Leno: My first guest plays Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or my next guest, did I say first
guest? My next guest, sorry. She's starring in two upcoming films, I
Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream II. Please welcome Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Leno: How are you?
Leno: Hey, it's nice to meet you.
Sarah : Well the worst is over, I didn't trip. I feel better now.
(Le public : I love You.)
Sarah : Thank you, I love you too.
Leno : Like you have a chance, right. Well no, I was just reading about you, you're
only 20 years old right? But I know you've been acting, what, about 15 years?
Sarah : Yes, since I was 4. I started when I was 4. I did my first movie when I was 4.
Leno : Wow, that's pretty good. That's pretty good. Now you were on...what soap
were you on?
Sarah : I was on All My Children.
Leno : Oh, okay. Now were you one of these people that had a horrible life and
did terrible things?
Sarah : No, I was a good character. I go with misunderstood. You know. I had a busy
first week. I locked my little sister in the crypt, burned my parent's
divorce parents, tried to seduce my stepfather, when he turned me down
I slept with the stable boy, and then cried rape and went to jail. It
was a good first week.
Leno : Wow. Wow. And this was before you even started the series. This is all...
Now you also did commercials right? Did you do a lot of those?
Sarah : Uh, yeah. I did...about, I think over 100 commercials all told. Some national,
some...
Leno : Because you were the Burger King girl right?
Sarah : Yes, I was the little Burger King girl that couldn't say the word "burger."
It sort of came out, "bugah."
Leno : Oh, they don't want that, Bugah King.
Sarah : No, usually they like you to be able to pronounce the product you're representing.
But uh, they did send me for speech lessons and eventually I could speak
and say the word, burger," but unfortunately I couldn't say anything
else, birthday... you know, that kind of stuff.
Leno: Now what age are we talking, 5?
Sarah : I was about 5 to 7 when I did them, I did about 30.
Leno : Oh, okay. Now what happened with MacDonald's, what was that whole story?
Sarah : Well
they were just a little antsy, you know. I didn't think it was that
big a deal personally. It was the first product to ever use another
company's name in a commercial.
Leno : Oh, you mean like Burger King saying you were better than...
Sarah : Right, what I said was, "Do I look 20% smaller to you? I must to MacDonald's
because their hamburgers are 20% smaller," which everyone knows
is true, and not flame broiled. But uh...
Leno : Oh I do remember those ads actually.
Sarah : Yeah, so I said that and MacDonalds didn't know what to do because no one
had ever done it before.
Leno : Right.
Sarah : So MacDonalds turned around and sued Burger King and sued J. Walker Thompson,
the advertising company, and sued me, at 5
Leno : And sued you, at age 5? They sued you?
Sarah : Yeah, these big lawyers and little me, at 5.
Leno : Did you, did you have to take like depositions
Sarah : I didn't even know how to say the word, "lawyer." I was calling it
"layuh, layuh." So, yeah, they turned around...and of course,
you're five years old, where do all your friends have birthday parties?
I was going to birthday parties at five years old wearing a big straw
hat and sunglasses.
Leno : Oh, because you couldn't go to MacDonalds?
Sarah : I couldn't go...truth in advertising.
Leno : Oh I see.
Sarah : Because you know everything on TV is true.
Leno : Well that is true. So if you got spotted...oh I see. Well let's show...we
have an ad, let's show the ad. Here you are at age 5, as the Burger King girl...
(Pub pour Burger King)
Sarah : I was a cute kid, what happened?
Leno : Cute kid. And it's amazing how your hair has lightened up over the years.
Sarah : What do you mean, I'm not a natural blonde?
Leno : I don't know, but sometimes...as you get older, it just gets lighter.
Sarah : It was completely natural. I just woke up one morning and had blonde hair
and black roots. So go figure.
Leno : Now also you've done a few movies, you're in this Scream II?
Sarah : Yes, I did. I had a very busy summer. I did "I Know What You Did Last
Summer," which is written by the same guy that wrote the original
Scream and the new one, Kevin Williamson. And then I went straight and
did Scream II and did Scream II on weekends while I was doing Buffy
on the weekdays.
Leno : Now let me ask you about this. Now, when you go in to audition for a movie
like Scream, do you have to scream...if you couldn't scream could you
still get the picture?
Sarah : You know what? Screaming was my entire screen test for I Know What You Did
Last Summer. I just stood there and screamed for about five minutes.
Like if they said...
Leno : Like, what would they say to you, what kind of scream? I mean
Sarah : Gut-wrenching, painful scream. Primal.
Leno : Can you give us a primal, gut-wrenching painful scream?
Sarah : Will you scream with me?
Leno : No, no, I want to hear you...
Sarah : I don't know about this, Jay Leno asking me to scream...
Leno : Go ahead, go ahead...
Sarah : Do ya'll want to hear me scream, is that what this is?
Leno : That would be great, sure.
Sarah : Well, you go to picture, so you have, like , you know, your best friend in
front of you getting killed and you just go (hurlement) really loud
until you have no voice.
Leno : (se bouchant l'oreille) Gee that was very good. That was very good. Well
that was terrific. Well congratulations on all your success. I mean,
you're only twenty and you're doing TVs and movies and all things...
Sarah : It's a shame I'm going to be washed up at 22 but hey,
Leno : No, no...
Sarah : I can, I can go 90210...go back to high school.
Leno : Sure, sure. You can darken your hair.
Sarah : You have a thing with my hair don't you?
Leno : Come on, I'm just teasing you.
Sarah : I'm insulted you don't like my hair.
Leno : No, I love your hair. It looks great.
Sarah : You don't like my hair.
Leno : No, I like it, (au public) do you like it? (exclamations du public) I like
it. We'll be right back with Tap Dogs after this. Thanks Sarah.
Transcript
de Derek Smith
www.sarah-michelle-gellar.com