Sarah Michelle Gellar is pretty ecstatic that her 90s romance film Cruel Intentions didn’t develop into a TV series after all.
The 1999 drama, based on the 1782 novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liasons), follows Kathryn Merteuil, (Sarah Michelle) a rich Upper East Side teenager who makes a bet with her stepbrother Sebastian Valmont (Ryan Phillipe) that he can’t seduce the new principal’s daughter Annette Hargrove (Reese Witherspoon).
15 years after its premiere, NBC wanted to revive the classic in 2016, however the project fell through, much to Sarah’s delight!
The original film’s writers, Jordan Ross and Lindsey Rosin, worked on the pilot which would have followed Kathryn 17 years after her world came crumbling down following the publication of Sebastian’s journal, filled with all her damning secrets.
Reflecting on her decision to back out, she said: ‘I don’t know. That was a whole crazy time.
‘Nothing against NBC, but Cruel Intentions is straight streaming. On the first day, I was like, “this isn’t working.”‘
‘It’s just not a network show. And if it is a network show, it’s not my Cruel Intentions. So, I was actually grateful,’ she added to the New York Times.
Back in April, Sarah celebrated her 45th birthday with her former co-stars Ryan and Selma.
The iconic photos showed the former colleagues standing in front of a painting showcasing that steamy kiss scene involving Sarah’s character and Selma’s Cecile Caldwell.
The Buffy star is married to actor Freddie Prinze Jr and the couple have two children together – daughter Charlotte, who was born in 2009, and son Rocky, who they welcomed in 2012.
Freddie previously shared the secret to their now 20-year marriage in an interview with E! News, crediting their initial friendship stage for helping their romance to go the distance
