Posted in: Current News, CW, TV | Tagged: btvs, buffy, buffy the vampire slayer

Buffy: Sarah Michelle Gellar Honors, Remembers Michelle Trachtenberg

On what would've been Michelle Trachtenberg's 40th birthday, Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Sarah Michelle Gellar honored her friend and co-star.

Earlier this year, the tragic news hit that Michelle Trachtenberg had passed away at the age of 39, leaving a memorable footprint on the pop culture landscape. Trachtenberg's first television role was in the second season of NBC's Law & Order, with her first credited role in Nickelodeon's The Adventures of Pete & Pete. Over the course of the next 30+ years, Trachtenberg would make the transition from child actor to adult actor, amassing an impressive filmography along the way. But fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer will always love and remember her as Dawn Summers.

Trachtenberg had the unenviable task of joining the hit ensemble series at the start of its fifth season – and as Buffy Summers' (Sarah Michelle Gellar) sister, no less. It was a role that carried a ton of responsibility, with Dawn being introduced as if she had been part of the "Scooby Gang" all along – as if Buffy always had a sister. Eventually, we learned the truth behind Dawn's existence – with Trachtenberg delivering levels of feeling and emotion that made the confusion and heartbreak that Dawn was experiencing relatable to the viewers and kept them tuned into her evolving story.

On what would have been Trachtenberg's 40th birthday, Gellar took to social media to honor and remember her in a heartfelt post reflecting on their time together, beginning with their first time meeting on the set of the famed ABC soap opera. "When you turned 16, it was hard not to still see you as the little girl I met on 'All My Children.' When you turned 21, I had to teach myself to not see you as the little sister anymore. I can't imagine what 40 would have been like. This I know… it would be filled with love. Happy birthday [Michelle Trachtenberg]," read the caption to Gellar's post, featuring a video from "Buffy" of the two together, with Wiz Khalifa's "See You Again (feat. Charlie Puth)" playing. Here's a look:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Michelle Trachtenberg on Dawn's Development

"I was introduced to the show like, 'Boom, here I am!' Take it or leave it, and I hope you take it," Trachtenberg shared with the BBC during a 2014 interview, explaining how she was introduced to the character of Dawn Summers and how she developed the role. "Dawn was introduced as Buffy's sister, and she's just a regular teenage girl, she has her opinions on the world and all that. I never like to think ahead to the end of the season, 'Oh, will I be coming back,' because if you're thinking too much about the technicalities of what you do, you can't really put all the creative ingredients into what you're doing now. That was a big thing for me especially playing Dawn, because I didn't know that much about her at all."

After meeting with the series creator, Trachtenberg realized that she would be carrying the weight when it came to fleshing out Dawn. Thankfully, being a fan of the series made the process easier for her. "What really helped and was very lucky was the fact that I was such a huge fan of the show that I understood how things were going to play out. Not that I knew what was going to happen during the course of the season, but I could guess," Trachtenberg shared. "It was really interesting to see all the hardships Dawn goes through, because even though she has this secret, she still has to play out her life like a regular teenage girl. She has to go to school, she has to do her chores and homework, she has to keep her room clean."

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