Daytime fans fell in love with Sarah Michelle Gellar long before she was famous for playing the title role in the WB's Buffy the Vampire Slayer series. The actress wowed soap fans with her portrayal of Kendall Hart on All My Children, for which she won a Daytime Emmy in the Outstanding Younger Actress category in 1995.
Though she's gone on to become a major star with credits like Cruel Intentions, Scooby-Doo, The Grudge, and I Know What You Did Last Summer, Gellar reports that she will always hold a special place in her heart for her soap opera roots.
"[AMC was] the training ground for the rest of my career," she tells TV Insider about playing Erica Kane's (Susan Lucci) troubled daughter. "I made incredible friends at that time and I learned incredible work habits, and soap operas are an intense amount of work, and I'm incredibly grateful for that time and the people that I met."
The actress also shares that she is pleased to do whatever she can to keep soap operas alive. "We live in a world now where my kids don't even really know what a soap opera is, so anything I can do to continue the legacy I'm very proud of," she enthuses.
At the moment, however, Gellar is focused on promoting her partnership with Lysol for the brand's Disinfecting Wipes' "Buy One, Donate One" program. The program promises that for every pack of disinfecting wipes bought, one will be donated to a school in need.
"We live in a world right now where we need to protect our most vulnerable. And for me in my life, my most vulnerable are my young children at a time now where they're returning to school, and it's extremely unsure, and [it's nice] to have a product like Lysol that not only physically protects them, but is going that extra mile to be able to provide for the people that can't," she says. "After the year of not being in school, these children need to be there, and to be able to have a product that promotes health like this, I think, is invaluable."
For more from Gellar on her partnership with Lysol and some of her other career highlights, check out TV Insider's full interview with the actress here.
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