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The only people Sarah Michelle Gellar wants to see her as iconic are her children.
On Thursday, the Savannah College of Art and Design honored the Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum, 45, with the Icon Award at the 2023 SCAD TVfest in Atlanta, where she joked that the intro reel of some of her most iconic moments "made me look way cooler than my career actually is."
"Can I borrow that and show it to my children?" said Gellar, who shares daughter Charlotte Grace, 13, and 10-year-old son Rocky James with husband Freddie Prinze Jr.
She continued: "But speaking of my children, I have a daughter who's 13, and she, like most of you, wants to go into this field as well. And she's in middle school, which I think we all remember pretty much sucks."
"She feels really alone, and she doesn't have people that are into the same things that she's into. I walked around your school today, and I thought, 'God, I wish I brought my daughter here today, and I wish she could see the community that all of you get to be a part of every day,'" said Gellar.
"I thought if my daughter could see there's a place for people like us, where we fit in, where we get to work together and do what we love, maybe she wouldn't dislike school so much."
The Cruel Intentions star previously told The Hollywood Reporter about her daughter's industry ambitions, noting that they have a rule she "can't be in front of a camera until she graduates high school."
Following a screening of her new Paramount+ Teen Wolf spin-off Wolf Pack on Thursday, Gellar was supported in the audience by her young budding costars as she accepted the award in a strappy purple lace dress with black open-toe heels.
"I'm really honored and I hope you know that this really means a lot," she said. "And I should also mention, my whole cast came out here to support me today."
"A lot of them are your age, and this is their first chance to start this wonderful career. And so, in all of you, I see them. Just know, it's really possible. It really happens. You believe in yourself, and others take that cue and believe in you," added Gellar.
The event was the latest stop on the actress's promotional circuit for her new Paramount+ show, for which she serves as both star and executive producer. The series — which has been noted for its appeal to longtime Buffy fans — follows a teenage boy and girl whose lives are changed when a terrifying supernatural creature is awakened by a California wildfire.
This year's SCAD TVfest also honored Yellowstone star Wes Bentley with the Virtuoso Award and The Office alum Craig Robinson with the Spotlight Award. Filmmaker Sterlin Harjo also accepted the Variety Showrunner Award after a screening of Reservation Dogs.
Gellar has enjoyed a successful TV and film career spanning more than three decades. She began her career at a young age as a commercial actress before landing a the role of Kendall Heart on All My Children in 1993. The soap opera role would ultimately earn her a Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding younger actress in a drama series.
Her career-defining role came when she landed the lead role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which ran from 1997 to 2003. The show earned her a Golden Globe nod for best television actress in a drama series and launched a film career that included buzzy roles in 1997's I Know What You Did Last Summer, 1999's Cruel Intentions, 2004's The Grudge and two live-action Scooby Doo films in 2002 and 2004.
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Gellar took a break from acting after starring alongside Robin Williams in 2013's The Crazy Ones, returning to star in Netflix's 2022 dark comedy Do Revenge and Paramount+'s Wolf Pack, which premiered last momth.
New episodes of Wolf Pack drop Thursdays on Paramount+.
