Why her? Dushku, 20 can play a popular girl (last year's cheerleading hit Bring It On; May's offbeat comedy The New Guy) or Buffy's evil nemesis Faith -- and we still can't bring ourselves to hate her. Although she's been acting since childhood, the Boston native never planned it that way. "I wasn't ever the kid who hoped to be Punky Brewster. I wanted to be a doctor or a laywer. I went to one audition with my brother when I was 10," she recalls. "I tripped and fell, and they said, 'You!' I just went along with it." Next up, Dushku will costar with Robert De Niro in City By the Sea.

Dushku's hot list: Traveling ("My mom and I will find ourselves in a Mongolian shower with 30 woman and think, How did we get here?"); and celeb perks: ("I'm excited when someone sends me a pencil").

Reprinted from Seventeen - April 2001