Sarah vs Jessica

[white avenger]

(I'm not sure whether this belongs here, in "Social Studies," or "Inside Out," so if the Mods That Be decide it's in the wrong place...}

Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jessica Alba star in two similar series ("Buffy" and "Dark Angel"), then go on to careers in movies. Both are attractive, talented, and ambitious. Jessica's movie career seems to have, up to now, been considerably more successful than Sarah's. Why?

[The Kinslayer]

I love Sarah as Buffy but I mostly prefer Jessicas movies (not all of them). Are they "better" movies because of Jessica? Not in my opion, even if she does have something special. Why she has starred in more succesfull movies I don´t know. Smart choices? A better agent? More good looking and sexier? Or just plain luck? Is Sarah hard to work with? I certainly don´t hope so, but who knows?

You can never tell who´s going to succed in terms of success (more popular movies). And it has little to do who´s really the best actor (if you can descide that). It´s just that the little things has to go your way. And of course your own ambition. Do you want as much people as possible watching your movies (make as much money for yourself as you possilbe can) or do you want to play more "interesting" rolls?

[SoBlind]

i love sarah to death but i cant say her choices when it comes to movie roles have been the best. simply irresistable was just horrible, scooby doo...well, it wasnt bad but it wasnt the greatest either. that happily n'ever after didnt really go too well is unfortunate. i think her best bet so far has been the grudge. simply because there arent as many horror movies as comedies or romatic comedies. i dont prefer jessica alba over sarah but shes made better choices

[Keanoite]

Maybe it is a couple of things, Buffy was a far more successful show than Dark Angel. Alba wasn't necessarily just known for that role where as SMG was and always will be Buffy. Also the films Alba picked, whether they were cinematically gratifying or not, were hits. Big summer, teenage girl loving hits. Sarah has only one to her name and that's Cruel Intentions. Also I kinda feel that SMG took herself too seriously and picked roles that she really shouldn't have. Then again there are also times when she didnt take herself seriously enough...Scooby Doo anyone?

[white avenger]

Maybe it is a couple of things, Buffy was a far more successful show than Dark Angel. Alba wasn't necessarily just known for that role where as SMG was and always will be Buffy. Also the films Alba picked, whether they were cinematically gratifying or not, were hits. Big summer, teenage girl loving hits. Sarah has only one to her name and that's Cruel Intentions. Also I kinda feel that SMG took herself too seriously and picked roles that she really shouldn't have. Then again there are also times when she didnt take herself seriously enough...Scooby Doo anyone?


...plus, she never got to wear a bikini in any of her roles...


No, seriously, I think being identified with a particular role to the exclusion of all else the way Sarah is STILL referred to, or at least associated with, her role as Buffy, has hurt her career the way type casting has done more than a few talented actors. Look at how long it took Sean Connery to get any sort of decent role after he left the James Bond franchise, or John Wayne, who could never make anything believable except westerns and war movies.

After Buffy, Sarah has carefully avoided the "kick ass chick" roles of the "Kill Bill" variety, presumably in order establish herself as a legitimate actor, and as a result, the only things that she HAS done haven't either appealed to or expanded her fan base.

To the best of my knowledge, nobody refers to Jessica as the star of "Dark Angel." Maybe having her show only run for a couple of seasons helped with that, or the fact that in many ways, Max was a copy cat Buffy, and, as such, less remorible than the original.

[littlewilly]

I couldnt even tell you one film Jessica alba has starred in. alot of movies these days are crap compared to the 90's. These days its all about image and looks.

[LittleMissLikesToFight]

Jessica Alba cannot even remotely be labeled an actress to me. and when i said that out loud in one of my t.v. media classes, everyone nodded their heads enthusiastically... a cardboard cutout could act better than her.

[white avenger]

Jessica Alba cannot even remotely be labeled an actress to me. and when i said that out loud in one of my t.v. media classes, everyone nodded their heads enthusiastically... a cardboard cutout could act better than her.


Someone, I can't remember who, once said that there is a distinct difference between actors and movie stars. Jessica Alba is a movie star.

[Crazy Flakes]

Jessica Alba cannot even remotely be labeled an actress to me. and when i said that out loud in one of my t.v. media classes, everyone nodded their heads enthusiastically... a cardboard cutout could act better than her.

I know! I've seen a few of her movies (I have yet to see Dark Angel), and in all of them, her acting was awful. Sarah Michelle Gellar may be in quite a few bad movies, but at least when the time comes, she can act.


Someone, I can't remember who, once said that there is a distinct difference between actors and movie stars. Jessica Alba is a movie star.

I agree 100%. Jessica Alba is more of a media figure than anything. She's much better known for her looks than her acting ability.

[Senior Watcher]

thats a good question WA. i think the answer is simple, sarah doent "slut" herself out as much as jessica. sarah is more conservative in how she puts her self out there.

im not saying sarah hasnt done anything risque because she has. what im saying is i see jessica doing a nude seen more than i see sarah doing one........and in hollywood, sex sells. because of that statement, sarah just isnt as marketable as jessica.

but thats okay with me. sarah is a much better actress hands down.

[ashleey]

I agree that both are real talented and both are beautiful people but like everyone else there are also alot of differences between the both of them. We really can't pinpoint why the other is more popular now because we never know the real deal behind these stars..

[Jenny]

Honestly I think it comes down to you can't compare Buffy to Dark Angel. Honestly the shows are not even on the same planet as far as quality, depth, fanbase, acting, I mean I could go on and on. So coming from such a humongously popular show...and the people who love it LOVE it..really LOVE it...well I think it's a very difficult thing to go on and DO anything else.

Plus I do think that Jessica kind of oozes a more obvious sexuality compared to Sarah, and Sarah's personal life is much lower key than Jessica's...all things that would contribute. Some of the blame can go on Sarah's agent I'm sure....it's all about marketing and picking the good roles in Hollywood. Speaking of good roles..many will disagree with me but I think Harvard Man was one of Sarah's finest movie performances. And nobody likes Cruel Intentions?

[bufsum]

Someone, I can't remember who, once said that there is a distinct difference between actors and movie stars. Jessica Alba is a movie star.

Well, let's give a :cheering: to that!

Also, I think that Sarah and Jessica have very different Hollywood personas. Sarah is seen as the slayer, champion for feminism in a miniskirt and Jessica is seen as his boyfriend, and the girl in the Fantastic Five.

[Superstar]

i think her best bet so far has been the grudge. simply because there arent as many horror movies as comedies or romatic comedies.
I think her choices in movies are varied on purpose (including voice-only work); she can do scream queen, comedy and drama very well.
These roles have been for films that are not summer blockbusters. I would say that this is also intentional.
To place distance between herself and the Buffy character would take time and a body of work that shows range or else you are left with typecasting.
The success of the film itself is immaterial.

I think most of the financial success of "The Grudge" was due more to Buffy fans going to see Sarah rather than any quality of the movie, which was a total cliche of every horror/mystical force movie made in the last 25 years.
The Grudge was a remake of Ju On, a Japanese film.
Most of it was adapted pretty much on target, which is the goal of an adaptation.
How you feel about any cliches are another matter.

[Jules]

I thought SMG's role in Cruel Intentions was amazing and I remember reading that she picked the role so hopefully she wouldn't be type cast in later films. Its a shame that that hasn't been how its worked out. As an actress I thought going from the role of Buffy to something like Cruel Intentions would show casting people how good an actress SMG really is, but obviously not.

Anf like most of you have mentioned, Jessica isn't specifically known for her role in Dark Angel. It certainly wasn't as popular as Buffy.

[FluffyBuffy]

To place Jessica and Sarah in the same sentence is an outrage. I despise Jessica Alba, she is not very talented at all, and she only seems to get roles because she is willing to show as much flesh as possible. Into the Blue, Sin City, etc most of these films depicted her in skimpy outfits and that is exactly what the public enjoys. Image as someone pointed out has a lot to do with it.

Sarah on the other hand seems to stray away from things like this which I admire her for. Even before I got into Buffy months ago, I only knew Sarah from Cruel intentions and Swans Crossing, so having to say that people only went to see the Grudge because they were Buffy fans is not necessarily true, plus the Grudge was a japanese remake and I loved the original more so obviously fans were curious to see how the American version would live up.

[The Kinslayer]

I only knew Sarah from Cruel intentions and Swans Crossing, so having to say that people only went to see the Grudge because they were Buffy fans is not necessarily true
It´s not a 100% true but I do think that a lot of people saw the movie because of Sarah´s roll in Buffy.

So I guess we ´ve established that Sarah is the better actress and Jessica is the bigger star. I guess the original question was why. As for Jessica´s getting more attention due to her willingness to show some skin I think you´re right. But just to make one thing clear, I fell in love with her in Flipper, in the way you can fall in love with childactors. Somehow it´doesn´t seem as bad then women are saying it about young boys as then men say it about girls. I´m not a creep, honest. I´m just feed up with the discrimination from the workplace (I work mostly with women and children.)

But personally me liking Jessica has nothing to do with looks, it´s charm all the way. And to take a more manly example I can name Tom Cruise. I have no trouble understanding why women like him (yes I know not everybody does, but hey I was there then Top gun were released). Even I sometimes have a hard time resisting his charm. Ok, so this post has clearly gone way overboard. So I bettter stop talking now.

[white avenger]

thats a good question WA. i think the answer is simple, sarah doent "slut" herself out as much as jessica. sarah is more conservative in how she puts her self out there.

im not saying sarah hasnt done anything risque because she has. what im saying is i see jessica doing a nude seen more than i see sarah doing one........and in hollywood, sex sells. because of that statement, sarah just isnt as marketable as jessica.

but thats okay with me. sarah is a much better actress hands down.

This is in no way a defense of Jessica Alba, because I prefer Sarah as much as anyone here, but, while Jessica has certainly shown much more skin in her roles in the past, both ladies were very definite about not ever doing any sort of nude scene, and Sarah is the one who has recently stated that she would now be willing to do so.