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Sarah Michelle Gellarhas been upfront about the fact that she went into the 2002 live-action version ofScooby-Doothinking that it would be more for adults than for kids and families, and she was unhappy that it didn't turn out that way.
But more than two decades later, she's come to accept it for what it is.
"I've had a whole trajectory with this movie," Gellar, who played Daphne, said on a recent episode of Evan Ross Katz'sShut Up Evan Podcast. "Because there was a time where I really was upset about it. And it was not the movie I set out to make."
But theBuffy the Vampire Slayeralum said she's actually now a fan of it.
"Now, in hindsight, all these years later, I totally appreciate it," Gellar said. "And I love it and it'll totally make me laugh. But there was a time where it was like a disappointment in the sense of, you know, what we were sold was not what it was."
Jasin Boland/Warner Bros
At the time, Gellar said, she was young — "like 22" — and "wanted to make the sexier, more esoteric version, but that's not what the audiences wanted."
In fact,Scooby-Doo, which costarred Gellar's husband Freddie Prinze Jr., whom she married the same year the movie came out, as Fred, as well asScream's Matthew Lillard (Shaggy) andFreaks and Geeksalum Linda Cardellini (Velma), was a hit, much to the chagrin of critics. It even spawned a sequel,Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed,which was released in 2004 and even more disliked by reviewers.
Both films were directed by Raja Gosnell, who was also at the helm of Drew Barrymore'sNever Been Kissedin 1999 and the comedyBig Momma's House, with Martin Lawrence and Nia Long, in 2000. They featured the Mystery Inc. gang from the animated series created in the 1960s investigating cases.
And Gellar wasn't the only one who had expected a more mature take that, for one thing, featureda kiss between her Daphne and Cardellini's Velma.
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James Gunn himself, who's now known for writing and directing movies such as 2021'sSuicide SquadandGuardians of the Galaxy, and penned theScoobyscripts, wrote on his verified Facebook account in June 2017 that he also had mixed feelings about what had become of his work.
"I had loved the character of Scooby-Doo since I was a kid and was excited at the prospect of making a live action film with 2002's cutting CGI technology(!!),"he wrote. "Yes, it was not exactly what we planned going out - I had written an edgier film geared toward older kids and adults, and the studio ended pushing it into a clean cut children's film. And, yes, the rumors are true - the first cut was rated R by the MPAA, and the female stars' cleavage was CGI'd away so as not to offend. But, you know, such is life. I had a lot of fun making this movie, regardless of all that. And I was also able to eat, buy a car, and a house because of it."
Watch Gellar's full conversation about the movie above.
Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly
