(L-r) Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Emile Mondavarious (Rowan Atkinson) in the live-action comedy SCOOBY-DOO
© 2002 Warner Bros.

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Gellar on a Pup Named SCOOBY

It was bound to happen sooner or later; after all, SCOOBY-DOO did need some dusting off and revamping. However, this summer audiences old and new will experience a version of the ghost-hunting dog that would have been impossible to foresee when it was originally created back in 1969 a digital one.

Actress Sarah Michelle Gellar makes a return to the big screen, this time portraying a live action version of the animated series' Daphne. The purple clothes and the red hair are the same, but the attitude is different. Gellar herself was a fan of the original cartoon series, so maintaining the show's original spirit was very important to her, as well as the rest of the crew.

"[We didn't want to be] 'Hey, look, those are the four kids that ruined that franchise,'" explains Gellar. "I found cartoons to be so gender based when I was younger. They were boy G.I. JOE or TRANSFORMERS or GOBOTS and the girls were STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE and MY LITTLE PONY and I fell in the middle somewhere because I needed something that was not girl, not boy. Not that I was neither girl or boy, but that I needed something that was a little more esoteric, that they solved mysteries, and worked together as a team, and it was so far ahead of it's time."

The Daphne that Gellar portrays is not the same Daphne that was developed for the show in the late 1960s. On the contrary, the actress felt that a more feminist version of Daphne was necessary for this incarnation of SCOOBY-DOO.

"Well, I think that was important," says Gellar. "I think that in the cartoon, watching it, you always said, 'How come no one else ever gets captured?' and it was like she was like, 'Oh, oh, let me be the idiot.' I think that the audience [thought] Daphne wanted that."

Gellar did not immediately jump at the chance to play the fashion savvy Daphne, but her hesitation had nothing to do with the fact that she was already working on project based on another series, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER.

"No, I don't think that I was hesitant because of BUFFY," says Gellar. "It's such a wonderful franchise and you sit there and you go, 'Is it time to make this movie? Is it right, can we honor this?' This is the longest running cartoon series. I read the script and thought, 'This is really funny. If I was going to make a SCOOBY movie, this is what I would want to do.' The next thing to do was to meet with [director] Raja [Gosnell] because sometimes, you read a great script and then you meet the director and he just sees something completely different than what you do. I think that for Raja and for all of us, the most important part of it was that it was about this group of friends and they're relationship and so, once I met with Raja, I said, 'I want to do this; I'm in.'"

Sarah Michelle Gellar (right) plays Daphne Banner in the live action adaptation of SCOOBY-DOO

© 2002 Warner Bros.

Once Gellar committed to the film, she couldn't contain her enthusiasm. Her passion for the project prompted the involvement of fiancé Freddie Prinze, Jr. to accept the role of Fred.

"They talked to him months before," says Gellar. "I think that Freddie was initially not interested being the huge SCOOBYfan that he was. He certainly didn't want to be the one to ruin it. Then I read the script, met with Raja, came home and said, 'You have to read this, they're going to cast this really soon and this is a mistake.' He read it and he called that night and said, 'When can I meet Raja.' That was a Friday. He met Raja on Saturday; on Monday, they called."

While Gellar is proud of her performance in SCOOBY, she reserves her highest praise for actor Matthew Lillard, who plays Shaggy. Lillard took his role as the ever hungry and cowardly Shaggy very seriously and studied intensively to get every character trait down pat.

"You go to this movie and you go, 'Okay, they're playing cartoon characters,'" says Gellar. "Not Matthew. Matthew locked himself in a dance studio for two weeks just to work on the walk because it was so important to him to pay homage and I know that it sounds strange to say keep the integrity of a cartoon character, but there are millions of people, not just in America, but across the world that love this character and love this show and he worked everyday on the voice, on the walk. I don't think that Academy Award winning actors work harder on their roles than this man did to play this cartoon character, and to bring it to life for all of these kids, and seriously, I felt like a pathetic, lazy actor. I [just] watched some cartoons and looked at some pictures."

With ideas for several different "kinds" of SCOOBYtossed about early on, the version decided upon for the film is one that is geared towards the whole family, a decision that Gellar whole-heartedly supports.

"I think that family films are so important and I think that in Hollywood, we really tend to forget that," says Gellar. "I think that part of what's really ruined that is Multiplexes because it used to be that if a family wanted to go see a movie together on a Saturday or Sunday, you went to the local theater, and you saw the movie. Now, it's so easy for a family to split up. The mother takes the younger kids to one movie, the older kids go to another and no one gets to go and enjoy a movie as a family together. I just think that it's so important we still do have double entendres, but it's just not to the same extent. There is always DVD. There were also all the jokes where Daphne tells Fred that he looks gay, and I mean, it was there, and it's still there hopefully in our subtle performances. The kiss got cut."

The kiss Gellar is referring to is a kiss between Daphne and Velma when they are trying to get their souls back together.

"The soul swapping scene," says Gellar. "Initially, it did end when Daphne and Velma could not seem to get their two souls back together. Daphne was actually Velma, and Velma was Daphne and Velma goes, 'I know how to do this,' and then, she goes in and she kisses Daphne on the lips and of course, Daphne is smiling and Velma is all in over her head, and personally, I don't see how that's inappropriate for children because I think that it's funny, but apparently, the audience didn't think that it was as funny as we did, and you know, there goes my MTV movie award for 'Best Kiss.' I thought, 'You know, I'm going to be the first,' and this is how vain actors are, 'Oscar, Emmy, who cares, I wanted that two in a row of the MTV Best Kiss.' I thought, 'I'm going to be the first person,' and now it's down the drain."

What isn't down the drain for this genre actress is her continued success as a vampire slayer. But just because BUFFY has a large fan base doesn't mean that audiences should be looking for her on the silver screen anytime soon.

(L-r) Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Mary Jane (Isla Fisher), Shaggy (Matthew Lillard) and the title mutt in the live-action comedy SCOOBY-DOO

© 2002 Warner Bros.

"I don't think that it should [be made into another movie] because it didn't work as a movie, lets be honest," says Gellar. "We all saw it, well, you probably didn't see it [laughs], but one of the big things that we had to [overcome was the fact] we were making a television series, but that it was this failed movie. I think that the reason the television show works is because we get to do all these stories and have these arcs, and I feel like we do one-hour movies every week. So, if you ask me to pick one to elaborate on for a whole movie, I would say, 'What a waste.'"

With the continued success of BUFFY, it seems natural to think that the show is going to be around for time immemorial. However, Gellar isn't so sure. The future of BUFFY, at least for the time being, is undecided.

"I always say that if you would've asked me four years ago if I thought that we'd be going into our seventh season, I would've laughed," says Gellar. "I think that it's one of those situations that we seem to take year by year, and at the beginning of every year, we see how we're going, and in the middle of the year, usually, we're like, 'We can't do anymore, we're too tired,' and then, somehow, at the end of the year, everyone goes, 'Okay, lets bring it back to the table one more time.' I think that we want to go out on top. I think that it's very important to us that we're not that show people say, 'Why didn't that get cancelled three years ago?' If we go out, we want to go out with a bang, not a whimper. So, if it means going out early so that we go out on top, yeah, we will make that decision, but no decision at this time has been made."