In-Depth Guide to Sarah Michelle Prinze (Gellar)

I grew up thinking that when I turned 18, I would be the next Chosen One and become the next Slayer. And why not? I was tall and had long legs, I held a black belt in tae-kwan-do, and I was a strong, independent young woman just like Buffy and Faith. Obviously, Buffy and her hometown hellmouth of Sunnydale, California wasn't just a world confined to the square box of my television set. Her world was quite real to my overactive, youthful imagination. I carved stakes and carried crosses with me whenever I had to walk the long, dark street from my babysitting work to home. I dressed up as the Slayer for Halloween. When the homemade stakes magically appeared on our family vacation, my father was absolutely furious. He found them and started shouting something about Mexican airport security. I insisted that there could be vampires in Puerto Vallarta. I never saw my stakes again.

Yes. I was a freak. Moving on.

Later on in my own blossoming stage and film career, I realized that after my many years of watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I had been inadvertently basing my acting style on the lovely Sarah Michelle Gellar. She has influenced the way I portray my characters-even the eighty-year-old German Lillian Troy from I Hate Hamlet had a little bit of Sarah in her.

I have so loved watching this talented woman over the years, from Buffy to Scooby Doo and more recently The Air I Breathe-a phenomenal intertwining proverbial tale sporting a star-studded cast.

But before we hop into it, it is necessary to first note that Sarah has changed her last name from Gellar to Prinze for her and and dashing Freddie's fifth wedding anniversary. Though it might slip-because Sarahmichellegellar just rolls off the tongue so nicely-it is quite the heartfelt gesture, and a signal to the world that theirs is no typical celebrity marriage; therefore, it should be honored.

So now I give you: Where in the world is Sarah Michelle Prinze?

Let's start at the beginning...

Sarah Michelle Gellar was born April 14, 1977, was raised a New Yorker by her single mother Rosellen, and has essentially lived on camera. Her life of performance, according to SMGFan.com (and not listed anywhere else, including IMDB.com), began at the sweet age of 3. Sarah played "a flower girl at Kurt and Mindy's wedding" in the CBS television series Guiding Light.

After that, the story everyone knows indeed began: when she was four, an agent noticed her in a restaurant in upper Manhattan, thus leading to her audition for the role of Jennifer Bianchi in the 1983 TV film An Invasion of Privacy.

Little Sarah also sported pigtails and a blue dress reminiscent of Dorothy Gale in a commercial for Burger King. She declares with four year old attitude that McDonald's is "unbelievable!" for frying their hamburgers instead of broiling them, like Burger King, where she is going to eat. The commercial lead to a lawsuit, and hilariously enough was followed by a Christmas commercial in which she sang "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," rather off-key as so noted by Jay Leno, and bid McDonald's a merry Christmas.

Sarah's Crossing

From then until her big break in 1992, Sarah held several small, some uncredited, roles for television episodes and the 1989 film High Stakes, as well as playing the teenage Jacqueline Bouvier in the NBC mini-series A Woman Named Jackie. 1992 changed everything for the young Sarah when she landed a starring role in sixty-three episodes on the serial Swans Crossing, in which she played the "mayor's scheming daughter" Sydney Orion Rutledge. From playing a wealthy trouble-making teen, Sarah took the stage of soap opera All My Children by storm as Kendall Hart, the long lost and evil daughter of Erica Kane.

Somewhere during the development of her professional career, Sarah attended high school in New York at Professional Children's School and not only graduated two years early, but did it with a 4.0 grade point average.

Buffy Begins

The rest is sure to go down in pop culture history. From All My Children came the teen thriller I Know What You Did Last Summer, in which Sarah co-starred with Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ryan Philippe, and future husband, Freddie Prinze Jr.; Scream 2, adding 'scream queen' to her resume; and the devastatingly sexy role of Kathryn Merteuil in Cruel Intentions.

Sci-fi, pop culture history was made in 1997 when Sarah Michelle brought one of the most beloved characters in cult classic history to life. Director Joss Whedon had Sarah screen-test eleven times for the role of vampire slayer Buffy Summers-she had originally auditioned for prom queen gossip girl Cordelia Chase. Buffy the Vampire Slayer would run for seven glorious seasons before Sarah announced she would not renew her contract with Fox.

Her work on Buffy will probably always be one of Sarah's most memorable roles; however, she didn't stop there. Take a break? Who, Sarah? It appears that 'go' and 'go faster' are the only two speeds of which Mrs. Prinze is aware. She is a self-proclaimed workaholic, which is clear from her long list of acting credits.

After Buffy, Sarah went straight back to the silver screen for the live-action Scooby Doo and Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, the horror flick The Grudge, the role of an ex-porn star in The Southland Tales, and the embodiment of Sorrow as a pop star sold out to the mob in The Air I Breathe. Most recently, Sarah finished her work as a woman who had it all yet had no will to live in Veronika Decides to Die. Now, Sarah's dedicated fans avidly await her return to television as Alice Malady in The Wonderful Maladys.

Busy Bee!

Outside of her incredible acting career, Sarah Michelle is also famous for her humanitarian work. SMGFan.com reports that "Sarah is very active in supporting her favorite charities." She has been an ambassador for CARE for nearly three years and has consistently donated her time, talent, and threads to such foundations as Habitat for Humanity and Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation, among many others.

Babes in Summerland

Sarah was married in 2002 to Freddie Prinze Jr. in a private celebration in Mexico. For their five-year wedding anniversary in 2007, Sarah took on Freddie's name and became the lovely Sarah Michelle Prinze. And most recently, People Magazine reported that Charlotte Grace Prinze, Freddie and Sarah's first child, was welcomed into the world on September 22, 2009. Sarah's pregnancy was first reported in April 2009. The couple said that Charlotte is worth the seven years of waiting.

Though Sarah Michelle will be playing in the highly anticipated The Wonderful Maladys and Freddie will be taking on a weekly job on 24, People Magazine'sKate Coyne reports "their careers now take a backseat to their new roles as mom and dad." Freddie acknowledged this in the same interview with People when he said, "I want [Charlotte] to know that there is no such thing as an entertainment emergency."

Growing and Going

Sarah's scrutinized life indeed continues on. She has gone from the little Burger King girl to teen sci-fi star, from posing on the cover of Maxim to one of People's most beautiful women, from scream queen to girly-girl Daphne Blake, and finally, she is moving on to Maladys and motherhood.

Sarah Michelle Prinze will certainly continue to be an inspiration to women of all ages, everywhere.

Sources:

SMGFan.com

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Michelle_Gellar
The Internet Movie Database - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001264/
YouTube.com - Sarah's Burger King commercial - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1EMffQ6XPw
People Magazine - http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20320880,00.html
TheInsider.com