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:: KEEPING FAITH ::

Actress Eliza Dushku tells Ed Gross that "divorcing" her parents so that she could play evil Slayer Faith was not quite the trauma it sounds...

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According to Eliza Dushku, "I grew up with three older brothers, so I thought I was a boy until I was like ten! I was alI about having a crew cut and wearing hand-me-downs, and cheerleading was a girly sport in a way, unless you're a guy being a cheerleader. So I was just never into that."

Which would seem to be a great grounding for an actress who was to go on to play Buffy's greatest nemesis, evil Slayer Faith. Not quite the credentials, however, for her latest movie role... as a cheerleader in Bring lt On. Dushku loved it though.

"Making Bring lt On was so much fun, because most people don't get another chance after high school to do something like that. That's one of the things that I love about acting. I mean, you can be a cheerleader for three months and experience that life, or you could be a rock star if you're cast in that role. Any role that you're cast in, you ultimately get to be that person and have that opportunity. Also, I feel more feminine after making that movie."

More feminine? Hardly seem possible that the sexy, sensuous Faith could be any more feminine. But Dushku protests that growing up with her boisterous brothers made her a typical tomboy.

"I was athletic growing up, playing tag football with my brothers and tbeir friends, and I've always loved swimming and the ocean. Bring lt On actually got me more athletic. Since this movie ended, I've been doing rock climbing with friends around California. I'm from Boston and I've been kind of taking advantage of the California coast and aIl the great things that there are to do here."

Born Eliza Patricia Dushku on December 30, 1980 in Boston, Massachusetts, the actress made her movie debut in That Night (1982), followed a year later by This Boy's Life. Her first big break came in James Cameron's True Lies ( 1994 ), in which she played Arnold Schwarzenegger's daughter. That same year saw her cast in Fishing With George, which was followed by Bye Bye, Love and the TV movie Journey in 1995. Race The Sun was her 1996 effort, followed the next year by her first being cast as independent Slayer, Faith, on Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Independence was nothing new to Dushku, who was legally "emancipated" from her parents at age 17.

"It was really not as black and white as, 'I divorced my parents', which I know happens a lot in this business," she says. "My mother has never been a stage mom. I lived in Boston my whole life, even like the seven or eight years that I was doing films, and she always wanted me to be in high school. When my grades weren't doing so weIl from on-set tutoring, she said, 'Forget the movies, girl'. She is a government professor at a university, and she said, 'I want you to come back to town, go into public school and get good grades in your junior and senior years, and just live the life of a junior and senior in high school.' So it really was always her just wanting the best for me, and so I graduated high school with my class, went to the prom and I enrolled at her university."

But she didn't get very far into university life...

"I enrolled in my mom's school, I was alI set up, I went to orientation, I had my dorm alI sorted out. Meanwhile, my mom was already planning to go to Romania to write a book for the year," Dushku explains. "So, she was going to be out of the country. And I was 17 when I graduated. So, when Buffy came up, it was really a hard choice because, originally, they only wanted me for five shows, which turned into more. But at the same time I was really, really excited about going to school. So we did the emancipation knowing that she was going to be out of the country and because I was ready to go out and be independent. In fact, the sole reason for the emancipation was so that I could be a legal adult for work, and especially for night shoots on Buffy, because otherwise - if you're classed as a child - you can't work past a certain hour."

The experience on Buffy, she admits, has been one of the most fulfilling of her career so far. When Faith entered the series, it seemed as though she was designed to serve as a soul mate to Buffy; someone with whom the Buffster could genuinely share her experiences as a Slayer. But as Faith's story arc developed, a darker side began to emerge; a darker side that was nurtured and encouraged by Sunnydale's Mayor, which set in to motion a series of events culminating in a life and death struggle between the two Slayers. This, in turn, would ultimately lead to redemption thanks to Faith's encounter with Angel at the end of the spin off series' first season.

"Buffy really came out of the blue," she says. "I mean, it had been two years since I had worked, and Sarah Gellar and I have an agent and manager in common, and so I had met her probably years before, and I originally went on for five shows and then they kind of came up and said, 'Would you be the villain this season?' and I'm going, 'Yeah, that would be amazing.' I knew that it would be a fun job to take on, and by that point I knew that I loved working with those people. So I stayed on, and through the writers and I, we kind of created this character that the fans really responded to. Truthfully, I get misunderstood sometimes because everyone says, 'Oh, it's just so fun to be evil.' And I say, like, 'No, it's not just about that.' It's that I have a connection to a bad girl character that makes it more than just so black and white, and more than just so evil. I think that people that were watching Faith were really surprised when, at times, they felt sympathy for her and it wasn't just, 'Oh, here is this black and white monster bad girl.' I think that it's more about just playing interesting women and having contrast so that there is more to the girl next door."

Dushku admits that she has had some bizarre fan reactions, particularly from those against her playing such a powerful threat and, on the opposite side of the spectrum, prisoners who find her actions, er, hot, shall we say...

"There is the reverse side," says the actress who will be seen in the forthcoming psychological thriller Soul Survivors and a comedy called The New Guy, "where people come up going, 'Who do you think that you are coming to Sunnydale?' and 'Do you think that you're tough?' I'm like, 'No, I really don't. I swear. I know that I'm not tough... please!' But they get really excited. And the letters from prison thing still hasn't gone over with me well. I don't understand why they show a TV show about high school girls in, like, maximum-security penitentiaries for men on death row."

Most likely she has also been receiving letters wondering when Faith will be returning to the Buffy or Angel universes. At the start of the second season of Angel this Autumn in the US, all we've seen so far is Angel's visit to her in prison in which it's revealed that Faith is genuinely trying to find some peace in her life, and is completely willing to pay for what she has done.

"I'm really close with the creator and producers," she explains. "I've always had a joke with them, saying, 'If you can find a way to bring me back, I'll come back,' because I'm not going to sell it if I don't buy it. But, if they can find a cool way to bring me back, then we will talk, because I do love doing that show and I love those guys. They've been so awesome to me that it's always an option."

An option we can only hope loss Whedon takes. SFX

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