Kelly Ripa is thankful Sarah Michelle Gellar chose not to listen to her brutally honest career advice.
During Monday’s episode of Live with Kelly and Ryan, Ripa recalled to co-host Ryan Seacrest how she previously advised Gellar against making a cross-country move to pursue her acting dreams in Hollywood.
“I’m so glad Sarah Michelle Gellar did not listen to me,” Ripa, 52, said of the actress, who later appeared as a guest on Monday’s episode. “Because many years ago, when she was on All My Children and leaving, she said, ‘I’m going out to California.’ And I said, ‘What? There’s nothing in California. What are you talking about? You don’t want to go out to California as a young starlet. What do you think? You think you’re going to become a star? You’re going to stay here where the work is! Theater! Television!'”
The two stars have been friends since meeting as costars on All My Children. Even though Ripa once discouraged her colleague and pal’s career aspirations, she’s happy Gellar instead went with her gut.
“She was like, ‘You’re wrong,'” Ripa recounted. “And I’m so glad she didn’t listen. She did it! She was like, ‘Hold my beer, I’m going to go be a star.'”
Gellar, of course, went on to have a successful career spanning film and television, scoring her breakout primetime role with Buffy the Vampire Slayerfrom 1997 to 2003. She also starred on the big screen in include Cruel Intentions, The Grudge, Scooby-Doo and I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Next up, she’s taking on the supernatural world in her new Parmount+ drama Wolf Pack, which The Hollywood Reporter noted is being “pitched as a Buffy descendent.”
Gellar notably took a break from the industry for quite some time before returning in the well-received Netflix last year’s dark-humored comedy Do Revenge, which had hints of Cruel Intentions.
“To come back, to get projects made, you have to pay homage to what you’re known for,” Gellar also told the news outlet. “If I do things that speak to the fan base — which I think these will — and gather some new people along the way, maybe I branch out again.”
“It’s not a next act for me, but it’s certainly a new chapter,” she added.