Who doesn’t love Buffy the Vampire Slayer – this cheesy popcorn 90s bloodsucker flick had us all head over heels for Sarah Michelle Gellar’s sweet and loveable, quirky and absentminded, goofy and nerdy, yet vampire-ass-kicker-galore protagonist. The film, of course, was spawned (all puns intended) from the popular WB/UPN TV series that ran a rating gambit from 1997-2003. The major motion picture screenplay was written in 88’, but would not hit the silver screen until 92’. What follows are some interesting factoids that you more than likely never knew about the Buff-master from both the movies and her TV series.
1. Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia) was actually supposed to play Buffy and Sarah Michelle Gellar was supposed to play Cordelia. But Gellar convinced director, Joss Whedon, to allow her to read for the lead, and she read and won.
2. The loveable Gellar has always been loveable. In fact, when she was five-years-old, she got her first taste of the beefiness of fame by starring in a Burger King commercial. No joke … see the original commercial below.
3. Speaking of commercials, Anthony Stewart Head (Giles) was originally in a commercial series for Taster’s Choice before notching a role in this big flick. And by the way, Whedon named that character Giles after his house matron; who knew?
4. Did you know that Nicholas Brendon (Xander) stutters in real life? They somehow worked it all out for filming, though.
5. James Marsters’ (Spike) first big television role before Buffy was as a bellhop in Northern Exposure. He would play a role a season later in that series as a priest.
6. According to the USPS mail service, the zip code of Sunnydale places it approximately in Morgan Hill, California.
7. Sarah Michelle Gellar admittedly is fearful of cemeteries (you don’t say?).
8. Mark Kriski of KTLA in Los Angele played the role of the Sunnydale weatherman.
9. Whedon was obsessed with The Simpsons. He’s quoted as stating, “If I could write for any show, it would be The Simpsons and Twin Peaks...As much as you could say that Buffy is a cross between 90210 and The X-Files, you could say it’s a cross between The Simpsons and Twin Peaks.”
10. Esteemed designer, Vera Wang designed both Buffy’s prom dress and Gellar’s real-life wedding dress.
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