Sarah Michelle Gellar has some “Scooby-Doo” scoop. (Photo: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Paramount+)
Scooby-Doo, what happened to you? As Sarah Michelle Gellar tells it, her 2002 movie live-action adaptation of the beloved kiddie cartoon, was going to be a lot different from the G-rated flick that wound up in theaters.
“I think it was the reason I actually signed on to the movie,” Gellar told host Andy Cohen on Thursday’s episode of Watch What Happens Live. “It was less family-friendly to begin with.”
The revelation happened after a caller asked whether it was true that Daphne, Gellar’s character in the movie, had “a relationship on the side” with Linda Cardellini’s Velma in the original version of the movie’s script.
Writer James Gunn said something similar on social media in 2020. He noted that Velma was “explicitly gay” in his first draft, but the studio “just kept watering it down and watering it down, becoming ambiguous (the version shot), then nothing (the released version), and finally having a boyfriend (the sequel).” He said then that “language and jokes and sexual situations were removed, including a kiss between Daphne and Velma. Cleavage was CGI’d over.”
Sarah Michelle Gellar (Daphne), Linda Cardellini (Velma), Matthew Lillard (Shaggy) and Freddie Prinze Jr. (Fred) star in the 2002 movie “Scooby-Doo.” (Photo: Warner Brothers/courtesy Everett Collection)
On WWHL, Gellar answered, “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. It was an actual kiss between Daphne and Velma that got cut.”
Cohen and actress Rosie Perez, who was also a guest on the talker, were surprised.
“I feel like the world wants to see it,” Gellar said. “But I don’t know where it is.”
The former star of Buffy the Vampire Slayer noted that, originally, there were other more adult moments, too.
“There was a great line, too, where I remember, I’ll never forget, where we were having a fight — Daphne and Fred — and then I yell at him, ‘And that ascot makes you look gay!’ and I slam the door,” Gellar said. “And they cut that, too.”
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She added, “There was also this implication about Fred being interested in both, you know, parties … and it all got cut.”
Fred was played by Freddie Prinze Jr., whom the Cruel Intentions actress married three months after Scooby was released. Both reprised their roles for the 2004 sequel, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.
The iconic characters of Daphne and Velma, in fact, do share a kiss on-screen in HBO Max’s new adult animated series, Velma, in which Mindy Kaling voices the title character.
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