Casting for the upcoming Buffy the Vampire Slayer revival just started, with Ryan Kiera Armstrong cast as the new teen lead. Sarah Michelle Gellar added to the suspense, after she exclusively told Us Weekly there are a few familiar names on the audition roster.
In Gellar and former Buffy costar Alyson Hannigan‘s joint interview with Us Weekly to promote GSK’s Ask2BeSure campaign, Hannigan (who played Willow on all seven seasons of the original series) excitedly revealed, “I know somebody who auditioned for something on the show.”
Gellar, who played the titular vampire slayer from 1997 to 2003, gave Us an even juicier tease: “I know somebody who was on the show whose child auditioned on the show. I know a few people from the show whose children came in.”
The revelation shocked Hannigan, 51, who immediately wondered if she knew any teenagers trying out for the Buffy reboot, which does not yet have a premiere date. “It better not have been one of my kids!” Hannigan said with a laugh.
The How I Met Your Mother alum shares daughters Satyana, 16, and Keeva, 12, with husband Alexis Denisof, whom she met on the set of Buffy season 3. “Somebody had a crush, and she fell hard,” Gellar, 48, recalled.
Hannigan added, “Oh yeah, and he wouldn’t date me, by the way!”
Denisof, who played Wesley, initially had concerns about being romantically involved with a coworker — and he wasn’t the only one who thought their relationship would be a bad idea. Anthony Stewart Head, who played Giles, gave similar advice.
“I remember Anthony Stewart Head saying — because at this point Alexis was on [the spinoff] Angel — and so it was so obvious that we needed to decide whether or not this was going to be something,” Hannigan said. “So I went to Tony and I was like, ‘Should we go on a date?’ He’s like, ‘Absolutely not. It will ruin your friendship. You guys are too good. Do not date him.’ So on the big anniversaries, I’m like, ‘Hey Tony, thanks for the advice.’”
Denisof and Hannigan married in 2003, but Gellar wasn’t too surprised.
“Do you know this has happened to me numerous times?” Gellar shared with Us. “Because there was also another girl that had a similar, very hard crush on someone that I watched. It was Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos. And I watched Kelly the day that she met Mark, and she came running and she’s like, ‘there is the hottest guy.’ And he was like, ‘No, not where I work.’ So, usually, I know how that ends.”
Meanwhile, Gellar married Freddie Prinze Jr. in 2002, and they share children Charlotte, 15, and Rocky, 12. It’s not easy to stay friends for nearly 30 years, but the actresses say understanding helps.
“Moms understand that friendship doesn’t mean I have to call you every single day,” Gellar explained. “There’s never a crisis time in my life that there isn’t a text from Alyson. I don’t mean that in a bad way. That’s how you maintain a friendship: by knowing the things that [matter]. We don’t miss birthdays. We don’t miss the big ones. Those moments, that’s why a friendship lasts a long period of time. It’s not about being able to make the time every day or once a week to do an exercise class. It’s about when you’re on Dancing with the Stars, I couldn’t be there in person. I want to be there emotionally, texting you after every episode, making sure people vote.”
And if they do miss a birthday? “It doesn’t lessen what we’ve had — a lifetime of experience together,” Hannigan added.
Their latest experience is trying to prepare their kids to take charge of their health and be aware of meningitis.
“Sarah and I are very happy to be partnered up with GSK to raise an awareness for Ask2BSure, which is a health campaign to bring awareness to the meningococcal disease, which is also known as meningitis, which is an uncommon but very serious illness that can have some very life-altering complications, including death even, and sometimes as fast as within 24 hours,” Hannigan said.“So Ask2BeSure encourages parents to go to their kids’ doctors and to ask about meningitis vaccination, because there’s just so much that you’re balancing as a parent and things can slip through the cracks.”
The Ask2BSure campaign raises awareness for parents and teens to know what questions to ask. “Our kids are teenagers and this is that transitional period where we’re really trying to teach them to advocate for their health,” Gellar said, noting people from ages 16 to 23 are at increased risk for meningitis.
Gellar continued, “What I really loved about the website was it wasn’t about fear mongering, it was about answering questions about this very serious illness. And I don’t think I was aware of the statistics that one in 10 people who get it will die or probably will die. Or that one in five who survive can have life-altering complications, like loss of limb [or] brain damage.”
The campaign encourages education and asking questions — a lesson Gellar noted most parents are trying to teach their kids.
“I think at the end of the day, that’s a lesson that’s important — not just in this small instance. That is a really important life lesson,” she said. “If you don’t know, ask the questions, and you can’t know to ask the questions unless someone prompts you: ‘Hey, this is important. This is the question to ask.’”
They emphasized modeling that behavior. “It’s also really easy [to show kids] when you ask your doctor, because she’s going to explain it way better than I can to them,” Hannigan said. “So they’re in the room with me when I brought it up. And the professionals know what they’re doing.”
For more information on the campaign and the five vaccine-preventable groups of meningitis, check out Ask2BSure.com.
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