She's the anti-Buffy, the anti-cheerleader, but with her new movie career taking off, shes pro-fame.

Most actors complain about type-casting, but Eliza Dushku is fine with being the tough girl. After all, it's ready-to-rumble roles like psycho Faith on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Bring it On's unprissy Missy that have brought her film offers and fan sites. She enthuses: "There've been lots of stories about who are sweet, but its new to have these strong female action characters." She'll be thrilled to see Angelina Jolie, as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, blow things up this summer.

Eliza, 20, is also taking theatres by storm this year, in the most recent thriller Soul Survivors, (opposite American Beauty's Wes Bently) and the upcoming City By The Sea (with Robert Deniro). Factor in a career that kicked off at age 10, with parts in This Boys Life and True Lies, and her upbringing (shes the baby of the family, with three brothers, raised by a "feminist, superliberal Mormon mom"), and you'll understand why she exudes moxie instead of mere carbon dioxide. "I love running around like psycho girl. I'm the girl who gets up on the table and starts singing, 'Maybe you don't want to to do that as you get more known,' but I don't want fame to change me." Her dream role: 1950's scream siren Hedy Lamarr. "She was smart and outrageous and wacky. People couldn't take their eyes off her." Sounds like someone we know.

Reprinted from Mademoiselle - By Daryl Chen - May 2001