Iconic doesn't even begin to describe this walk down fashion memory lane with Sarah Michelle Gellar. Ahead of her new series Wolf Pack, the actress gives us the scoop behind some of her most memorable on-screen looks from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Cruel Intentions, Scooby-Doo, and more. Get your Buffy boots ready to go Behind The Looks!
Director: Stephanie Romero
Cinematography: Matt Burke
Video Editor: Collin Hughart
Producer: Ari Vega
Camera Operator: John Vogt
Sound Mixer: Jason Flaster
Associate Video Producer: Kellie Scott
Executive Director, Creative: Alexa Wiley
Executive Director, Entertainment: Jessica Baker
VP, Social: MacKenzie Green
Director: Stephanie Romero
Cinematography: Matt Burke
Video Editor: Collin Hughart
Producer: Ari Vega
Camera Operator: John Vogt
Sound Mixer: Jason Flaster
Associate Video Producer: Kellie Scott
Executive Director, Creative: Alexa Wiley
Executive Director, Entertainment: Jessica Baker
VP, Social: MacKenzie Green
Category
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hi, I'm Sarah Michelle Gellar, and today we're going behind the looks with Who, What, Where?
00:11Oh my gosh!
00:12That was I Know What You Did Last Summer, which was my very first big feature film.
00:19And Helen was from a small town that wanted to get out of her small town and had big New York dreams.
00:26And her wardrobe reflected the fact that she had never been to New York City.
00:30It's really hard because you have to be able to run away from the bad guy.
00:34But if your outfit says, I'm about to run away from the bad guy, then they know you're about to run away.
00:39So usually you're in something that is not conducive to running away.
00:43In this instance, it was a dress that she wore in a parade, which was like a green satin that wrinkled a lot.
00:54It was my first experience ever with a leaning board, which is basically what they give you on set so that you don't wrinkle and you don't sit down.
01:00You just lean backwards. It doesn't help at all.
01:03And then the shoes were so bad that at some point I actually just lost the shoes in the fight sequence and ran barefoot through the streets of Wilmington, North Carolina.
01:10Or Southport, North Carolina, actually.
01:12Well, Buffy's costumes were a huge part of who she was and what she was experiencing at that moment.
01:17When you first meet her, she's this traditional Central Valley girl, California girl that doesn't want the weight of the world on her shoulders.
01:25And she dressed accordingly.
01:27But as she accepted the power and the responsibility, her outfit sort of progressed with that.
01:33But Buffy was always fashionable.
01:35I think it was one of the first real female heroines that you saw who did not sacrifice fashion for killing.
01:41The boots. The Buffy boots.
01:44We used to say when the boots went on, you know the fighting was going to happen.
01:48I still have a pair of those boots in my house that I still fit into.
01:52But I was devastated because at one point, I think for a big fashion spread, I don't remember what it was, but our costume designer sent one of the pairs of the original boots to be photographed and she never got them back.
02:03And I was devastated because we didn't have that many of them and that was the iconic Buffy boot.
02:08What did I keep from my Buffy wardrobe?
02:10I wish I would have understood to keep more of it.
02:12Not that necessarily that was an option because the studios like to take it back.
02:15But you don't realize the sentimental importance that you'd have on something like that later.
02:20A lot of times at the end of an episode, you're so sick of looking at an outfit that you don't always take it.
02:25Again, if the option is available.
02:27Now I don't make that mistake anymore.
02:29But I do have the boots still.
02:32The dress in season one where Buffy gets killed for the first time was a copy of a dress that I won my Emmy in and I still have the original dress that it was the copy of.
02:44I think I still have the jacket she wore in the last episode, but I don't have a ton.
02:48I wish I had more.
02:50Oh, I have a steak. I have Mr. Pointy.
02:52Aw, Scream 2.
02:54That was just such a highlight for me, getting to be part of that franchise.
02:58I had just done the very first year of Buffy.
03:01It hadn't even aired yet when I got cast in that movie.
03:04And it was all of these icons at the time.
03:07Courtney Cox and Nev Campbell.
03:09We just had a great time.
03:11And that outfit actually, thankfully, was more conducive to being the girl that was killed.
03:17In fact, if I'm not mistaken, I actually had sneakers and stretched pants.
03:20So that was amazing.
03:22But I always remember in particular, it's not fashion related, but that scene with the phone.
03:26Which also is funny because now you look at that scene and that phone is so ginormous.
03:30But I remember that Wes Craven gave me one of the best acting tips.
03:35It was just such a minor note.
03:37But whenever you ask who it is when you're on a phone, cell phone, whatever,
03:40you tend to look at it and say, who is it?
03:42Which is such a weird thing because you can't see them.
03:44I guess now you can see them, but in those days it wasn't FaceTime.
03:47And when I see that outfit, I always think of that.
03:50Cruel intentions.
03:52Denise Wingate was our amazing costume designer.
03:54And we had all of these ideas.
03:56And she just made these visual dreams come true.
04:00The famous corset was built at a very famous Los Angeles shop called Trashy Lingerie.
04:06Which is pretty famous.
04:08But they also do some of the most amazing, intricate bodice, corset, costume work.
04:13And I had never been in the store.
04:15I was 20 years old, I think.
04:18And I remember the first time she told me we were going there, I got all blushy and shy.
04:22And by the third fitting, I was like, yeah, I'm here.
04:25And you become a member when you go there.
04:27Because I don't want people just coming in to sort of look and ogle the clothing.
04:31But they really do amazing craftsmanship.
04:33And that's where the corset came from.
04:35And then the kissing scene in Central Park was another one of those odd visions that I had.
04:41And I saw this big hat.
04:44Not quite Breakfast at Tiffany's, but ginormous.
04:48And they're not very common.
04:50We called it the church hat.
04:52And we had to go to a store that specialized in Easter Sunday type outfits.
04:56But then all the hats were blue and pink.
04:59And it was definitely like we went all over Los Angeles to find the perfect black hat for that scene.
05:04But her costume was so specific and New York specific.
05:08And it was a character in and of itself.
05:10When I first saw the crucifix, I just kept thinking, it's so ginormous.
05:15First of all, that's a lot of cocaine in that cross.
05:17But I guess Catherine was very wealthy.
05:19So I digress on that.
05:20Probably not appropriate.
05:21But I just kept thinking, can we make a smaller one?
05:24Because how do you make that fashion?
05:26And it was the same thing we went through on Buffy with the cross.
05:28Because Angel gives her the cross in episode I think seven maybe of the first season.
05:33And obviously I was going to be wearing this cross forever.
05:36And it was just like made by a prop master.
05:39And nothing against a prop master.
05:40But like you want your costume designer to design something.
05:43You're going to have to wear it with every outfit.
05:45And the thing is, you know, I have a tiny torso.
05:47And the thing is like this big.
05:48It felt like the Mr. T cross.
05:50They both did.
05:51Lisa Evans, the costume designer from Scooby-Doo.
05:55That was such a great costume experience.
05:58Again, almost every costume in that movie, in both films, were built from scratch.
06:03Those boots were a copy of a pair of Louboutins that we loved but did not come in Daphne purple.
06:10And were custom made to match the original Louboutin.
06:13And I think they had purple undersoles also as an homage to the original shoe.
06:19But those costumes were epic.
06:21And the second one in the big opening sequence, which was like Daphne's red carpet moment.
06:26We made this feathered jacket.
06:28And it was great in theory because we needed a coat because it was so cold.
06:31We shot the second one in Vancouver in the winter.
06:34But the feathers just kept going up my nose.
06:37And if you watch some of the scenes, you can see me kind of doing this when I'm speaking.
06:41Because feathers all up my nose.
06:43Seeing my husband in an ascot. Ridiculous.
06:47Oh, the grudge. Yes.
06:50That was such an interesting experience because we did, if I remember correctly, all the costume designing.
06:55And all the meetings in America.
06:57And then everything had to be shipped out to Tokyo.
07:00And a lot of it was dressing for warmth.
07:03Because we shot the movie in the winter.
07:06And it gets very, very cold in Tokyo.
07:08But what I very much remember about that outfit in particular was that we wound up having to do some reshoots in the summer.
07:14Well, Tokyo summers get very, very warm.
07:17And I was roasting.
07:19And so I had this great idea that I would tape ice packs all over my body.
07:23Because I had a sweater. Like I had layers.
07:25So they wouldn't see them.
07:27And it would keep me cool.
07:28Which was great.
07:29Except then the ice would start to melt.
07:30And it would like drip and fall.
07:32And the sound people would pick it up on the mic.
07:34So they very quickly took all my ice packs away.
07:36Ringer.
07:37That was such a fun fashion show.
07:39When you're playing twins and you get to really create the characters.
07:44And obviously one of the main ways to differentiate between the two sisters was their wardrobe.
07:48But Siobhan was wealthy.
07:50Living in Paris.
07:51We had some fun with that.
07:52In fact, people used to really like do full commentary on the outfits on that show.
07:57Do Revenge.
07:58That was such a great experience.
08:00Jen Kate Robinson, who was the director, had a very specific vision for the entirety of the movie.
08:05That went for fashion.
08:06That went for costume design.
08:08It was all a big aesthetic.
08:11She even sat down with me to approve what the office would look like.
08:15How the wardrobe would fit.
08:17And that outfit may or may not be hanging in my closet currently.
08:21Did I have any advice on how to play bitchy iconic high school?
08:24You know, I think if you've been a female in high school, you know how to be a bitchy high schooler.
08:29Whether you were one or not, you experienced it.
08:33My one costume from Wolfpack.
08:35This was a running joke because I think I literally wore my arson jacket.
08:41Not literally, I think I actually wore my arson jacket through every episode.
08:46And would change my tank top and my cargo pants.
08:49And it was the greatest because I never had to take time out of my day for wardrobe fittings.
08:54But Barbara Vasquez, our costume designer, is one of my favorite people on earth.
08:58I absolutely love her.
08:59So we made up for it with her shoes.
09:01Because you have never seen an arson investigator that wears Ferragamos like my character.
09:07Like Kristen Ramsey does.
09:08Every boot shoe moment was its own world.
09:13And it's also like a nice give back to my fans.
09:16Because it is a genre that I haven't been in a long time.
09:19And you do sort of think about Buffy and the boots.
09:21And this is my modern homage take to the Buffy boots.
09:26She wears shorter boots.
09:27They're ankle boots.
09:28She has a Miu Miu pair, a Chloe pair.
09:31But I mean she's an arson investigator in Los Angeles.
09:34She has some fashion sense.
09:35Thank you everyone.
09:36This has been really fun reliving some of my favorite characters and their looks.