Sarah Michelle Gellar stars in ?The Grudge,? a creepy horror film which follows a similar storyline to ?Ju-On,? the Japanese film that serves as the basis for the American version. In "The Grudge," a curse is passed along when someone dies in the grip of a powerful rage. Anyone who encounters the curse must die, and with each death, a new curse is born.

Despite a lengthy acting career, it was really Sarah Michelle Gellar's cult hit TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" which catapulted her into stardom.

The series may be over but fans still can't seem to get enough of "Buffy." In this interview which took place during the 2004 San Diego Comic Con, Sarah Michelle Gellar discusses the impact of "Buffy" and, of course, talks about her work in "The Grudge."

INTERVIEW WITH SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR:

So this is your first time at the San Diego Comic-Con. What are you expecting when you do your panel in front of the massive crowd?
Butterflies would probably be the #1 answer. I don't know. You know it's?Like I've heard so much. I'm just bummed I can't kind of wander the floor and check it all out. This is my first time so I'm a little nervous. A little nervous. I think that people are going to know more about me than I probably know. And they'll probably ask questions that I can't answer and it'll be like, "In ?Buffy Episode 432??" and I'm gonna be like, "Oh, God. Oh, God. OK, um, big vampire and um?"

So you're okay with people still asking about ?Buffy??
Hopefully I'll know the answers.

What did you think of what you've seen of ?The Grudge? so far?
I've seen a very, very rough cut about three weeks ago.

Sort of just to get us back in the idea [for pickups]. It wasn't really reshoots, it was more added scenes to something that was? It was adding sort of a new element to it. It was kind of an actor's dream. It was one of those things, as actors you're always sort of, "Why am I here? What's my back story?" And you know, no one cares about that. That's an actor's question. It's like the old joke, "What's my motivation?" kind of thing. But what they actually did was give us a more intensive back story, which I think always makes you root for people more. We also got to show a little more of Tokyo, which was great, except for the fact that when we shot the film it was winter [in the scene]. So let's say about a minimum 101 degrees everyday and about 100% humidity in winter clothing. Although it was great to show more of the city, it didn't feel very good to show more of the city.

After everything you went through physically on ?Buffy,? were you asking this director for more?
It was different. It was very strenuous [but] in a different way. I kept thinking, "Oh, it's going to be a breeze. I'm going to walk through it." But this end-sequence is so complicated and incredibly physical in a way that I wasn't used to, without giving away too much. It's also difficult - and I know this is going to sound lame, but - it was difficult to sometimes not look like Buffy. I had this running scene and they kept making me do it over and over and over again, and I kept thinking I was messing up. But it was because I was running with my hands up in the professional position and like this [mimics tight-fisted running with her elbows in]. And they kept saying, "Flap your arms more!" They were getting me really tired, hoping that as each take went on? And it took me awhile to catch on to what they were doing. In some instances like that, it was actually harder [than ?Buffy?].

Are you more of a victim in this movie?
Definitely more the victim.

Did you scream a lot?
No. And you know, and that's what was really cool. One of the reasons that I signed on is because I wouldn't sort of categorize it as your typical horror film. American horror films, we do automatically think of large-breasted girls running in the woods in the wrong direction. Think of me and ?I Know What You Did Last Summer,? it's a perfect example. But Japanese films in that genre are based in such reality. They're more psychologically scary to me, and so because of that you base things so differently. [Takashi] Shimizu [the director] is so against your basic?not ploys, but sort of the basic things, your basic scare tactics. And so it isn't so much screaming as being frozen in absolute fear and not being able to find your voice. It made it that much more interesting, because I think the easy thing is, "Oh, my God, something scary!" and scream. I think it was harder to be able to think about what actually would happen if you saw a dead woman coming at you.

What did you think?
I thought, "Damn, that girl is flexible!" But that?s a whole other conversation, entirely (laughing).

SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR - "THE GRUDGE" INTERVIEW: CONTINUED ON PAGE 2: