Eight years of playing Buffy The Vampire Slayer doesn't mean that Sarah Michelle Gellar has lost interest in horror shows. The Grudge made movie history by allowing a Japanese team to re-make a classic oriental film in the US. Steve Pratt reports.

TELEVISION'S most famous vampire slayer has embarked on chapter two of her career. After eight years playing demon-killing Buffy, Sarah Michelle Gellar has given up her fight against dark forces to move to the big screen. "It was an incredible run," she says of her time as Buffy The Vampire Slayer. "I finished the show and next day began filming Scooby 2. I had no more obligations to the show. I can pick projects because I want to do them.

"When I was doing Buffy, I only had a three-month hiatus when I could do a film. I couldn't do independent films because I couldn't wait for the finance to come through. It wasn't like I could disappear for two weeks from the series and people wouldn't notice.

"I finished Buffy in September last year and didn't want to work until I felt passionate about something I wanted to, personally and professionally. I don't have to work to work, I have to work because I love it.

"No-one is going to out-Buffy Buffy because it's so wonderful. I wouldn't try to replicate that. That's why I left the show - because after eight years it wasn't challenging."

The first project she actively pursued was The Grudge, Japanese director Takashi Shimizu's remake of his hit horror movie about a cursed house where those who enter die in the grip of a powerful rage. Gellar stars as an American exchange student who encounters the mysterious and deadly supernatural force.

"It's been so rewarding on all levels and I realise that's how it has to be from now on," says Gellar, who began acting as a child. "The only thing I actively seek out is strong female characters or female-driven pieces. It's difficult to find those films. Television is driven by females, so this is a lucky find for me."

She defends the Buffy The Vampire Slayer, starring Kristy Swanson, that flopped at the cinema box-office but led to the successful TV series. It's not a bad movie, she maintains, although it didn't work at the time as they didn't find the right tone. Buffy the TV series came along at the right moment. "It was time for female empowerment and for young girls to have these role models. Now you watch television and women are superheroes, spies, lawyers and surgeons. That's just been in the last ten years. Buffy was one of the first and society was ready for that."

Making The Grudge in Tokyo wasn't without its problems, especially as the Japanese director spoke little English. Gellar's initial excitement about working in Tokyo turned to panic and a feeling that it couldn't possibly work. Ultimately, it turned out to be "this amazing education for me in communication", she says. "What I learnt was that you really didn't need the language. Certain things transcend language. We used a translator at the beginning and, in the end, she was afraid she was going to be fired as we didn't need her. You just learn to look into people's eyes, learn from lilts in their voices and watch how their bodies move. You realise that you don't necessarily need languages.

"I made a few faux pas. It's learn as you go. I had so much respect for their culture and traditions, they were tolerant of my mistakes because they were made out of misunderstanding not lack of respect."

This was the first time that a Japanese film had been remade for English speaking audiences by a Japanese director. She felt it was important not to Americanise the story. "I love the ambiguity of it," says Gellar. "There's so much silence. American film-makers are petrified of silence. If it had been done in America with an American director I don't think it would have the impact it has."

She'd seen the Japanese original some time ago and many of the startling visuals had remained with her. Finding out they intended to remake it in Japan with a Japanese crew was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity at which she jumped.

What she liked was that in Japan they don't use a lot of CGI like American movies. Nearly everything is done for real and in long takes. Then there was her young co-star, the mysterious boy who keeps materialising in the house. This was the fifth time he's made the movie.

"He's an interesting boy," she says guardedly. "He's definitely an odd child. I think that the only person it was truly difficult for was him. Actors have a way of communication. As a child, you're still learning how to communicate with adults in your own language.

"Japan doesn't have those child laws. The American actors would work a 12-hour day until midnight and then the little kid would come and work until three in the morning."

A purification ceremony was performed on the set before filming began, with a Japanese priest blessing the set and asking the spirits to watch over them and make sure nothing happened.

The scariest film she's ever seen in The Exorcist, although she admits her nightmares are more reality driven than demonic driven. The Grudge gave her a few shocks too. "The first time I saw the movie was at the premiere and I found myself jumping. I was able to let go enough. If something is good I get sucked up in it," she says.

* The Grudge (15) opens in cinemas tomorrow.

Published: 04/11/2004