Sarah Michelle Gellar on The Tonight Show


Leno: My first guest plays Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or my next guest, did I say first guest? My next guest, sorry. She's starring in two upcoming films, I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream II. Please welcome Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Leno: How are you?

Leno: Hey, it's nice to meet you.

Sarah: Well the worst is over, I didn't trip. I feel better now.

Audience Member: I love You.

Sarah: Thank you, I love you too.

Leno: Like you have a chance, right. Well no, I was just reading about you, you're only 20 years old right? But I know you've been acting, what, about 15 years?

Sarah: Yes, since I was 4. I started when I was 4. I did my first movie when I was 4.

Leno: Wow, that's pretty good. That's pretty good. Now you were on...what soap were you on?

Sarah: I was on All My Children.

Leno: Oh, okay. Now were you one of these people that had a horrible life and did terrible things?

Sarah: No, I was a good character. I go with misunderstood. You know. I had a busy first week. I locked my little sister in the crypt, burned my parent's divorce parents, tried to seduce my stepfather, when he turned me down I slept with the stable boy, and then cried rape and went to jail. It was a good first week.

Leno: Wow. Wow. And this was before you even started the series. This is all... Now you also did commercials right? Did you do a lot of those?

Sarah: Uh, yeah. I did...about, I think over 100 commercials all told. Some national, some...

Leno: Because you were the Burger King girl right?

Sarah: Yes, I was the little Burger King girl that couldn't say the word "burger." It sort of came out, "bugah."

Leno: Oh, they don't want that, Bugah King.

Sarah: No, usually they like you to be able to pronounce the product you're representing. But uh, they did send me for speech lessons and eventually I could speak and say the word, burger," but unfortunately I couldn't say anything else, birthday... you know, that kind of stuff.

Leno: Now what age are we talking, 5?

Sarah: I was about 5 to 7 when I did them, I did about 30.

Leno: Oh, okay. Now what happened with MacDonald's, what was that whole story?

Sarah: Well they were just a little antsy, you know. I didn't think it was that big a deal personally. It was the first product to ever use another company's name in a commercial.

Leno: Oh, you mean like Burger King saying you were better than...

Sarah: Right, what I said was, "Do I look 20% smaller to you? I must to MacDonald's because their hamburgers are 20% smaller," which everyone knows is true, and not flame broiled. But uh...

Leno: Oh I do remember those ads actually.

Sarah: Yeah, so I said that and MacDonalds didn't know what to do because no one had ever done it before.

Leno: Right.

Sarah: So MacDonalds turned around and sued Burger King and sued J. Walker Thompson, the advertising company, and sued me, at 5

Leno: And sued you, at age 5? They sued you?

Sarah: Yeah, these big lawyers and little me, at 5.

Leno: Did you, did you have to take like depositions

Sarah: I didn't even know how to say the word, "lawyer." I was calling it "layuh, layuh." So, yeah, they turned around...and of course, you're five years old, where do all your friends have birthday parties? I was going to birthday parties at five years old wearing a big straw hat and sunglasses.

Leno: Oh, because you couldn't go to MacDonalds?

Sarah: I couldn't go...truth in advertising.

Leno: Oh I see.

Sarah: Because you know everything on TV is true.

Leno: Well that is true. So if you got spotted...oh I see. Well let's show...we have an ad, let's show the ad. Here you are at age 5, as the Burger King girl...

[Burger King Commercial]

Sarah: I was a cute kid, what happened?

Leno: Cute kid. And it's amazing how your hair has lightened up over the years.

Sarah: What do you mean, I'm not a natural blonde?

Leno: I don't know, but sometimes...as you get older, it just gets lighter.

Sarah: It was completely natural. I just woke up one morning and had blonde hair and black roots. So go figure.

Leno: Now also you've done a few movies, you're in this Scream II?

Sarah: Yes, I did. I had a very busy summer. I did "I Know What You Did Last Summer," which is written by the same guy that wrote the original Scream and the new one, Kevin Williamson. And then I went straight and did Scream II and did Scream II on weekends while I was doing Buffy on the weekdays.

Leno: Now let me ask you about this. Now, when you go in to audition for a movie like Scream, do you have to scream...if you couldn't scream could you still get the picture?

Sarah: You know what? Screaming was my entire screen test for I Know What You Did Last Summer. I just stood there and screamed for about five minutes. Like if they said...

Leno: Like, what would they say to you, what kind of scream? I mean

Sarah: Gut-wrenching, painful scream. Primal.

Leno: Can you give us a primal, gut-wrenching painful scream?

Sarah: Will you scream with me?

Leno: No, no, I want to hear you...

Sarah: I don't know about this, Jay Leno asking me to scream...

Leno: Go ahead, go ahead...

Sarah: Do ya'll want to hear me scream, is that what this is?

Leno: That would be great, sure.

Sarah: Well, you go to picture, so you have, like , you know, your best friend in front of you getting killed and you just go [screams] really loud until you have no voice.

Leno: [holding ear] Gee that was very good. That was very good. Well that was terrific. Well congratulations on all your success. I mean, you're only twenty and you're doing TVs and movies and all things...

Sarah: It's a shame I'm going to be washed up at 22 but hey,

Leno: No, no...

Sarah: I can, I can go 90210...go back to high school.

Leno: Sure, sure. You can darken your hair.

Sarah: You have a thing with my hair don't you?

Leno: Come on, I'm just teasing you.

Sarah: I'm insulted you don't like my hair.

Leno: No, I love your hair. It looks great.

Sarah: You don't like my hair.

Leno: No, I like it, [to audience] do you like it? (audience cheers) I like it. We'll be right back with Tap Dogs after this. Thanks Sarah.


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