's only gotten better. Buffy is so close to me. My relationship with the show right now is almost closer than it was three years ago. Sometimes television gets a bad rap, but on my weekends when I have a break ands go to see a movie, sometimes there will be weeks and weeks and weeks where there is nothing I want to see. Yet I find my show interesting and a lot of shows on television still interesting week after week.
BH - Do you feel the character is the role model or you?
SMG - I think it's two separate things, but I remember what it was like to be that age and have those magazines and look up to those girls. There are people on television and movies, musicians - whatever they are - that I admire, that I strive to be like, and if it can be even the smallest bit of inspiration ... To believe that your dreams can come true and that you can follow your dreams, I think that's an honour.