12 Things We Just Learned About Buffy

Last night, The Chosen One took to Reddit to answer fan questions about her new show, The Crazy Ones, and, of course, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Here are a few things we learned from Sarah Michelle Gellar's AMA.

1. Her first scene in “The Body” was all one take.

In the Season Five episode “The Body,” Buffy arrives home to find that her mother has died. It’s one of her favorite episodes, Gellar says, because “it was beyond difficult and heart wrenching to shoot, and I don't know if many people know this, but my entire first scene was all done in one take. It was 4-5 minutes of one long take.”

2. Her other favorite episodes are “Hush,” “The Prom,” and "Who Are You."

Gellar says her first favorite is Season Three episode "The Prom," in which her vampire boyfriend Angel decides to leave town, but comes to Sunnydale High's prom for one last dance. "I just love that whole story, and I thought it just encapsulated the show so well," she said. "It was beautiful and heartbreaking." Another favorite: Season Four's nearly dialogue-free "Hush," which Gellar loves because "I think it's not just the scariest episode we've ever done but the challenge to do a silent episode—I thought it would be easy but it was way harder," she said. Later, she mentioned that Season Four's "Who Are You" was among her favorite episodes: "I also liked the body switching episode where I got to play Faith and Faith got to play Buffy." 

3. If she could make a Buffy-themed alcoholic beverage, she’d call it “Fruit Punch Mouth.”

It would be made of “a red punch with rum.”

4. When it comes to Spike or Angel, she picks…

Sorry, Spike fans. Despite Buffy's romance with Spike in later seasons, Gellar was emphatic on this point. “ANGEL.” And later, when someone asked again: "Still Angel."

5. She had a number of favorite “Big Bads.”

Each season of Buffy had at least one major villain, or "Big Bad." Gellar, of course, has her favorites. "When Angel turned bad. Physically I think the scariest were the guys from 'Hush,'" she said. "And also Camden Toy, I can't think of his character's name right now." (Toy played a number of characters, including one of the Gentlemen in "Hush," the demon Gnarl in "Same Time, Same Place," and one of the "Ubervamps," Turok-Han, in the show's final season.) "And I also liked it when I was the bad guy." 

6. Alyson Hannigan played pranks on the Buffy cast.

Gellar loved working with Alyson Hannigan, who played Willow, and mentioned that the actress was very funny—in fact, she played a lot of pranks on set. But SMG never got pranked: “No I think I was more her co-conspirator.”

7. She’d approve of Buffy on Broadway…

With one condition: “As long as Kristin Chenoweth plays me...”

8. She has some fun props from the show.

In addition to some of Buffy's clothes, Gellar has a few trinkets that her makeup artist made for her. “I think my favorite is that my makeup artist had made a special stake for me with a little bottle of holy water," she said, "and to this day I keep it by my bed.”

9. Empowerment was Buffy's best message.

And not just for the ladies. "I think for me the greatest message of Buffy was all about female empowerment, and not just female, but empowerment in general," Gellar said. "High school is the scariest part of people's lives, and I loved that we used the monsters of Buffy as a metaphor for the monsters of life. And to not judge a book by its cover. That we are all capable of taking care of ourselves."

10. David Boreanaz smells good.

Buffy fans wanted to know, and Gellar was happy to answer. "I can say that David honestly smells very good and continues to smell very good," she said. "I apologize to Jamie his wife for answering that question." 

11. She reads Buffy fanfic.

"It's pretty incredible," she said. "And it's really moving when people take the time to do that kind of thing."

12. Gellar knows what Buffy would do if all the evil on the Earth disappeared.

"She could be a counselor and go back to working at Sunnydale High? And I'm terrible at slinging burgers, so I wouldn't go back to that. Plus that AWFUL hat they made her wear."

For more—including what Gellar would do if she woke up and Bruce Willis was somehow there—head over and read the rest of her AMA.