Sarah's Acting

[Your Creamy Coolness]

I personally think Sarah is a great actress. I will admit the whole cast was a little wooden in the beginning, even her, but they really grew into the roles and the whole acting thing. I am writing this cause I was IMDB for Buffy and couldn't beleive the people saying she sucked. I was like UHH...The Body, the ending of Forever, the girl makes me cry. I will admit I don't thinks she pulls off the emotion like Aly, Aly kills me....I could watch her over and over and she just pulls the emotion. But I think Sarah is great in her own. Of course I guess this board is biast..so who knows if I will get any "real" answers. I also thought Emma was a good cryer too!

[eponinethen]

Well, I personally didn't use to like Buffy as a character – and SMG definitely wasn't one of my favourite actresses. I have changed my mind about the character of Buffy, but even then – when I wasn't a fan – I did think Sarah had her moments. And when I say moments I mean moments of awesomeness – like in Prophecy Girl, like in many parts of season seven, and definitely like in The Body, where she is just great. Pretty much.
SMG isn't one of the best actresses out there, imo, but she definitely does not suck.

[Your Creamy Coolness]

Very nice answer! Thanks :)

[Wiccaness]

i agree with eponinethen...obviously the body is a great example that showed just how great they can act. I think it showed best obviously SMG's acting but AH too.the res of the cast did a great job too. I think SMG is a great actress not as much in the begging but i still thought she was pretty good.

[The Chosen]

I think Sarah is an intelligent, funny, and sweet-potato-man blessed actress. I think she's a not-so-bad actress and yeah, she did have those moments that make you remember why you love the show. But all of the supporting actors really helped each other and each of their personalites reflected off each other.

Sarah is a great actress, but the whole show was definately a team effort. :)
- TC

[Darling Faithy]

Sarah is a commonly GOOD actress. I don't think she's fabulous or anything, some of her emotion scenes kinda turned me off of the moment, the Body is one that she did pull out some amazing acting skills, but really other than that, I never really saw Sarah Michelle Gellar as a great actress. Alyson Hannigan is a good actress to me, and she does well in drama I think lol. I love Emma Caufield, she really wasn't that great int he beginning, but after watching her progress, and I just came to love her as an actress. I'm slightly more picky about acting skills, I think it's perhaps that I am one so I grade everyone so high haha...great actors and actresses become great by their ability to detach themselves from the real world and live in their own, and sometimes I just didn't see it with Sarah.

[Panda]

it took me until about season 5 to really get into buffy's character and like her fully. the first thing i saw of smg's was cruel intentions, which i loved, so i think she has qualities about her that make her a good actress. she may not choose the best of roles for films but when she does she's very entertaining.

[Lyri]

i love SMG, i think she's a hard working woman who knows what she wants and goes after it. but saying that, i don't think she's a amazingly good actress. i think she's good, i think she has to have some talent to get where she is, but i think there are others on the shows who were better than she was. Aly comes immedialtly to mind.
yes, SMG had her moments, 'The Body' 'The Gift' and a few others, but i think those moments have more to do with the people she's acting off. the people in the scene with her. like Michelle in 'The Gift' David and Tony in 'Prophecy Girl' there's always someone there for the emotion to come both ways. Apart from 'The Body' i think it would be hard to find a scene where SMG shines just for her own acting ability and not because who's in the scene with her.

everyone's mentioned in this thread about how amazing an actress Aly H is. and i have to agree, she's a wonderful actress, able to carry emotional scenes better than almost anyone from the show. but i also think that Nick B is also a very good actor. not many people think of him when we're listing our fave actors from the shows, but he's always on my list. and yeah, maybe i'm a tiny bit biased as Xanderis one of my fave characters, but i do believe that Nick is a good actor. one scene that alwasy comes to my mind when i think of Nick's acting ability is the final scene from 'The Replacement' when the gang are helping Xander move out of his basement and Riley tells Xander that he knows Buffy doesn't love him...i ALWAYS end up feeling sorry for Xander, and it wasn't even about him! lol, it takes a real actor to make you feel something like that.

[TabulaRasa]

I think she is brilliant. That's cause I love her, lol. But no, seriously she really is. And if others don't see that, too bad for them.

[SpikedBuffy]

Well, given my extreme love and devotion for the woman...you guess what my answer is.

I think what qualifies someone is a good actor is the feedback that is given by a director. I have watched all the special features, commentaries, and featurettes on the discs, and there are numerous times that Joss has stated the fact that his actors and actresses give him so much emotion and power to the scenes that it's just phenomal. Some of his conversations have revolved around Sarah and her abilities to bring Buffy to life. (And yes, he has talked about others, too).

I like to think of the range as well. Sarah has not only played a blonde bombshell superhero for seven years on a show, but has played a rather ditzy young woman, terrified women, a sexual creature, a regular girl just trying to make in the big bad world, provided voice characters and much more. She has an amazing range and can play many different parts, and brings different elements of her talent into all these different characters.

I don't really see what seperates her from others. In my opinion, in terms of what it means to bring a character to life, she is not different than Reese Witherspoon, Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, etc, etc, etc. They all bring characters to life, and you're never bored watching them.

SMG power! :)

[TabulaRasa]

And let's not forget Buffybot. No one can do it that well...not like Sarah!

[spuffy]

Sarah is one of my favourite actresses she pulls it off, every thing they throw at her she embrace it and makes it her own that's what's unique about her, I think she's a fighter when it comes to acting.

[wehappyfew]

I used to think Sarah was the best actress on the show. Of course, I was bias. I had been a fan of Sarah since my mom watched her on All My Children. And then with Buffy...ect ect.

But I've taken a break from Buffy, I'm getting one of my best friends into it so we started at the beginning and just finished Consequences (Season 3). As much as I do think Sarah is a good actress...I think she has more of a Classic Flair to her. She kind of put all her emotion into each line. Now, don't me wrong part of me thinks that's a great quality! But the other part really sees right through her and it makes her come of as fake. I also see a lot what I think is more Sarah's personality in Buffy. That's a pitfall of tv. Because with good shows, the actors spend so many years in their shoes....it's almost as if the line starts to blur and Sarah/Buffy become one. I still love Sarah, and I love the character of Buffy. My friend who is a new fan of Buffy....doesn't like the character too much and I think that's interesting. I started watching the show when I was 10 (Lie to Me, Season 2) so...liking Buffy was more natural. Like "She's the main character, she's hot....I like her." But if I had started watching the show today, I'm not sure what I would think of her because Buffy can be quite annoyin and self-involved. But the love that I have for her seems so unconditional now. (I hope that doesn't sound too creepy.)


I think Alyson is awesome and I can never watch when she cries, cause it gets me. But Alyson as Dark Willow---I was so pleasantly surprised with that performance.

I also do recognize Nicky as a good actor. In Becoming Pt. 2 when he's giving his love-speech to sleeping Willow....my heart goes out to him. Nick always just seemed very natural and real. Xander is one of my favorite characters though....

I think Emma is the best actor/tress on the show, however. No one can pull off the lines like she can. She was perfect for the role of Anya. Anya has become my favorite character.

Michelle/Dawn=annoying waste of space. I wish they had made Dawn either younger/less annoying to viewers. I didn't buy anything she said throughout the entire 3 years she was on the show. I really didn't buy that she had a close relationship with Willow and the other Scoobies....who could like her at all? In used to think it was Dawn who I found truly annoying (and she is), but in Season 8....I can stand her a lot more. Michelle was just wooden and annoying.

[TabulaRasa]

I think Emma is the best actor/tress on the show, however. No one can pull off the lines like she can. She was perfect for the role of Anya. Anya has become my favorite character.




I have seen her in a few things, and she is like that in everything i have seen so far, which makes me feel like it was just an extension of who she is anyways. So I don't know how I feel. If that is really good acting or not. But either way I love Emma/Anya.

Sarah/Buffy is still my favorite tho, cause I love her and all that Junk. Lol. I am not weird tho. :) She is just brill is all.

[Shadow Weaver]

SMG is a wonderful actress. She can do comedy, romance, drama all in the course of one episode. Traumatic scenes, such as when an important character dies, see her give some of her best performances. Season 5 sees her reach her high point as an actress. Just look at how she portrays Buffy following her mother's death. In that and in everything else she does as Buffy (I'm not really that familiar with her other work) she's very believable.

[marukisu]

Although im a huge fan of SMG and her work i think shes just ok. She has alot of potential to do better though because the movies she chooses arent all that spectacular but there were moments like in "The Body" and "Normal Again" where she pulled out the big guns and showed the range she had. To say she cant act at all though is very untrue. Although i will have to admit my fav female actressin the Buffyverse has to be Amy Acker. I really think she has alot of range in her acting and she changed character several times on Angel. She went from crazy paranormal cavegirl to smart southern-bell to sexy bookworm to the powerful demon known as Illyria. I think that in order for us to see SMG's true potentail we need to see her in an Illyria like role because its so different from the norm for SMG.

[Randy Giles]

I love "Buffy" - I really, really do, but to be honest I think nearly the entire cast was is only "good". Each of them grew into their characters enough that now I have a hard time imagining anyone else in their roles, but I think that they might could have cast better actors in the beginning. Sarah is a good actress, but by no means a great one. In everything I've seen her in she's usually just a little off - although I still like her a lot.

And in "Buffy" I think sometimes she overacted a bit, especially in the scenes that called for her to be really emotional.

But the most improved acting award has to go to David B., whose portrayal of Angel in the first few seasons of Buffy make me want to vomit - he's pretty bad, but by the time he got to "Angel" he was fantastic. (And he's even an even better actor on Bones.)

[Supergirl]

I thought SMG really made BtVS the show it is/was and with every season, she developed the character and really allowed herself to let the character grow. I always thought of her as a good actress but one that could most probably raise the bar a bit more to become a great actress. I think with the right scripts and projects, she could do that. I really liked her in 'Cruel Intentions' though.