Buffy Star Died Hating Sarah Michelle Gellar

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 19 seconds ago

It has been a very rough time to be a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In the last year, Michelle Trachtenberg, who played Buffy’s sister, tragically died. Last week, Hulu officially killed the TV show revival that was going to bring Buffy Summers back to the small screen. Most recently, Nicholas Brendon, who played Xander Harris, died at the age of 54.

It didn’t take long for his former Buffy costars to write memorial posts on social media platforms such as Instagram; some were better than others, but all of them were moving in their own way. However, as someone who had been keeping up with the Xander actor before his death, I am haunted by a secret that the fandom doesn’t really want to talk about. You see, Nicholas Brendon hated Sarah Michelle Gellar, and he made a series of very nasty, very public allegations about her mere days before he died.

The Zeppo’s Last Ride

This came in the form of Facebook, where Nicholas Brendon went live on March 14, less than a week before his untimely death. The video seems that much more surreal now: Brendon is constantly moving back and forth in a rocking chair (he had an eclectic passion for rocking chairs) while violently coughing; he blamed the smoke from his cigarette, joking at one point that he sounded like Bane. During the 45-minute video, he discussed several aspects of Buffy the Vampire Slayer before suddenly and unexpectedly leveling various accusations against lead actor Sarah Michelle Gellar.

The comment started innocuously enough, with Nicholas Brendon saying, “I believe that the way that the show ended shouldn’t have ended the way that it did.” Soon, though, he singled out Sarah Michelle Gellar, claiming that “She worked really hard, but she sort of f***ed the show, in a way.” Specifically, he hated how “She told everyone she was leaving way too late into the series, so Chris Snellgrove Joss [Whedon] was not prepared for that…it wasn’t fair to the crew, the cast or the show.”

A Surprise Defense Of A Canceled Icon

Speaking of the controversial showrunner, Brendon was seemingly one of the last of the Buffy actors to openly support Joss Whedon. In this same Facebook video, he argued that Hulu should not have tried to reboot Buffy without Whedon’s involvement; however, Whedon quietly retired from public and professional life after multiple allegations that he created a hostile work environment and was personally toxic towards his cast. After Cordelia actor Charisma Carpenter made a series of damning allegations about Whedon, she was openly supported by Buffy actors like David Boreanaz, Michelle Trachtenberg, and Sarah Michelle Gellar.

While Brendon had not often publicly criticized Gellar, many read his continued defense of Whedon as an indirect criticism of her. For example, the Buffy Summers actor offered a short and simple stance of support for Charisma Carpenter, writing, “I stand with all survivors of abuse.” Meanwhile, Brendon supported Whedon and minimized allegations against him, claiming they were just “bullsh*t…cancel culture.”

In that creepy Facebook video right before he died, Brendon didn’t mince words: in addition to continuing his full-throated support for Whedon, he also blamed Gellar for wanting to stop acting in Buffy the Vampire Slayer after Season 7. Previously, Gellar claimed that she wanted to leave the show because she was physically and mentally exhausted; she wanted to enjoy life with her new husband (Freddie Prinze, Jr.), and she felt there was nothing new to do with her character. It didn’t help that, like many Buffy fans, she really hated Season 6.

Saying Goodbye To Our Childhood Hero

Sadly, Brendon saw her departure as a personal attack that took away his meal ticket. To some degree, he was right: he never had any major roles after Buffy ended. Arguably, though, this was due less to his skills as an actor and more to the very public drug and alcohol addictions he suffered from. By all accounts, Gellar was always supportive of Brendan, whose struggles went all the way back to their Buffy days. But that support didn’t keep Brendon from seeing her as an enemy in the end.

All of this adds another layer of tragedy to Nicholas Brendon’s untimely death. His career peaked decades ago, and he obviously resented Sarah Michelle Gellar for leaving the show and prematurely ending the greatest role he would ever have. Given enough time, Brendon could still have been a part of any future attempts to reboot Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Now, though, he was taken from us far too soon, and in a horrific twist, he died hating the woman who helped make him famous.