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Eliza Patricia Dushku (born December
30, 1980) is an American actress who has appeared in several Hollywood
movies such as Bring It On and Wrong Turn. She is also well known for her
acting on television, such as her recurring appearances on Buffy the
Vampire Slayer and Angel as Faith, as well as the main character in the
series Tru Calling.
Dushku was born in Watertown, Massachusetts to Philip Dushku, an
Albanian-American administrator and teacher and Judy (a Danish-American
university professor); she was raised a Mormon, the faith of her mother
(though she is not actively practicing). She has three older brothers,
Aaron, Ben, and Nate, the last of whom is also an actor. Dushku lives in
the Los Angeles area.
Dushku came to the attention of casting agents when she was 10. Along with
her brother, she went to a commercial audition where she tripped on the
stairs, bloodied her nose, and became an instant drama queen. She was
chosen at the end of a five month search throughout the United States for
the lead role of Alice, opposite Juliette Lewis in the film That Night. In
1993, Dushku landed a role as Pearl alongside Robert De Niro and Leonardo
DiCaprio in This Boy's Life, a role that she said opened a lot of doors.
Dushku says that DiCaprio taught her how to deal with bullies and other
high school dangers, for which she is grateful.
The following year, she played the teenage daughter of Arnold
Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies. She would also have
parts as Paul Reiser's daughter in Bye Bye, Love, as Cindy Johnson with
Halle Berry and Jim Belushi in Race the Sun, as well as roles in a
television movie and a short film.
Dushku took some time off from acting to finish her junior and senior
years of high school. She was accepted to the George Washington University
in Washington, DC and Suffolk University in Boston, where her mother
serves as professor of government and previously served as dean of the
campus in Dakar, Senegal.
After completing high school, Eliza returned to acting with the role of
Faith, a Slayer much more troubled than the main character Buffy. Though
initially planned as a five episode role, the character became so popular
that she stayed on for the entirety of the third season and returned for a
two-part appearance in season four and the last five episodes of season
seven. She has also made guest appearances in Buffy's spin-off, Angel.
Because of her convincing role as a sociopath, she became an icon to many
criminals. She was inundated with piles of fan mail from legions of
prisoners. She said that:
I've been getting fan mail from maximum security penitentiaries and death
row. What are the authorities thinking of in playing a show with young
teenage girls to Death Row inmates? They write everything — disgusting
things that you don't even want to know about. And they send me pictures —
'Oh, here's a picture of me before I was incarcerated!' — and there's some
guy sat on the sofa with a bottle of beer and a moustache, and a big gut.
It's so creepy. Way more creepy than Buffy.
In 2000, Dushku starred in Soul Survivors, reuniting her with Casey
Affleck (they co-starred in 'Race The Sun'). She followed that up with the
cheerleader comedy Bring It On with Kirsten Dunst, which was a surprising
success at the box office that spawned straight-to-DVD sequels. 2001 saw a
busy time for Eliza - shooting The New Guy in Texas and having to shuttle
up to New York where she was reunited with actor Robert De Niro and
director Michael Caton-Jones in City by the Sea. She played James Franco's
junkie girlfriend and mother of his child. The film garnered attention
from a wider adult audience and several good reviews.
The same year Kevin Smith invited Dushku to be a part of Jay and Silent
Bob Strike Back, where Eliza co-starred with Shannon Elizabeth, Ali
Larter, Ben Affleck, and others.
2003 saw the release of Wrong Turn, a horror film in which Eliza had the
starring role, and The Kiss, an independent comedy-drama. Starting that
same year, she also starred in a new Fox TV series, Tru Calling, where she
played the main character, Tru Davies, a medical student whose grant is
pulled out from under her, forcing her to take a job at a local morgue.
There, she discovers that she has the power to "re-live" the previous day
over again, an ability she used to right wrongful deaths. She also
attempts to help her troubled family - a drug-addicted sister and a
gambling-addicted brother.
Eliza starred in an off-Broadway production entitled Dog Sees God from
December 2005, playing 'Van's sister', a character paralleled with Lucy
from original Peanuts comic strip that the play production is based on.
She quit in February 2006 along with several other members of the cast
amongst rumours of alleged abuse from the producer, which were later
dismissed.
On October 1, 2005, she announced at Wizard World Boston that shooting had
begun for Nobel Son (to be released in 2006), in which she will star with
Alan Rickman, Danny DeVito, Bill Pullman, and Peter Boyle.
Other forthcoming projects include On Broadway, an independent movie
filmed in her native Boston due for release in 2007.
It was also announced on June 16, 2006, that Dushku would voice the role
of Yumi Sawamura for the upcoming English language version of the
PlayStation 2 video game Yakuza, published and developed by SEGA. The game
is scheduled for release in September 2006.
Variety announced on 2 August 2006 that Dushku will co-star with Macaulay
Culkin in Sex and Breakfast, a dark comedy written and directed by Miles
Brandman.
Acorn Online announced on 20 April 2006 that Dushku has been cast in Theo
Avgerinos's Zoe, along with James Van Der Beek. The movie will shoot in
Montreal. The story takes place in a small New England town, where two
brothers are trying to revive a Greek family restaurant. Both brothers are
in love with the same girl, who works in the restaurant.
Dushku has started a new project with her father to help Camp Hale, a
summer camp for inner-city Boston boys open since 1900, where the Dushku
family are closely involved: the Eliza Dushku Foundation. Through the sale
of props and fan memorabilia, the Dushkus hope to generate increased
contributions in order to pay for the maintenance of Camp Hale for
generations to come. |
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"Go big or go home. Because
it's true. What do you have to lose?"
[when asked how being in prison has changed her angry and aggressive
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" character, Faith:] "How would
prison change anyone? There was something about the fact that she's
a Slayer, so she wouldn't really be there unless she wanted to be
because she's got superhuman strength. She could have busted out of
that joint if she really wanted to, but she and Angel developed this
relationship. He was leading her down the road to redemption, kind
of facing the things she's done and recovering from that and
hopefully being a better her. She's been in there, doing the time,
thinking. She's still a tough girl, but she really has to suppress
her demons a little more. In these past few ["Angel"] shows, that's
what we're seeing -- her teetering on the line between the old her
and the new her." [Buffalo News, March 17, 2003]
"I love leather and it's great to be a bad girl at times. But there
is a time and place for everything. When I'm with Grandma it's
flowers, and when I'm out on the town scoping guys, you know..."
"There are a lot of actresses out there who are the girl next door.
I relate more to characters who have an edge."
"You know, I really am probably one of the sweetest, most sensitive
people you'll ever meet." |
