Sarah Michelle Gellar: 60 Questions For Sarah
Q: So it's the sushi that did it?
A: I love sushi. We love to try new stuff. Where we go every week the sushi chef makes us two things that are new. One of them I'll always eat, but the second one is often not for me. Once he made us stomach, and I felt like I was on "Fear Factor." Freddie ate it and loved it.
Q: Think you could go on "Fear Factor"?
A: Oh, God, no--$25 million would not make me go on "Fear Factor." You couldn't pay me enough money to eat a pig rectum.
Q: What did Freddie have that none of your previous boyfriends had?
A: He balances me. We're both homebodies. We love to have our friends over. We love board games--we'll play them until three in the morning. I love Scattergories, Scrabble, Director's Cut, Facts in Five.
Q: How many children would you like to have?
A: No idea. If you ask Freddie, he'll say "a gaggle, a bushel."
Q: Who cries more: you or Freddie?
A: Me.
Q: Does he write you poetry?
A: Yes, he does.
Q: Freddie thinks that acting is very simple. Do you?
A: I don't understand Method actors. To me, Method seems like channeling. I don't want to be thinking about my dog dying, I want to be the character. In that sense, it's simple to me, to become that character. I get paid to act. If I have to play a homeless person, I'm bathing that morning. When I had to play Buffy crawling out of a grave, not only did I shower every morning, but sometimes I showered at lunch and reapplied all the dirt. And when I wrapped, I showered before I went home.
Q: You worked with James Toback on Harvard Man, which is based on his Harvard experiences in the '60s. Was it the script or working with Toback that attracted you?
A: Him, initially. I had seen a lot of his work, and I loved Black and White. I went to see him and he told me about his experiences with LSD and how he went to this doctor who brought him back [from a bad trip]. I told him I wanted to do that story, I wanted to do nitty-gritty moviemaking, I wanted him to challenge me.
Q: Your sex scene with Adrian Grenier has been described as kinky. How kinky was it?
A: For me, it wasn't kinky, it was awkward. Jim's movies are sexually free and I probably made him feel confined. But he never asked me to push the line. He was always incredibly respectful. I'm not in a place where I'm comfortable doing nudity. If I ever did, it would have to be a movie that by doing it, it would move the story further. What's sexy is when sex is left to the imagination. I love when it's implied. I roll my eyes and yawn at gratuitous sex.
Q: Could you ever conceivably pose nude for a magazine like Playboy if it meant boosting your career?
A: Right now I can't, but I don't believe in saying never. There might be a time when I got pregnant and felt really beautiful and wanted to have a nude picture. People gave Demi Moore so much flak [for the Vanity Fair cover on which she posed nude while pregnant], but I understand what she was doing. She was trying to show that this was where she felt the most beautiful.
Q: A critic for Daily Variety wrote that you were fun to watch in Harvard Man, "in the adorable, devious bitch mode" that you test-drove in Cruel Intentions. Are you OK with that description?
A: Sure! I made Harvard Man for personal reasons. I wanted to challenge myself, I wanted to work with Jim. And I had a great time.
Q: Since the movie deals with Toback's drug experience in the '60s, how did you do your research?
A: I was able to do plenty of research by talking to Jim Toback.
Q: Both you and Freddie are anti-drugs in a town where drugs are quite prevalent. Do you leave a party if joints are being passed or cocaine sniffed, or do you just move to another side of the room?
A: I can't remember the last time I've seen people do drugs. In terms of cigarette smoking, we just do not allow it. Not only do you have to go outside our house if you want to smoke, but you have to go outside the gates of our house.