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Cruel Intentions character Kathryn Merteuil[] | |
|---|---|
| Kathryn Merteuil | |
| Birthday | November 3, 1980 |
| Portrayers: | Sarah Michelle Gellar ( in Cruel Intentions)Amy Adams (in Cruel Intentions 2) |
Kathryn Merteuil is a fictional character and main villain from the 1999 hit teen drama Cruel Intentions. She is portrayed by actress Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Biography[]
Kathryn was born into Manhattan's most elite social circles, with her mother being Tiffany Merteuil, a well-respected New York socialite, who is covertly dubbed as a gold digger amongst her circles. She attended Manchester Prep, a prestigious co-educational private school just outside of the city and lived on the Upper East Side with her mother. When Tiffany got married to Edward Valmont, she and her daughter moved into the Valmont House; Edward and his son's (Sebastian Valmont) opulent Fifth Avenue town-house mansion. As Kathryn came-of-age, she excelled in many academic fields and became fluent in the French and Vietnamese languages, and mastered the piano. She soon became known throughout the school community as a role model, being an inspiration to all parents, even though secretly she developed an addiction to both alcohol and cocaine. She also has at least one cousin, Cassidy, who is even more deceptive than Kathryn.
In the film, she's first seen discussing her prep school with Mrs. Caldwell and her daughter Cecile. Kathryn promises Mrs. Caldwell that she will look out for the sheltered and naive Cecile. However, her intentions are revealed in private with her step-brother Sebastian, in that she really just wanted to use Cecile to take revenge on her ex-boyfriend, Court Reynolds, who had dumped her for Cecile. Kathryn asks Sebastian to seduce Cecile; yet he refuses as he is already planning to seduce the virgin daughter of their school's new headmaster, Annette Hargrove. The two then make a wager: Kathryn believes he cannot get Annette to bed him, yet Sebastian believes he assuredly can. If Kathryn wins, she gets Sebastian's vintage Jaguar XK140; if Sebastian wins, Kathryn will have vigorous sex with him. Kathryn has to convince him even more, as he initially rejects the deal, by saying he can do whatever he wants to her body, in a sexually charged pose, showing off all of her assets. Sebastian then happily reconsiders and accepts her challenge, initiating their bet.
After numerous failed attempts to seduce Annette, Sebastian agrees to rather seduce Cecile. After getting a confession from Cecile that her music teacher Ronald Clifford is in love with her, Kathryn secretly tells Mrs. Caldwell about Ronald and Cecile's romance, resulting in Mrs. Caldwell intervening in their relationship. Sebastian, in turn, calls Cecile to his house, ostensibly to give her a letter from Ronald. There, he blackmails Cecile and performs oral sex on her. The next day, Cecile confides in Kathryn, who advises her to learn from Sebastian so that she can make Ronald happy in bed.
After Sebastian continues his courting of Annette and ultimately sleeps with her, Kathryn offers herself to Sebastian as he has won the bet, but he refuses; he now only wants Annette as he is in love with her. Kathryn begins showing signs of possessiveness towards Sebastian and is suggested to be now truly in love with him.[2] The next day, Kathryn taunts him and threatens to ruin Annette's reputation, so Sebastian pretends to be indifferent to Annette and coldly breaks up with her to save her reputation. After Sebastian tells Kathryn that he has broken up with Annette and arranged for Cecile and Ronald to be together, Kathryn reveals that she has known all along that he was truly in love with Annette and manipulated him into giving her up, as he was the one she wanted to break. Kathryn knowing as well that he came to claim his reward of having sex, rejects him with the reasoning that she won't sleep with a "loser". Once he leaves Kathryn, she calls Ronald to tell him that Sebastian slept with Cecile and (falsely) informs him that Sebastian hit her. This false information leads to Ronald attacking Sebastian in the middle of the street with Annette trying to intervene, resulting in Sebastian's untimely death in saving Annette from being hit by a taxi.
The new school year is inaugurated with Sebastian's funeral. During the service, Kathryn gives a self-important speech to the school about how she had unsuccessfully tried to get Sebastian to mend his ways and become a model student like herself. Halfway through her speech, students start walking out. Flustered, Kathryn rushes outside the chapel, where Cecile is distributing copies of Sebastian's journal (entitled "Cruel Intentions") to all the students. The journal shows all of Sebastian's inner thoughts and thoughts: his and Kathryn's conquests, his description of the bet, and pages on Kathryn, which finally expose her manipulative and deceitful ways, including the fact that she hides a vial of cocaine in a crucifix she wears in the rosary beads around her wrist. The headmaster takes Kathryn's crucifix and opens it, spilling out the cocaine. Kathryn's spotless reputation is destroyed, and people finally see her for the troubled, callous mastermind that she is. She then begins to cry, either out of anger for being caught or now knowing her life has been destroyed by Sebastian, or possibly a mixture of both.
Sixteen years later, Kathryn is now living in San Francisco. She is married to the wealthy Pascal Barrett and spearheads an inspiring youth rehabilitation movement, as well as being involved in a local private school, Brighton Preparatory Academy. Kathryn is privately shaken by the arrival of Sebastian’s son, Bash Casey, and the re-appearance in her life of the girl she wronged years ago, Annette Hargrove Casey. A force of nature, Kathryn has many secrets in her life. She vies for control of Valmont International, as well as the soul of Bash.
Personality[]
Kathryn's personality is a very complex and elusive one. The few who know the real her believe she is an emotionally unstable psychopath (possibly with a narcissistic personality disorder) She's extremely manipulative and callous, and it seems her mother and stepfather are not overall aware of her mental health issues, and believe she is perfect, and due to her perfection she is extremely pampered and spoiled by her mother and stepfather. Her charming and brilliant personality seduces everyone around her. Although she's very intelligent, she lacks empathy, sympathy and a conscience. She is also completely self-absorbed, not even appearing upset at her step-brother's memorial, but making sure she looks perfect in the bathroom's mirror. She is referred to as a bulimic once by Cecile Caldwell and then by Sebastian in his journal. Kathryn also suffers from bulimia nervosa and is mildly self-conscious about her body.
Even before the events of the movie, Kathryn was already accustomed to destroying her fellow peers' lives and using sex as a means to control the men in her entourage but still maintaining that she is a virgin who is planning to wait until marriage. Though Kathryn is self-obsessed (which may be a symptom of her borderline personality disorder), she still has feelings for a few men in her life. Some include Court Reynolds, a jock from her school who broke up with her on the 4th of July weekend in 1998 (who later fell for Cecile Caldwell, which led Kathryn to set out to destroy her life) and Ronald Clifford, Cecile's music tutor who's romantically involved with her, and with whom Kathryn openly sleeps with. She also shows great attachment towards Sebastian, wanting to actively sleep with him even after he claims he is in love with Annette and not wanting Kathryn. This possibly could be due to her seeing him as her only equal, in their goals and personalities. She portrays her actual feelings for him when trying to make sure his relationship with Annette is completely unraveled and destroyed. But even then, after still being rejected by him, she seems to develop even more clingy feelings for him, by trying to convince him that he is meant to be with her, a contrast to their previous attitude towards him. Ultimately, her complicated relationship with Sebastian would lead to her orchestrating the events of his death.
Notes[]
Amy Adams who played Kathryn Merteuil in the prequel had blonde hair in 1997 in her sophmore year. Two years later she dyed her hair as a brunette.
She was an over-achiever and mean girl of Manchester prep.
She was similar to Blair Waldorf of Gossip Girl.