TV Guide July 1 1995
AMC's Gellar: She's outta here!
Sarah Michelle Gellar— the dynamic teen star who just won an Emmy as the demon-seed daughter of Erica Kane—will depart All My Children effective with the July 3 episode. But before she goes byebye, Gellar wants to set the record straight:
"Contrary to what one newspaper reported, I was not fired because I won the Emmy and Susan Lucci didn't," laughs the 18-yearold actress. “Nor, as another one claimed, did I win on a Friday night and quit the following Monday morning because I'm ‘too big for my britches.’” In fact, Gellar's farewell—orchestrated at her request —has been in the works for many months. “I decided some time ago not to renew my contract [which elapses next February] and told the show very far in advance, because I felt it was fair. Then, when my storyline slowed to one day a week, I asked to be released even earlier. I’m the type that needs to be acting eight days a week, 25 hours a day."
Gellar's character— nasty, backstabbing Kendall Hart—was a sensation the instant she hit the screen. But lately, the part has become an albatross. "I was offered two other projects, which I was not released to do. And to be honest, I was a little bitter about that," says Gellar, who, while technically obligated to AMC, has spent the last several months meeting with casting execs from several major films, including "The Crucible" (with Daniel Day-Lewis) and dueling versions of "Romeo and Juliet" (one with Ethan Hawke, the other with Leonardo DiCaprio).
But she is more than a red-hot property—Gellar’s star power makes headlines. The supermarket tabs have had a field day with this actress practically since her early-1993 arrival at AMC (one rag went so far as to photograph Gellar, costar Sydney Penny, and Penny's fiancé, Rob Powers, arriving at an ABC Christmas party, and then eliminated Penny from the shot to insinuate that Gellar, who was then a minor, was secretly stepping out with Powers). Printed reports of a Gellar/Lucci feud have been particularly juicy: Some paint Lucci as a vengeful, insecure diva who couldn't bear acting opposite a younger, prettier, and more talented version of herself, while others characterize Gellar as a pint-sized Eve Harrington who took devilish delight in pushing Lucci's emotional buttons. The truth, as always, lies somewhere in between. "Susan and I were not best friends, and we're never going to be," Gellar states. “Basically, the best І can say is that we worked together—on top of each other—for so long that problems were inevitable. But they were also greatly exaggerated by the press... and now they've sort of worked themselves out." She adds: “I’ve had a wonderful run on All My Children.I'm not going to lie and say that it was a problem-free dream job on a cloud. "But would I do it all over again? Absolutely,”
By
Paul Raven ·
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