Buffy Star Sarah Michelle Gellar & Billie Eilish’s Dueling Crushes

After spending a week or so last month covering a new book examining the popular & beloved Buffy the Vampire Slayer from the perspective of many who were involved in the series, these are the kind of “mental palette cleansers” we like to cover because holy s**t not everything that we post has to be snarky, we-know-better-than-you nonsense. In what could be the genesis for a very cool “Buffy” reboot (dare to dream), award-winning artists Billie Eilish revealed who her childhood celebrity crush was during a a fan Q & A on Instagram Stories. Yup, it was Sarah Michelle Gellar taking the top spot. But since this is social media… “The Place Where Dreams Are Made!”… you knew it wouldn’t end there, right?

Once word reached Gellar, she returned the favor with an Instagram post sharing a screencap of the response. “I’m dead. That’s all,” the actress wrote. “I’m not a child anymore, but I totally have a crush on [Billie Eilish]. Ok… now that’s really all.” And then to make things even more lovingly Inception-like, Eilish then saw that response and returned with a screencap of Gellar’s post in her Instagram Stories with the follow-up comment, “Um oh my god.” Here’s the three-act social media story in all of its glory:

Even though we’ve reported on excerpts from it in the past, we can emphasize enough how you need to get your hands on a copy of Evan Ross Katz‘s Into Every Generation a Slayer Is Born: How Buffy Staked Our Hearts (you can purchase it here)- an exploration of the franchise’s immense impact on pop culture and society as well as a number of failings that the show suffered from (including directly addressing the abuse accusations leveled by many connected with the show in 2021). But what separates this book from others covering the series is the access Katz had to speak to a number of familiar faces, including Gellar, Charisma Carpenter, Emma Caulfield, Amber Benson, James Marsters, Anthony Head, Seth Green, Marc Blucas, Nicholas Brendon, Danny Strong, Tom Lenk, Bianca Lawson, Julie Benz, Clare Kramer, K. Todd Freeman, and Sharon Ferguson; and writers Douglas Petrie, Jane Espenson & Drew Z. Greenberg. And with all of those names in play came dozens of heartwarming, heartbreaking & enlightening personal perspectives on their experiences during the shows’ runs and the impact it continues to have on them today.

Like the following conversation that Katz had with Gellar about the idea of rebooting the series (a plan that was first announced back in 2018 but has understandably gone quiet ever since). In the following excerpt, Gellar shares her idea on the best way to approach a return to the “Buffy” universe as well as who she believes would be the best Slayer for this generation (clue: fans of Euphoria and Spider-Man: No Way Home will be very, very happy). “I think they’ve left the door open in a wonderful way because I do think it would be interesting to see how someone born with that power does fend in this modern world and what the new demons are. The way ‘Buffy’ was left- that every girl who wants the power has it- you can still tell the story of a Slayer, but maybe it’s not Buffy,” Gellar explained. “Because Buffy’s story was of that time. So maybe it’s a different Slayer, and in that case, I’m all for it because I’d be certainly interested to see how do you handle being a Chosen One now and what injustices you are fighting and what the demons represent.” And who does Gellar see as being this generation’s main Slayer? “I vote [‘Euporia’ star] Zendaya,” she responded (an idea that Benz found “amazing” and that we fully, 108.3% support, though we would also want to see Eilish involved somehow, too).