Sarah Michelle Gellar Says 'High School Sarah' Wouldn't Believe She's Working with Christian Slater and Patrick Dempsey (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Sarah Michelle Gellar (left); Christian Slater (middle); Patrick Dempsey (right).Photo:Taylor Hill/FilmMagic; ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty; Stefanie Keenan/WireImage

Taylor Hill/FilmMagic; ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty; Stefanie Keenan/WireImage

Sarah Michelle Gellar’s latest role definitely checks a major bucket list item off her list.

The actress stars inDexter: Original SinalongsideChristian SlaterandPatrick Dempsey, and while she may seem like she’s keeping her cool about the all-star cast, she tells PEOPLE how she really feels about working with some fellow ’90s icons.

She continues, “It’s funny because it wasn’tGrey’s Anatomyfor me, it’sCan’t Buy Me Love. That is a classic — a classic. I used to want to beAmanda Peterson.”

After hearing thathis role as Ronald Miller is what Dempsey, 58, has said he’s recognized the most often for, Gellar is unsurprised. “I would think so,” she says. “I mean, at least in my heart.”

Patrick Gibson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Christian Slater, Molly Brown and Patrick Dempsey at the Paramount+ CCXP Talent Welcome Party at Rosewood Sao Paulo on December 6, 2024.Alexandre Schneider/Getty

Alexandre Schneider/Getty

Despite her love ofCan’t Buy Me Love, Gellar admits that it was Slater’s breakout role that really had a chokehold on her.

“Heatherswas — and Christian knows this — was my all-time favorite movie in, I think, the world,” she says.

Slater, 55, is aware of it, too. “I mean, Christian and I know each other, so I think Christian knows my feelings aboutHeathers.”

The feeling is mutual on Slater’s side. “She’s the coolest,” he tells PEOPLE of Gellar. “She was always lovely and very complimentary”

“She might’ve said that she had a crush on me at some point in her life,” he continues. “But God, I mean, I love her too. She’s amazing.”

Christian Slater as Harry Morgan and Patrick Dempsey as Captain Aaron Spencer in ‘Dexter: Original Sin’.Frank Ockenfels 3/Paramount+

Frank Ockenfels 3/Paramount+

Crushes aside, Gellar praises the whole cast ofDexter: Original Sin —which sees the titular serial killer as a 20-year-old just beginning to explore his deadly urges, withPatrick Gibsontaking on the role of a youngerMichael C. Hall.

“This cast gelled in a way that I’ve — you know, I’ve been doing this a very long time — I’ve never experienced,” she says.Gellar stars as Tanya Martin, the CSI chief at the Miami Metro Police Department, where Dexter starts working after college graduation. His dad Harry Morgan (Slater) also works there as a detective with Aaron Spencer (Dempsey), the Miami Metro Homicide Captain.

Patrick Gibson as Dexter Morgan and Sarah Michelle Gellar as Tanya in ‘Dexter: Original Sin’.Patrick Wymore/Paramount+ with Showtime

Patrick Wymore/Paramount+ with Showtime

“And I think it came from the fact that a lot of us have worked all the way through… Paddy’s a child actor, he has worked all the way through, and so everyone came with this sense of, ‘Let’s do this. Let’s kick butt, but let’s also go home,'” she says of the cast’s dynamic on set.

“Nobody was late. Everybody knew their stuff. It was such the experience you hope to have.”

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New episodes ofDexter: Original Sinpremiere Fridays on Paramount+ with SHOWTIME Plan.

source: people.com