Sarah Michelle Gellar isn’t looking in the rearview mirror for her best days. Instead, she has a refreshing take on aging in Hollywood as she takes on what she’s calling her “second act.”
“Look, it’s hard, [but] I don’t want to be 20 again,” Gellar, 48, said in a new interview with “Allure” published on January 7. “I wouldn’t mind having that plump, juicy skin of a 20-year-old, but I don’t want to be that anymore. And I do believe that a lot of it does come from the inside.”
She continued, “Every day on my Instagram feed, [I see] 25-year-olds getting deep-plane facelifts and I’m thinking, ‘What’s happening?’ It would be setting such a weird beauty standard if, all of a sudden, I had a completely different face.”
Sarah Michelle Gellar Isn’t Worried About Proving Herself Anymore
GettyThe “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” alum took a break from acting after giving birth to her two children, Charlotte Grace and Rocky James, whom she shares with husband Freddie Prinze Jr. She returned to the screen in 2022’s Netflix movie “Do Revenge,” and that role made her realize “how much she missed acting.”
However, upon her return, Gellar admitted that she looks at her career through a different lens.
“My priorities for now are doing things that are fun, that feed my soul,” she told “Allure.” “I don’t feel this need to prove I’ve accomplished more in my life than I probably ever thought I would accomplish.”
How ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Shaped Her View of Success
GettyAnd it’s true. Gellar’s resume includes a long list of projects with everything from Burger King commercials to roles in pop culture classics like “Cruel Intentions” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” It’s her turn as Buffy that is what most consider her greatest role.
The series, and undoubtedly Gellar’s take on the main character, has led to everything from a very active Reddit community to even college courses referred to as “Buffy Studies” that take a closer look at feminism in media.
“It’s only with time that you can really appreciate the effect that [Buffy] had,” the “Scooby Doo” star explained to “Allure.” “But the fact that young kids today are finding that show and finding that it’s speaking to them, that’s when you know it really did something important and you were part of something important.”
Not surprisingly, her time on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” helped shape her healthy view of aging in an industry where so many people want to hold on to the beauty of youth.
“Buffy was a hero because she wasn’t like everybody else, but she was herself, and she was okay with that,” she said during the interview. “And I’m me, and I’ve learned that I like me. I’m okay with what I look like and who I am.”
