Sarah Michelle Gellar has verified the long-standing claim that a romance scene between Daphne and Velma was deleted from the Scooby-Doo movie – and we’re so bummed we missed out!
The 2002 live-action mystery film starring Sarah, Freddie Prinze Jr., Matthew Lillard, and Linda Cardellini as the live-action counterparts of the cartoon characters Daphne, Fred, Shaggy, and Velma, who created Mystery Incorporated.
They returned with Scooby-Doo after a two-year hiatus to solve a mystery at a popular horror-themed tropical island resort.
While it has long been assumed that Daphne and Velma were more than pals, Buffy actor Sarah, 45, has now revealed that there was a’steamy’ moment in which they kissed that was cut from the final cut.
Sarah was asked about a’relationship on the side’ between the two characters during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.
‘I don’t know about a relationship on the side, but there was a steamy – I mean, I said it was steamy, but they probably didn’t think it was, hence it was cut….,’ she said.
When asked to elaborate on what she meant by Andy, 54, Sarah stated that a kiss was recorded.
‘Kiss, yup, it got cut. It was an actual kiss between Daphne and Velma that got cut,’ she explained.
She added: ‘I feel like the world wants to see it, but I don’t know where it is.’
Andy then quipped that if the sequence had remained, they could have ‘added approximately $15 million [£12 million] to the box office’.
In another sequence that didn’t make it to the screen, Sarah claimed there was a ‘wonderful line’ where Daphne and Fred were arguing and she informed him, ‘That ascot makes you seem homosexual.’
Should the studio make the deleted scene available? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below. Now is the time to comment.
She stated that while the sequence was “the reason I signed on to the movie,” it did not receive clearance to remain.
‘I know everyone always thought it for a long time and there was always this implication about Fred being interested in both, you know, parties,’ she said.
‘It was less family friendly to begin with.’
Her remarks follow the revelation in 2020 by the film’s writer, James Gunn, that he intended to make Velma lesbian in the film and its 2004 sequel, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, but the studio wouldn’t allow him.
‘Velma was openly homosexual in my first script in 2001,’ he tweeted at the time.
‘But the studio just kept diluting it down, becoming ambiguous (the version shot), then nothing (the published version), and eventually having a boyfriend (the sequel).’
Based on the long-running cartoon series of the same name, James stated in 2017 that his cinematic version was originally rated R, but was dropped to a PG-rated comedy for all ages after it was edited.
Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen airs on Bravo TV in the US.