The Tonight Show With Jay Leno - 9/8/97
This transcript was obtained from a taped version of the Tonight Show, September 8th, 1997.

Leno : My first guest plays Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or my next guest, did I say first guest? My next guest, sorry. She's starring in two upcoming films, I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream II. Please welcome Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Leno : How are you?

Leno : It's nice to meet you.

Sarah : Well the worst is over, I didn't trip. I feel better now.

Guy In The Audience : I love you!

Sarah : Thank you, I love you too.

Leno : Like you have a chance, right. Well no, I was just reading about you, you're only 20 years old right? But I know you've been acting, what, about 15 years?

Sarah : Yes, since I was 4. I started when I was 4. I did my first movie when I was 4.

Leno : Wow, that's pretty good. That's pretty good. Now you were on...what soap were you on?

Sarah : I was on All My Children.

Leno : Oh, okay. Now were you one of these people that had a horrible life and did terrible things?

Sarah : No, I was a good character. I go with misunderstood. You know. I had a busy first week. I locked my little sister in the crypt, burned my parent's divorce parents, tried to seduce my stepfather, when he turned me down I slept with the stable boy, and then cried rape and went to jail. It was a good first week.

Leno : Wow. Wow. And this was before you even started the series. This is all... Now you also did commercials right? Did you do a lot of those?

Sarah : Uh, yeah. I did...about, I think over 100 commercials all told. Some national, some...

Leno : Because you were the Burger King girl right?

Sarah : Yes, I was the little Burger King girl that couldn't say the word "burger." It sort of came out, "bugah."

Leno : Oh, they don't want that, Bugah King.

Sarah : No, usually they like you to be able to pronounce the product you're representing. But uh, they did send me for speech lessons and eventually I could speak and say the word, "burger," but unfortunately I couldn't say anything else, birthday... you know, that kind of stuff.

Leno : Now what age are we talking, 5?

Sarah : I was about 5 to 7 when I did them, I did about 30.

Leno : Oh, okay. Now what happened with MacDonald's, what was that whole story?

Sarah : Well they were just a little antsy, you know. I didn't think it was that big a deal personally. It was the first product to ever use another company's name in a commercial.

Leno : Oh, you mean like Burger King saying you were better than...

Sarah : Right, what I said was, "Do I look 20% smaller to you? I must to MacDonald's because their hamburgers are 20% smaller," which everyone knows is true, and not flame broiled. But uh...

Leno : Oh I do remember those ads actually.

Sarah : Yeah, so I said that and MacDonalds didn't know what to do because no one had ever done it before.

Leno : Right.

Sarah : So MacDonalds turned around and sued Burger King and sued J. Walker Thompson, the advertising company, and sued me, at 5.

Leno : And sued you, at age 5? They sued you?

Sarah : Yeah, these big lawyers and little me, at 5.

Leno : Did you, did you have to take like depositions?

Sarah : I didn't even know how to say the word, "lawyer." I was calling it "layuh, layuh." So, yeah, they turned around...and of course, you're five years old, where do all your friends have birthday parties? I was going to birthday parties at five years old wearing a big straw hat and sunglasses.

Leno : Oh, because you couldn't go to MacDonalds?

Sarah : I couldn't go...truth in advertising.

Leno : Oh I see.

Sarah : Because you know everything on TV is true.

Leno : Well that is true. So if you got spotted...oh I see. Well let's show...we have an ad, let's show the ad. Here you are at age 5, as the Burger King girl...

Sarah : I was a cute kid, what happened?

Leno : Cute kid. And it's amazing how your hair has lightened up over the years.

Sarah : What do you mean, I'm not a natural blonde?

Leno : Sarah : It was completely natural. I just woke up one morning and had blonde hair and black roots. So go figure.

Leno : Now also you've done a few movies, you're in this Scream II?

Sarah : Yes, I did. I had a very busy summer. I did "I Know What You Did Last Summer," which is written by the same guy that wrote the original Scream and the new one, Kevin Williamson. And then I went straight and did Scream II on weekends while I was doing Buffy on the weekdays.

Leno : Now let me ask you about this. Now, when you go in to audition for a movie like Scream, do you have to scream...if you couldn't scream could you still get the picture?

Sarah : You know what? Screaming was my entire screen test for I Know What You Did Last Summer. I just stood there and screamed for about five minutes. Like if they said...

Leno : Like, what would they say to you, what kind of scream? I mean.

Sarah : Gut-wrenching, painful scream. Primal.

Leno : Can you give us a primal, gut-wrenching painful scream?

Sarah : Will you scream with me?

Leno : No, no, I want to hear you...

Sarah : I don't know about this, Jay Leno asking me to scream...

Leno : Go ahead, go ahead...

Sarah : Do ya'll want to hear me scream, is that what this is?

Leno : That would be great, sure.

Sarah : Well, you go to picture, so you have, like, you know, your best friend in front of you getting killed and you just go (screams) really loud until you have no voice.

Leno : (holding ear) Gee that was very good. That was very good. Well that was terrific. Well congratulations on all your success. I mean, you're only twenty and you're doing TV and movies and all things...

Sarah : It's a shame I'm going to be washed up at 22 but hey,

Leno : No, no...

Sarah : I can, I can go 90210...go back to high school.

Leno : Sure, sure. You can darken your hair.

Sarah : You have a thing with my hair don't you?

Leno : Come on, I'm just teasing you.

Sarah : I'm insulted you don't like my hair.

Leno : No, I love your hair. It looks great.

Sarah : You don't like my hair.

Leno : No, I like it, (to audience) do you like it? (audience cheers) I like it. We'll be right back with Tap Dogs after this. Thanks Sarah.

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