Sarah Michelle Gellar Reveals the Emotional Reason She Stepped Away From Hollywood

Sarah Michelle Gellar is getting candid about her hiatus from acting.

In a January 2026 appearance on the Shut Up Evan podcast, Gellar noted that she’s making her return to the big screen for the upcoming horror comedy, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come. She explained that she hadn’t filmed a movie in quite some time because she “took a lot of years off.”

“I think I feel like I’m first getting my sea legs back now and like ready to work now that my kids are older,” said Gellar who shares her children, Charlotte, 16, and Rocky, 13, with her husband, Freddie Prinze Jr.

She suggested she had some difficulty following the death of her Crazy Ones castmate, Robin Williams, in 2014. She and Williams starred as daughter-and-father duo, Sydney and Simon Roberts, in the one-season CBSsitcom, which ended in 2014, per IMDb.

“I started Crazy Ones when my son was three months old. I mean, I was breastfeeding the entire time and then Robin passed away and everything just sort of hit me,” said Gellar in the podcast interview. “It was like the postpartum hit me. And that loss was so huge and I felt a little directionless for the first time in my life. And I thought maybe that’s my sign that like I’m not living the moments enough because they can go away so quickly. And at that point, I just said I needed to take a break.”

She also shared she is “so glad” she took a break from her career because it gave her the opportunity to focus on her children.

“First of all, I’ll never get that time back with my kids. I didn’t miss a show, a performance, a first step, a lost tooth. Like, there was every moment I was able to be there for, and that’s not something you can do as a working actor. Our days are long. We travel a lot,” said Gellar during the interview.

She also said she is now pickier with what projects she takes on. She explained her career once “defined” her self-image, meaning she felt like she needed to work non-stop. Gellar said her self-worth is not tied to her career.

“So now I pick jobs because I really want to work with that person. Or I think this would be so much fun. I don’t have this desire to prove stuff that I used to have,” said Gellar on the podcast.

The actress, who is reprising her beloved character Buffy Summers for the upcoming Hulu series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale, also expressed gratitude for fans who have been eagerly awaiting her return to television and movies.

“I also didn’t want to be that person that all of a sudden then my kids left and then I was directionless again. Because when you do step away from acting, you never know if there’s going to be a career to go back to,” said Gellar on the podcast. “It doesn’t matter who you are. Sometimes audiences move on and and that’s okay. Like that’s acceptable. I’m very, very grateful that I have found that’s not been the case [for me] and there’s still a place for me.”