Sarah Michelle Gellar had a crew member from her new show ‘Wolf Pack’ fired after a young co-star told her they were left “uncomfortable” when they offered a back rub.
Sarah Michelle Gellar fired a crew member from ‘Wolf Pack’ after they offered back rubs to a member of the cast.
The 45-year-old actress also serves as an executive producer on the new show and she is determined that her younger co-stars feel safe at work because of her own negative experiences when working on ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, which she has previously branded “toxic”.
She told The Hollywood Reporter: “I hope that I’ve set up an infrastructure, a safety net for these actors that I didn’t have. My generation just didn’t have that.”
According to the outlet, Sarah gave the young stars of the Paramount+ show her phone number along with a “promise to discreetly handle any concerns”, and she then explained how she made sure a crew member was “gone” as soon as she found out they had made an unnamed cast member feel “uncomfortable” with a back rub offer.
Sarah – who has Charlotte, 13, and Rocky, 10, with husband Freddie Prinze Jr. – also spoke of her frustration at being overlooked in her producing duties in favour of a male co-star, who didn’t have a behind-the-scenes job, and her pride in standing her ground to push for new processes.
She said: “There was an issue at work the other day where they kept forgetting to send things for my approval but remembered to send them to a male actor who’s not a producer.
“‘Oh, just old processes,’ they said, ‘Sorry.’ OK, then let’s make a new process.
“The old me would have backed down. But if you look how long I’ve been working, I’ve earned the right to stand where I am. I won’t make any more excuses for that.”
Despite claims of abusive and toxic behaviour on the set of ‘Buffy’ from showrunner Joss Whedon, the actress – who played the title role from 1997 to 2003 -has largely avoided talking about the allegations made by some of her co-stars, except for once referring to an “extremely toxic male set”, and she insisted she will never give her “full story”.
She said: “I’ve come to a good place with it, where it’s easier to talk about.
“I’ll never tell my full story because I don’t get anything out of it. I’ve said all I’m going to say because nobody wins. Everybody loses.”
Source: Bang Showbiz
