Michelle Trachtenberg

Young actress doesn’t want to get locked into fans’ favorite roles.

At the age of 19, Michelle Trachtenberg has been many things to many people. And she’s hoping to be many more.

While a teen, she killed a slew of vampires and monsters as Dawn, the younger sister of television’s "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

At age 10, she was an inquisitive tween in "Harriet the Spy."

A generation of former youngsters know her from the cast of "The Adventures of Pete & Pete," and soap fans may recall her from a mid-’90s stint on "All My Children."

But she tries not to let fans lock her into any of those roles.

"An actor changes," she says. "How do people see Julia Roberts in a different role? How do people see Gwyneth Paltrow in a different role? If you really are a fan of the actor, then hopefully you’ll like whatever else they do.

"I value my fans so much, they’re awesome," Trachtenberg says. But, "I’m not going to stop myself from creatively growing just to appease a small amount of people."

Avoiding typecasting

So now she’s doing a balancing act, trying to keep from getting typecast while still staying open to a wide variety of roles.

Sitting in an empty restaurant in Park City, Utah, during the Sundance Film Festival in January, Trachtenberg was weathering interviews for her turn as the best friend of a young male hustler in the independent film "Mysterious Skin."

And, yet, at the same time, she was preparing for the very high-profile release of the Disney Film "Ice Princess," which opened March 18.

The two movies are worlds apart, and that’s fine with Trachtenberg.

"The second I get a project, I get offered a million projects just like it," she says. "And I’ll usually, nine times out of 10, stay away from that."

Time was right

Thus, since the conclusion of "Buffy" in 2003, Trachtenberg has stayed away from the wholesome stuff. Which means the time was right for something like "Ice Princess," the tale of a high-school girl who decides to become a champion skater.

"It’s a Disney movie. It’s a good family movie, and you can take your kids to it," she says. "But it also has humanity in it. That’s what I look for in every movie. I don’t want to ever do anything that’s super-superficial."

Not that she’s committed to absolute seriousness. Before "Skin" and "Princess," Trachtenberg did the outrageous comedy "Eurotrip," in which she played a girl who ended up making out with her own brother.

"At that point in my life I had just done ’Buffy,’ I was 17, I wanted people to know I was growing up, and so you kind of go for the shock value," she says.

Blend of good and evil

A stint on the HBO series "Six Feet Under," playing a manipulative 21-year-old seductress, was another stretch she enjoyed. "I think you’re born with good and evil," the angelic-looking Trachtenberg says. "Ask my mom. She knows every part of my personality. She knows I can do it all."

Mom also apparently knew she didn’t want her daughter sucked into the Hollywood vortex.

"My mom said, ’Fine, you can be an actress, but you can never give up your education,’ " Trachtenberg says. "I worked my butt off (in high school), and I graduated with a 4.0.

"I’m smart. I swear I’m not one of those dippy little actresses," she adds with a smile.

But she says she’s a lifelong actress, committed to the job since she was a small child.

"I have never been pushed into acting. It was my choice, I’ve always wanted to do it," she says. "I love being on a set. I feel at ease and at home."

The trick to being able to play regular people who don’t feel at home on a set is observation, she says.

"I’m a big people watcher. I’ll just observe certain people and things they do or don’t do," Trachtenberg says, looking around the empty restaurant as waiters prepare tables as if they might set the template for a forthcoming role.

"Reading and watching means everything," she says. "You put it all in perspective and put a spin on it."