Sarah Michelle Gellar

An On-Set Visit with Sarah Michelle Gellar

We chat with Daphne on the set of Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.

March 19, 2004 - Last summer Warner Brothers invited IGN FilmForce and a few other websites to the set of Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. In the sequel, Scooby and his friends are investigating a masked villain who’s trying to take over the Mystery, Inc. gang’s home town of Coolsville. While the villain somehow resurrects some of the gang’s old nemeses, including The Black Knight Ghost, The Pterodactyl Ghost, and The 10,000 Volt Ghost, the gang meets relentless reporter Heather Jasper-Howe (Alicia Silverstone), museum curator Patrick Wisely (Seth Green), and re-visits the villain from their first case, Old Man Wickles (Peter Boyle).

On a hot and sunny day in Vancouver, we were shown around various sets for the film, including the Coolsville Museum, which had an exhibit dedicated to the Mystery, Inc. gang complete with statues of some of their past foes; the Wickles mansion, which featured a pretty impressive statue of Peter Boyle as Wickles, standing about 20 feet high; the Mystery, Inc. headquarters, which featured a lab and living area; the Old Tyme Mining Towne, where the gang’s investigation leads them into one of the mines; and an underground laboratory and "monster hive" belonging to the movie’s villain. One could tell that a lot of attention to detail was paid in the creation of each set - from descriptive nameplates on each statue in the museum describing the Scooby-Doo episode the villain is from, to the look of the Wickles mansion, which seemed like it was straight out of one of the cartoons.

After touring the sets, we were able to sit down with a few members of the Scooby-Doo 2 cast and crew. Sarah Michelle Gellar was kind enough to talk to us about her experiences making the Scooby-Doo films, working with the new cast members, and more.

Q: In Scooby-Doo, Daphne wasn’t comfortable with who she was at the beginning of the movie, but became more comfortable in the end. Where does she go this time?

SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR: I think the first story sort of revolved around Daphne finding her place. It’s that same in-between that I think a lot of teenagers and young adults find, which is "Where do I fit in, what’s my place? What’s my purpose, what am I good at?" Because, everything to her was, she was the pretty one, she never really fit in. And this one is more about public image... In the beginning you find Daphne and ... she is confident, because she’s deriving her strength from what other people think - the press and the fans - and it’s all about public image. What she soon realizes is that the public image can change, it’s fickle, and that you have to find your strength from within before you worry about how everyone else perceives you.

Q: Is it easier doing Daphne now on the second film?

GELLAR: This first one was difficult because I was commuting between Australia and Los Angeles, so from the get-go the sequel was easier. Everything about a sequel is easier. I remember when I was in Scream 2, and our whole topic at the beginning of the movie was how sequels suck, and how sequels are never better than the first one. I think what we’re seeing is, the trend is moving away from that. What’s happening, especially with movies based on previous material, you spend the first 45 minutes to an hour setting everything up. Whether it’s Scooby or X-Men, or any of these movies, Spider-Man, there’s so much to get to the place where you think most people know the story, but you just don’t know. I think what’s happening with sequels, again, specifically in this genre of material based on previous material, now the second one you jump right in. You know where your story is, it’s less complicated. I think also, we weren’t also exactly sure what our niche was the first time. Were we a movie for kids? Were we going to be a little more esoteric and go for the little bit more of an older, more satirical audience? We shot everything both ways, and it was really put together in the edit, and really made for a family film. Now, coming in, you know we’re coming in to make a family film, we know our characters, the story is set, and it makes it much easier to just jump in to a story ... As a cast, it’s much easier, because all those kinks from a first movie are worked out. Everyone’s working patterns are so easy, you just sort of come in. For me, specifically, coming in having just wrapped eight years of an experience and having one day to sort of come here, it was like, "Oh, home, easy, family, familial."

Q: What was it like working with [your Buffy co-star] Seth Green again?

GELLAR: If I had my druthers, I’d work with Seth on every project. I think the world is just starting to catch on to him. I’ve known him since I was like seven years old, so like six years ago (clears her throat). It’s how talented he is. He’s an amazing comedian, he’s an incredibly gifted comedian, but he’s also a really giving comedian. A lot of times when you get people who are so incredibly innately funny, it’s about them, they’re funny. What Seth does is tries to make everything funny. He’ll be the first one to come to you and say, "I had this great idea for this line," or "You should do this in this part." I’d like one day to do a movie where we could really work off each other. Obviously, he’s a little more intended for Velma in this movie than for myself, but that’s on my list of things I’d really like to do one day, is to really get to work with Seth.

Q: Do you have more fight sequences in the sequel?

GELLAR: That’s the one thing, they always ask you, "What’s the thing you really want to do in the fights?" "I want to do another big wire routine!" I had never done wirework before the first movie, and the original cut of the fight sequence was something like 10 minutes. As we all know, children - you can’t keep them for 10 minutes. It got chopped down. I was so ready for this fight, and I don’t have a big wire fight in this one. I think the idea being, we did it in the first one, why do it in the second, so this one is a sword fight. But it’s much more Daphne on the defensive. She doesn’t win the fight. It’s a defensive fight, which is fun and really different for me. Instead of sort of being the aggressor, I had to be the defender. I’ve never worked with two sticks at once. And, you’re also fighting this Black Knight Ghost - I don’t know if you guys saw him - he’s 10 feet tall and can barely walk, and there he is wielding this 8-foot sword. It’s daunting.

Q: Was it fun working with these new actors like Alicia Silverstone and all the new monsters?

GELLAR: [The monsters] never show up, they’re never here, they never come out of their trailer. It’s very difficult, very temperamental. The monsters are great. It has a real feel for the cartoon when you bring visitors here and you just see their faces, "I remember in this episode, where the cotton candy glob," or whatever it is, so it reminds you, it gives you more to work off with. Alicia was great. We hit it off right away. She’s terrified about going into series television and she keeps asking me about it. She’s a really easygoing person. We were commenting on how easily - you take a cast of four people that have done a movie together and have all these stories, "Hey, remember when we were in Australia?" And so you always worry about new people. All of a sudden you get Alicia and Seth to come in, and it felt like they’d been with us since the beginning. And Peter Boyle’s great, I mean, come on! Frankenstein. Peter Boyle. But, he unfortunately hasn’t been here that much. I’ve only been able to work with him a couple days.

Q: Are you looking forward to doing more film work now?

GELLAR: I’m looking forward to more than anything else, just sort of figuring out what it is I want to do. For twelve years now, I’ve worked straight through. I’ve never had - I’ve never taken a summer vacation. I go away for two weeks at Christmas time. I went straight from All My Children to Buffy, and doing movies in the hiatus, and I think the most exciting thing for me now is to get the chance to sort of do the different characters. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to be able to make movies on my hiatus, but my hiatus is just that - it’s two-and-a-half months. If a project doesn’t fit in to that exact time, there’s nothing you can do. I think for me, the fun thing now is to take the step back and say, "Okay, now I want to make an action movie." Or, "Now I want to make something serious," or "Now I want to do comedy," and to have those opportunities that I haven’t been able to go after. I think it’ll be strange. It certainly hasn’t hit me yet. It definitely hasn’t hit me. I was home for Fourth of July weekend, and that was sort of the first time I realized, "Oh, I should be going back to work in a couple of weeks." But, I don’t think the enormity of it has hit me yet.

Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed hits theaters Friday, March 26, 2004.

— Brian Z.