"When I was fourteen," says Eiiza Dushku, "my mother gave my brother and me each a thousand dollars and told us to go to China and not come back until we'd seen eight cities." It was her "feminist, Mormon" mother's kind of challenge, she says, and it gave young Dushku the self-reliance to manage her nascent stardom while continuing to pursue her own interests and ambitions. Her first role came at age eleven (That Night, 1992]) and, now nineteen, she has already appeared with Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio in This Boy's Life (1993) and Arnold Schwarzenegger in True Lies (1994). She's also appeared opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar, playing her sultry nemesis in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

To date, the only thing that's bothered her family about her career are the dark roles she's had to play. The Buffy episodes, Dushku says, "made my Mormon grandmother frantic." So after another evil role in the upcoming teen horrorfest Soul Survivors, Eliza will be playing for laughs--as a cheerleader opposite Kirstin Dunst in Bring It On. "It's my apology to the Mormons," she says.

Cathy Dunkley writes about film for The Hollywood Reporter.

Reprinted Interview - September 2000