Was there any thought of casting Kristie Swanson as Buffy again?

Not Kristie Swanson per se, because it was set in high school, and she couldn't play a high school girl any more.

I think we all, to a certain extent, had those characters [from the film] in our heads, in the sense that Buffy was a Valley girl. And you know, people aren't Valley girls any more. It wasn't that plastic, spineless character, and I think we sensed that.

Sarah, who I've known since she was about eight years old, was originally brought in for the role of Cordelia, because we knew based upon her soap work that she could play that part very well. But Sarah was a very perky young girl. When she first came in she was wearing big floppy hats and granny dresses, she was not the fashionista that she became. She was such a good actress and she had such star quality.

We were having problems finding Buffy, so we said, "Let's try Sarah as Buffy, she's so charismatic and maybe she could do her version of Buffy". It was actually the best thing that could have happened, because it opened all of us up. We could do our own Buffy, and these characters didn't have to be like the characters in the movie.

I think that's a great part of its success. I think if we had cast it the way it was in the movie, it never would have had the legs that it had. I mean, who here is that Valley girl any more?