Less than a week before his death on Friday, Nicholas Brendon posted a video of himself taking a swipe and exhaling smoke at former co-star Sarah Michelle Gellar.
The actor, best known for playing Xander Harris on all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, went live on Facebook on March 14 and spoke to fans while sitting outside in what appears to be his home.
The 45-minute video showed the TV star, who was 54 at the time of his death, rocking back and forth in his chair as he coughed violently.
he said, his voice cracking. “It was cold, so we had a fire going all day…but it’s amazing what inhaling smoke can do to you.”
Continuing to cough, he added, “Fuck, you fucking smoke. You sound like Bane.”
He also talked a bit about Buffy, saying, “I don’t think the show should have ended that way.”
And he took a sharp jab at Gellar, saying, “Sarah[who played the show’s title character, Buffy Summer]…she tried really hard, but in a way, she kind of messed up the show. She was telling everyone she was coming too late into the series, and[creator]Joss[Whedon]wasn’t ready for that. Every season has an arc…It wasn’t fair to the crew, the cast, the show.”
Buffy ended in 2003 after seven seasons on The WB and UPN. According to a January 2023 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Gellar previously said he wanted to leave the show due to extreme physical and mental exhaustion.
She also felt that she expressed the character as well as she could. She’s clearly had a change of heart since recently trying to get the series back on track, but that’s how she felt at the time.
Hulu recently turned down the possibility of a new series, but Brendon seems happy with the streamer’s decision. In a lengthy video of his own, he said that a reboot of the series should never have been made without Whedon. Whedon effectively disappeared from Hollywood in the early 2020s after being accused of abusive, harmful, and unprofessional conduct on set multiple times.
Brendon’s creepy video was captioned: “I have a story to tell. Come one, come all.”
A representative for Geller did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
His family confirmed his death in a social media post on Friday.
“It is with a heavy heart that we share the death of our brother and son Nicholas Brendon. He passed away in his sleep from natural causes. Our family mourns his passing and will maintain privacy during this time as we celebrate the life of a man who lived with passion, imagination, and heart,” they wrote in part.
Geller, perhaps unaware of Brendon’s recent confession, posted a heartfelt farewell to his former co-star on Instagram Saturday morning.
“‘They’ll never know how hard it is to be the unchosen one,'” Geller wrote on Instagram, citing Brendon’s character. “‘Live near the spotlight and never step into the spotlight. But I know that no one is looking at me, so I see more than anyone realizes.'”
She added: “I met Nicki and I know she’s at peace in her big rocking chair in the sky.”
