Sarah Michelle Gellar: I Didn't Have A Relationship With My Dad

Parenting: Sarah Michelle Gellar On Her Father, Marriage & More

After saving the world from demons on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and playing twin sisters on Ringer, Sarah Michelle Gellar is giving TV comedy a try. On The Crazy Ones—premiering Sept. 26 at 9/8c on CBS—she'll play an ad agency exec who's partners with her manic genius dad (Robin Williams). 

The 36-year-old mom of two young kids with (hot!) husband Freddie Prinze Jr. predicts the lighter schedule of a half-hour comedy will be easier to manage—at least she hopes so!

YourTango: Charlotte is 3 and Rocky just turned 1. How are you juggling motherhood and work?
Sarah Michelle Gellar:
 They were great to me when we shot the pilot, when I was still breastfeeding. They would joke that when my outfits stopped fitting me during the day, it was time to take a break and let Sarah go back to her trailer. So it will be interesting. But it takes a village.

YourTango: What's different with the second child?
Sarah Michelle Gellar:
I think it's easier only because the main thing as a parent you have to learn is to trust yourself. I think there's a confidence you have the second time that's just impossible to have the first time.

YourTango: Do you notice any similarities in the relationship you have on-screen with Robin Williams and the relationship you had with your dad, or that your daughter has now with Freddie? [Editor's note: Sarah's father, Arthur Gellar, passed away in 2001.]
Sarah Michelle Gellar: Father daughter relationships, until recently, were something I had to read about or ask people about because I didn't have a relationship with my father. But what's amazing now is to watch the relationship between my husband and our daughter and to really sort of understand it in a different way, and also to watch Robin with his daughter. I don't know if Robin makes me a better parent or being a parent makes me a better actor opposite Robin, because it's kind of the same thing, which is I have to keep a straight face. It's sort of like when my 3 year old says something really inappropriate and it's really funny, but I can't laugh. That's kind of like working with Robin.

YourTango: You and Freddie have been married for 10 years. What's the secret to a happy marriage?
Sarah Michelle Gellar:
God, if I knew I would write a book and retire! It's work. You have to work at any relationship in your life. You have to nurture it and take care of it.

 

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