Sarah Michelle Gellar Says New IKWYDLS Cast Members Didn't Need Her Advice: 'Those Ladies Know What They're Doing' (Exclusive)

Sarah Michelle Gellar didn't have any advice for the cast of the new I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot — because according to her, they didn’t need it.

As she frequently (and bluntly) reiterates in interviews, Gellar, 48, will not be reprising her character from the original 1997 slasher, Helen Shivers, because, well, she’s dead. But that doesn’t mean she wasn’t haunting the set, so to speak.

“I mean, I'm involved in the sense of, like, I feel like part of it," the actress — who is best friends with director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson and married to franchise mainstay Freddie Prinze Jr. — tells PEOPLE.

“But,” the Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum reminds IKWYDLS fans once again, “I’m dead.”

However, not even Helen being six feet under — much to horror lovers’ lingering dismay — could keep Gellar away from the set of the long-awaited sequel, where Prinze, 49, and fellow legacy cast member Jennifer Love Hewitt joined forces with a cast of newcomers.

Though she “was just there to hang out, and bring coffees and water,” Gellar got to know some of the new cast, which includes Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Austin Nichols, Tyriq Withers, Lola Tung, Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Gabbriette. 

And, despite her status as a bonafide scream queen (for IKWYDLS, The Grudge, Scream 2 and Buffy, to name a few) Gellar insists her horror expertise was not necessary on set.

When asked if she had any advice for the new cast members, Gellar insisted that it was she who took notes — not vice versa.

“I mean, I take inspiration from them,” Gellar tells PEOPLE of the new cast members. “The way they bond and the way they support each other … I came away with so many new, really good friends. I didn't expect it.”

“Those ladies know what they're doing,” she adds. “They do not need my help.”

The Scream 2 star also made some memories on the IKWYDLS set, she tells PEOPLE, recounting a fond moment when she hosted a dinner party for the slasher's cast and crew.

Last year, Gellar recalls, “everyone [was] sort of piecemeal all over, 'cause [Cline] had to do some stuff for Outer Banks, and so before I left — 'cause we all missed Thanksgiving — I wanted to do a big dinner.”

So she “rented out a private room” and filled it with food. “We all got to do just a really fun group dinner,” Gellar says, “and it was just … it was a highlight for everybody.”

Despite Gellar’s insistence that she can’t return to IKWYDLS, director and co-writer Robinson, 37, recently revealed that she "tried relentlessly" to convince her to return to Southport — to no avail.

"I tried, okay? I harassed her! But she is dead," the Do Revenge director told Entertainment Weekly earlier this month. And Robinson “tried to pitch some crazy s--- too,” she noted.

According to a synopsis, the plot of the upcoming reboot is eerily similar to the plot of the original slasher — only this time, the friend group who covers up a fatal car accident turns to Southport Massacre of 1997 survivors Ray (Prinze) and Julie (Love Hewitt) for help.

Like Gellar, it appears that original cast member Ryan Phillippe will not be returning for the reboot — likely for similar reasons. Meanwhile, the fate of Brandy’s character Karla Wilson, who first appeared in 1998's sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, is less clear.

When PEOPLE inquired about her return, Robinson simply teased, "You'll have to go see the movie.”

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I Know What You Did Last Summer is in theaters July 18.