HOT GALLERY: Looking Back at the Stars of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Movie

Five years before Good Will Hunting, the Oscar-winning phenomenon that made him a household name, Ben Affleck had an uncredited role as a basketball player who goes up against a vampire on the court.

Have we mentioned the household name part? Affleck leapt from indie origins—he is a frequent presence in the oeuvre of Kevin Smith, among other things (Chasing Amy, Mallrats, Dogma, etc.)—to leading-man status in blockbusters like Armageddon and Pearl Harbor. Things quieted down there before Mr. Jennifer Garner returned full-force with critically acclaimed work like 2010’s The Town, which he directed, wrote and starred in. Next up for Affleck are Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder, with Rachel McAdams, and his self-directed political drama Argo (yes, that’s him behind the full beard). Affleck is also the founder of the nonprofit humanitarian organization Eastern Congo Initiative.

The youngest sibling in a showbiz family, Arquette had appeared in a couple of short-lived TV series (the original Parenthood and the film offshoot The Outsiders) when he was cast in Buffy as Benny, the buddy (turned vampire) of Buffy’s romantic interest, Pike. Check out this home video from William Forsche, the special makeup effects artist on the movie, of Arquette and a couple of his blood-sucking costars getting into character. (Who knew that vampires liked to smoke?)

The star of Scream and its many sequels, Arquette has also appeared on TV series including Pushing Daisies, My Name Is Earl, his sister Patricia’s Medium, and his ex Courteney Cox’s Cougar Town. In addition to acting in movies like Never Been Kissed, Arquette has tried his hand at directing and writing (the Ronald Reagan-themed horror movie The Tripper). Next up is Hemlock Drive, with Susan Sarandon. And he recently opened an old-school Sunset Boulevard nightclub, Bootsy Bellows, which is named for his mother’s burlesque persona—titillating pictures of her performing grace the walls of the club.

Merrick (Donald Sutherland) was Buffy’s first Watcher, who comes to break the news to her that she’s a Slayer—and eventually dies at the hands of the vampire Lothos. On the set, Buffy creator Joss Whedon and Sutherland didn’t exactly see eye to eye; in fact, Whedon told The Onion’s A.V. Club that he eventually left the set of the movie because “I could not be around Donald Sutherland any longer.... He would rewrite all his dialogue, and the director would let him. He can’t write—he’s not a writer—so the dialogue would not make sense.”

With a career spanning five decades, Sutherland (dad to Kiefer) has starred in everything from the 1970 movie MASH (he was Hawkeye) and Oliver Stone’s JFK to the Keira Knightley Pride & Prejudice and 2011’s hilarious Horrible Bosses. Next year he returns as the creepy and oppressive President Snow in the sequel to another teen hit, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

Buffy’s high school pal Kimberly was future Oscar winner (and former homeless aspiring actress) Hilary Swank’s very first movie credit; the widely panned The Next Karate Kid was two years later. (Check her out at the 5-minute mark in this video of a photo shoot for the movie.) She would famously go on to appear on Beverly Hills, 90210 with her Buffy costar Luke Perry.

Less than a decade after her bit part on Buffy and getting canned from 90210, Swank took on the risky role of transgendered Brandon Teena in Boys Don’t Cry—a risk that clearly paid off, as it established her as one of the premier actresses in Hollywood and earned her the first of two Oscars (so far). (The second was for the Clint Eastwood-directed Million Dollar Baby, where she transformed herself into a boxer.) Swank has also transformed herself into a producer, going both behind and in front of the camera for movies like Conviction and Amelia. Next up are the TV movie Mary & Martha and the HIV drama The Dallas Buyer’s Club with Matthew McConaughey.

What can you say about the Chosen One? She’s a cheerleader who loves to shop and she kicks the undead to the underworld—without a whiff of contradiction. The role may have been made famous by Sarah Michelle Gellar on the small screen, but it was Kristy Swanson—already a veteran of such teen classics as Pretty in Pink (that’s her giving Duckie the come-hither eye at the end of the movie), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (opposite Ben Stein in the “Bueller? Bueller? Bueller” scene) and the cheesetastic Flowers in the Attic—who first personified the Slayer’s blond spunkiness.

In addition to movies like Big Daddy and TV movies like SyFy’s Swamp Shark, Swanson was “hottest of the hot” Christie Boner in Dude, Where’s My Car? and recently had a recurring role on the series Psych. Earlier this year she costarred in the AOL web series Little Women Big Cars. Next up is the comedy The Whole Banana, with Matthew Perry, Dean Cain, and Kevin Sorbo.

Really, what better way to spark a relationship than saving your love interest from a vampire? That’s exactly how things heat up between Valley girl cheerleader Buffy and high school bad boy Pike. (She saves him, of course.) In the role, Perry worked the sensitive rebel shtick he perfected as teen dream Dylan McKay on Beverly Hills, 90210 (though the actor was actually in his mid-20s when the series began).

Since his 90210 heartthrob days, Perry has starred in decidedly more serious shows, including the HBO prison drama Oz and Showtime’s post apocalyptic sci-fi series Jeremiah. Most recently, he appeared in the drama Body of Proof with Dana Delany and the Hallmark movie series Goodnight for Justice—the third installment airs later this year—which he also executive-produced and wrote. Perry is also attached to the upcoming Red Wing, with Bill Paxton and Justified’s Joelle Carter.

The perpetual man-child Pee-wee Herman took a backseat as Paul Reubens immersed himself in the role of one-armed vampire Amilyn, minion to boss Lothos. And lest you could ever forget that Buffy is, in fact, a comedy, Amilyn has one of the most hilarious death scenes in cinematic history. Plus, Joss Whedon is a fan: “He was my beacon of hope in that whole experience, that he was such a good guy, and so got it.... Paul was a delight to be around.”

Pee-wee’s back! Hadn’t you heard? There was the recent revival of The Pee-Wee Herman Show on Broadway, and there’s talk of developing a new Pee-wee movie. (And if you’re not following Pee-wee on Twitter, you’re missing out!) Of course, Reubens has had a noteworthy career outside of Pee-wee, as well, including memorable stints on 30 Rock, Pushing Daisies, and Murphy Brown. Next up for Reubens is David O. Russell’s oddball comedy Nailed, with Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Biel, as well as Charlie Kaufman’s Frank or Francis, with Nicolas Cage, Steve Carell, Elizabeth Banks, and Jack Black.

This veteran Dutch actor known for his epic creep factor has appeared in everything from Blade Runner to the TV miniseries Merlin to Batman Begins. As violin-playing vampire king Lothos, he “is Buffy’s worst fear and the biggest hill she has to climb,” Hauer said about the role, which allowed him to explore his comedy chops. “I like the light side. It’s harder, and I like the dark side because I know the dark side. I’m not afraid of the dark side. I can go into it and it doesn’t swallow me.”

Next up for Hauer is the Mother Teresa drama The Letters, alongside Juliet Stevenson and Max von Sydow. In addition to his extensive acting credits, he is also a director of such moving work as this video short for his Rutger Hauer Starfish Association, which provides assistance to children and pregnant women with HIV and AIDS.