Eliza Dushku

Echo in the House an Exclusive Spotlight on Eliza Dushku

When Eliza Dushku took the role of Echo for the new FOX series Dollhouse, Joss Whedon - whom she worked with on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel - told her that he planned on taking her out of her comfort zone. And Dushku, 28, is definitely up for the challenge. "From the very get-go, Joss told me that he intended on taking me out of my comfort zone as much as possible on this show, so I welcome it. I welcome it. I’m up for any challenge and any uncomfortable scenario he wants to throw... because that’s what this is about," said the distinctively, husky-voiced Dushku. Throughout the recent interview she was very easy-going and answered each question in vivid detail.

GROWING UP WITH DOLLS, NOT

Ironically, the thing that took Dushku out of her comfort zone wasn’t driving a motorcycle without a helmet, but being dolled up with a 1940s hairdo. "You have to understand, I grew up a total tomboy with three big brothers. I was sort of this little girl running around with this mop of tangled hair, climbing trees and playing tag football with my brothers. There’s just something about a polished, bobby-pinned, hair-sprayed up ’do. I don’t know; [it’s] the composure and the sophistication," she explained. "It’s thrilling and it’s fun for me to play and now that I’ve done it once I kind of am excited to try it on again, but it definitely threw me at first." Growing up in Watertown, MS, Dushku was the youngest of four - and the only girl. At the age of 11, she played alongside Juliette Lewis in 1992’s That Night, which is based on the Alice McDermott novel of the same name. In 1993, she played Pearl alongside the legendary Robert DeNiro and Leonardo DiCaprio in This Boy’s Life, a role she stated opened doors for her. Her next film was 1994’s True Lies - directed by James Cameron as the daughter of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis. She appeared in 1995’s Bye Bye, Love - alongside future Buffy co-star Amber Benson - as the daughter of Paul Reiser.

She was the lead on her own short-lived FOX series Tru Calling, which debuted in late 2003. However, she is best known as Faith, the rogue Slayer. Initially an ally to Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Faith turns on Buffy and her friends. Faith is beaten into a coma and later reforms her evil ways as seen throughout her tenure on Angel, where she redeems herself by saving Angel (David Boreanaz), who didn’t gave up on her when everyone else did. Dushku, as Faith, appeared in the final episodes of Buffy (and her latest adventures are currently chronicled in the canonical Buffy Season 8 comic book series overseen by Whedon and published by Dark Horse Comics). In Dollhouse, Dushku plays Echo, an operative who becomes self-aware, despite the mind-wipes of previous missions. She’s retaining aspects of the various personalities that are downloaded into her brain, the basis for the series. "Anything and everything at any given time [can go wrong]," said Dushku. "We’re dealing in real situations and that’s why we have our handlers there, to hopefully protect us from the bad. But yes, each show... that sort of thing is going to go down because it’s obviously not a perfect system and it’s not a perfect world."

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