NOTE: the below is from Solace: Eliza Dushku, and is used with special permission.

Biography

Facts

Date of Birth: 30 December 1980
Place of Birth: Boston, Mass. New England
Hair: Brunette
Eyes: Dark Brown
Star sign: Capricorn
Marital Status: Single

Basics

Dushku? According to Eliza: "It's really simple. It's just Dush - as in push - and 'koo'. Dushku".

Eliza is half Albanian and half Danish. She is the youngest of four children and the only girl. She has 3 brothers whom she adores: Aaron, Ben and Nate. She says she was a tomboy growing up, playing 'tackle football' with them and "all that kind of stuff".Eliza and her brother Nate Aaron is now in College after being in the Peace Corps. Ben: "Everyone said he was lost to the Colorado snow-boarding mountains and he was never going to come back. He just totally picked up and came back to Boston...". Nate is also an actor. It was actually he that had the Dushku's at the now famed audition where Eliza fell, broke her nose and became '...an instant Drama Queen'! (no hard feelings though). The adoration that Eliza has for her family is returned. The Dushkus are a warm, and extremely close-knit family. Most of her family and relatives are Mormon (although Eliza is no longer a follower).

Quirks

Eliza 'must' smoke a cigarette before a scene (we guess she figures most of her characters would smoke).
She always takes the back of her 'director's chair' after a shoot (as a souvenir).
While on location, Eliza takes her bed linen so she feels comfortable. She also surrounds herself with pictures of family and friends (all quite understandable really).

The reason we love Eliza is amazingly simple. She's an amazing actress - especially seeing as she's had no formal training! Eliza caught our attention in 'True Lies' - but seemed to drop of the planet after that. As always, with any James Cameron film, we were certain that Eliza was well chosen. James Cameron doesn't do things by halves! We've followed other 'Cameron alumni' - most notably Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, and Jeanette Goldstein (Lance Henrikson was always a 'legend').

To be brutally honest, when Eliza didn't pop up anywhere after True Lies - we forgot about her. Not because we wanted to by any means - she just wasn't 'visible'. We imagine it may have been a different story if we lived in the U.S. Eliza Dushku However, when they say something is 'limited' - it means we (Ireland) won't get it! As they'd say in Buffy, it was our bad. Eliza kept going for a while, but, sadly, the majority of her films slipped through on limited release. It's a tough walk doing a film for integrity and not the big bucks. However, Eliza (mainly thanks to her adored mother - she's Eliza's role model) tends to stick with scripts that have ". . . strong female characters . . ." and good intentions (not always a good thing if you want to get noticed).

After films like Bye Bye Love and Race The Sun - Eliza opted to go back to high school. Not because - I hasten to add - her films weren't doing well, but rather because of a desire to get good grades to enter college - something that she just couldn't do with a tutor. Also, she realized early in high school that she was missing out on a lot by concentrating so early on an acting career, and so she chose to take time off. "I realized I was missing out on a lot of stuff growing up in an adult world. Senior year, I really wanted to walk the line with friends my own age and graduate like a normal kid, go to my senior prom. I think it was a really good choice for myself and my family. It only happens once - making friends and learning real lessons, getting grounded and stuff! Messing up and having to deal with it, as opposed to living in an adult world where you're forced to be on top of things."

She graduated - as desired - 'with honors', and she has been accepted at Suffolk, Boston and George Washington Universities.

Eliza comes from an academic family. Her mother is a college professor. Her father is also a professor. So, academia is important in the Dushku family (although, Eliza would be the first to point out that no Dushku is 'pushed'). "I think that, in my family, there's a real thriving for knowing more just because of our parents. My mother has always traveled around the world with us and she knows that, if it's what's right and if it's what's in the cards, I'm going to go back to college, and I know I want to go back." This is proving very difficult for her though. Happily, thanks to numerous acting opportunities.

Apart from her truly amazing acting skills, another reason for liking Eliza immensely is her absolute 'down-to-earth' nature. She speaks honestly and openly. You'll find her Bostonian colloquialisms sprinkled throughout interviews. She will always share praise. It's so refreshing to hear someone who isn't talking about themselves. Eliza gladly speaks adoringly of her family and how well raised she was. She tells stories that show herself as a 'normal' person, e.g., like how disgusted her grandmother was when she saw her playing Faith. Eliza: "She wouldn't return my calls for two weeks!" Or her cousins being humiliated seeing Faith de-flower Xander. Eliza: "They were humiliated. My Uncle turned off the TV before the scene came on. The next day they went to school and the other kids laughed at them saying, "We saw your cousin have sex!"."

She freely admits she knew nothing of the 'Buffyverse' before signing on. When she was introduced to Nicholas Brendon (Xander), she asked "What's a Xander?". After that tiny mistake - that frankly anyone could make - she watched the previous seasons to get up to speed and was glad she did. It made her more comfortable, knowing the world she was entering. She will freely admit that the cast and crew were like a second family to her - before her brother Nate joined her in Los Angeles. She also notes (a little of her own independence shining through) that they didn't 'over-protect' or crowd her - something she was grateful for.

Eliza loves the character of Faith. However, wisely, while enjoying the whole Buffy experience, she wanted to move back to film. Aware of the popularity of Faith - Joss Whedon did not kill her off at the end of third season - leaving the character in a coma - and also leaving an opportunity for a return. Thankfully, Eliza has been able to juggle Faith and films. She appeared in the fourth season 'Buffy' double (This Year's Girl and Who Are You) and five seventh season episodes, including the finale, 'Chosen'. She also helped kick-start the wonderful 'Angel' in it's first season - with yet another double helping of Faith - the awesome Five By Five and Sanctuary. Eliza was able to return for fifth season triology of 'Salvage', 'Release' and 'Orpheus'.

In 2003 rumors were flying about a FtVS show. IMO Eliza did the right thing by passing. While we'd love to see how Faith evolves...her own series would have diluted the mystery of Faith. The shows premise was to be like the popular 70's show Kung Fu. According to Tim Minear "Faith would be tooling around the country on a motorbike helping people".

Of course, we all know that Eliza passed on FtVS to work on Tru Calling. We're possibly two of only a handful of people happy to see the show pulled. Tru Calling had great potential, but it was let down by bad, predictable, and boring story lines. Eliza was awesome in it, obviously, and the supporting cast were also wonderful...but they simply didnt have a lot to play with, which was a shame. A few episodes were okay but most of them were simply too predictable to enjoy fully. It also became infuriating seeing Tru running around town with a the phone stuck to her ear all the time. Not to mention, Tru running around, Tru being a better cop than cops a better firefighter than firefighters etc, etc. You can argue that she's the heroine of the show, fine. But then don't keep ramming it down our throats that she's just an ordinary girl who happens to relive days! Clearly, if she's better than the professionals at some jobs, as mentioned, she's actually not an ordinary girl! The writing was just woeful in our opinion and that truly kills us to say because bigger fans of Doug Petrie, we couldn't be.

After the collapse of Tru, Eliza decided it was time to tread the boards off Broadway in Dog Sees God. While it seemed she had an okay time doing the play - the reviews went fifty fifty and I don't seem to recall a stellar one. Also, sadly for the cast, it seems that the play will be better remembered for a sex-crazed producer hassling them than for anything else.

2006 saw Eliza finally making it over to her father's homeland, Albania, with family and friends in tow. After years of saying she'd only get a tattoo that meant something to her, she kept her word. While there, she (and, apparently, other family members), decided to get inked with the Albanian Coat of Arms. That being, the double-headed eagle. You can see pictures of it here .

Eliza's always on the go and being a fan of hers is a joy. We've got audio books, video games and silver screen flicks to watch out for. We'll keep you appraised of all we can over in her filmography.

For more information on the projects Eliza is currently working on, please visit the Filmography.

Biography

Facts

Basics

Quirks

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