Eliza's quotes

My mother was terrified. All I wanted to wear were hand-me-downs. I thought I was a boy till I was 10 years old. I used to pee like a boy and wear my hair cut like a boy. When my father would take us to the ball games at Fenway (park) wed all go in and use the urinals. I used to beg my mom to let me get a crew cut but she wouldn´t let me. My brothers were my best friends. They were really protective.

I was a boy. People would tell my mom. You have four handsome young boys and my mom would say "that one´s a girl!" Because she´d give me Barbies and I´d cut the hair off and rip their heads off and feed them to my dog. I had that guy thing. It changed maybe my first movie when they put make-up on me and I was so not into it but there were these twin boys in the movie and I thought they were so cute and they were really into the other two girls on the shoot and I was wondering why. One day they put me in this pretty dress and curled my hair and I thought that the curls were so pretty. So, I started to feel more feminine. I´m still not very graceful. Usually have cuts and bruises.

(On Bring It On) This movie taught me so much, not just about cheerleading, but about girls bonding together, caring more about the girl next to you, rooting for another woman, (and) being supportive of each other. That's more than I thought I could get out of a movie.

In middle school I was just a nerd who couldnt do anything right, who wore all the wrong clothes. I got tortured so in high school it was what can I do to make the teasing stop so I got tough and started wearing the Army-Navy jacket and going in and giving everybody crazy eyes trying to defend myself. I started working this tough thing pretty well I guess because the people on Buffy saw that and asked me to come on. But it was a defense. I started getting a string of bad girl roles. I kind of lost that tough girl front and am a much nicer person but everyone is "you´re the bad girl." It´s nice to have the role in The New Guy. I´m just more comfortable with myself.

(On being in The New Guy) I loved that it had this universal message and timeless theme that everyone can relate to. Everyone´s been in high school. Everyone knows what it was like whether you were in the popular crew or not. Every single person has had that day of going in and being so terrified of being rejected. Then being rejected or trying to be someone you´re not, trying to fit in and trying so hard to be cool. You can´t fake it, you are who you are.

Hollywood it´s like a big popularity contest. Even just in terms of people´s physical appearance, the whole struggle for actresses to be thin, be a hundred pounds and it´s really hard. I have a lot of friends who say "I love my body the way I am." They do and they look great. I happen to be a bony, skinny kid. I don´t know why. My brothers too. They always wanted to be big and buff. The Dushkus eat like it´s going out of style. We chow. We eat so much and are still bony. It sucks that there is only this one thing everyone is looking for. It is like high school. People are rejecting you because you aren´t what they think is right or our opinion of cool or beautiful.

(On what would be an ideal date for her) I´m very into doing outdoorsy things lately. I just got scuba diving certified. Also, I would love for a guy to find out what I like but not through me. I think that would be very romantic for a guy to like call one of my brothers or my friends and go like "what´s her thing? Tell me." Then he could pick me up and I could say "Wow, we have so much in common."

(On D.J.Qualls sexyness) He so genuine and you can just feel him. Even though he has this dishonest thing he does in the movie, hes so not a malicious person. He´s trying to please. The nice guys always get the girl. Girls may go through stages where they have a bad boy obsession but in the end who wants to marry a bad boy? I guess we know we´re going to be with a nice guy some day so we have to try on the other shoe first. The bad boys usually give off that vibe of "you don´t completely have me yet" so what are you fighting for if they´re like "I´m yours. Let me cook you breakfast."

My family is very open and I think that I scare a lot of men because I sort of talk all the time. My mother, brothers and I talk about everything. I´ve got to have a talker who is honest about their feelings. Good looking isn´t bad. I guess I go for the tall, dark and handsome personally, with smarts. I´m from a family of teachers and college professors. I definitely like a guy who can sit at our kitchen table in Boston and keep up with the conversation.

The way I like to work is I read the character that I´m to be and kind of prepare but don´t over prepare my work. I go in and learn my lines on the day of because if I do a line 30 times it gets stale and is not spontaneous and doesn´t sound real when I say it. I like to go in and say "let´s do one" and I´ll show you the way I interpreted the scene and if you want anything changed, do it. And my favorite thing to do is take direction. "Tell me what to do. More of this? Got it." Then I´ll completely change what I do. It´s a collaborative process.

I´m a few years off from being a teen but I might as well play the young girl while I can. The older, serious roles are coming. I change with every year and learn things about myself.

My mother is the biggest influence in your life. She´s like Mother Theresa or something yet she´s so feisty and so opinionated. She´s a teacher. It was her 60th birthday recently and someone got up and said "she´s been teaching since 1960 and this is the amount of students that have gone through so Judy has had a profound impact on this many people." She´s so kind and smart. She´s about to take off to be the Dean of a program in Senegal with my stepfather for six months. She loves the people of the world. We always traveled growing up. She´s a feminist and yet she´s Mormon so she has these good values but she´s also "don´t step on me. I´m woman, hear me roar." She raised four kids, a single mom. She´s awesome. She and I did a trip to South Africa just recently.

Jamie Lee Curtis who I worked with when I was so young (True Lies) had a great impact on me. She´s so amazing and down-to-earth and smart and strong. Even my mother at the time when I was 12 years old said "you watch this woman. This is how you should be a famous actress with dignity and respect for every person you come in contact with." She was my role model I think.

I grew up with brothers and they all had different tastes in music. One brother was very alternative rock and good ole rock and roll and then my middle brother was very Bob Marley, Reggae, hip hop and rap. At home I have Beastie Boys to Bob Marley to Mary J. Blige and Madonna.

(On being impressed with any of the musicians who did cameos for The New Guy) I didn´t even know Tommy Lee was in our movie. He´s hot, baby. He was in it and Gene Simmons was in it but he kind of freaked me out and kind of scares me with the tongue thing. Henry Rollins was hot.

(On Lyle Lovett) I didn´t get to work with him but he had such an impact. People who just met him for five minutes raved about him. Lyle Lovett was the nicest most genuine human being I´ve ever met. People were so taken by him.

(On Star Wars´ impact in her life) I had the action figures when I was a kid and I had the Darth Vader carrying case for all my action figures and I would hold it up and talk behind the fan and do the whole voice thing. I think I was just doing it because they were action figure guys with guns. I guess R2D2, maybe but I don´t feel the whole phenomenon come rushing back to me.

(About De Niro's tendency to improvise the script while making movies) It's a little intimidating, for sure. But at the same time, you can get a lot of stuff that isn't written on the page, and a lot of emotion. I hope I did all right at it. It's definitely a bit nerve wracking. It makes it more exciting. It makes it more of a reality.

(On her preference between comedic and dramatic roles) I think it's the case of where the grass is always greener. When you're on a comedy, you go, 'Wow, I should be a little more serious!' And then, when you're on a drama, you'd do anything for a laugh. So you kind of go back and forth, to whatever feels right.

(The City by the sea´cast jokes about how they lightened up the mood working with such serious subject matter)

Robert De Niro: Well, with Eliza, we just bothered her about her boyfriend.

Eliza Dushku: Yeah, a little bit! 'Who ya dating?' 'I'll break his legs.'

(On working with Robert De Niro again) Yeah, well, you know...Bob's a good actor! (laughs) I worked with these guys when I was pretty young, I was eleven years old on that first movie, and I was a little bit of a brat, huh? But it was pretty cool, it was great to be back, and it was real exciting. I didn't really know who Bob was the first time around, so I got a chance to get to hang out with him, watch him, take notes and stuff.

It's easy to play the bad girl: You just do everything you've been told not to do, and you don't have to think about the consequences, because it's only acting.

When I got the role on Buffy, I was only supposed to come on for five to ten episodes. This project came up a month after I graduated, and we were thinking it would be a great stepping-stone back in.

It's hard work but when you put it into perspective, I'm not doing brain surgery.

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...

I don't let guys do hickeys. That's like a dog marking his territory or something

For the longest time I thought I was a boy. I really did! I wore boys' clothes, played tag football, and even peed like a boy (laughs).

I was sort of a tomboy growing up, tackle football and that kind of stuff. I do a little bit of Tae-Bo - it's like a mix between kick-boxing and tai kwon do without any physical contact - and I think it's great training for the show, it's basically the kind of fighting we do on the shows.

(Talking about her name) Sounds like a breakfast food, doesn't it? Did you have your Dushku this morning?

You've got a better chance of seeing God than seeing Eliza Dushku nude. That's my stuff, nobody else's. I don't want my little brother to turn on his computer and have naked me as his screensaver. And, speaking of which, what's up with people sending naked pictures of me to my uncle? That's so gross. In the first place, the pictures are fake. In the second place, sending an uncle pictures of his niece? Please.

I remember throwing a Popsicle stick in my now-best friend's hair because all the cool girls in school were like, 'Throw this Popsicle stick in her hair.' I was like, 'I can't, she was my friend.' I just didn't know what to do. All the cool girls were like, 'Do it, do it, do it.' I did it and to this day it makes me want to cry. To this day I'm like, Allison, I'm so, so sorry I did that to you in the lunchroom in 7th grade.

(On pressure to have the "Hollywood body") I've always just been really little. My three brothers, they've always hated it because they're guys and they've always wanted to be real beefy and butch, but we're all just very skinny. I think it's my dad, he's just very little. We eat like all of our friends think we are nuts. The Dushkus eat like it's going out of style. We chow; we'll eat a lot. People ask where it's going. I eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and snacks everyday, all day.

Some guy [at a hotel bar] asked me if I was on TV, and I said yes, and he threw his drink at me. I was recognized, but my face was wet. It was nuts.

I feel so lucky to be in my family, we love each other so much. It's the best thing you can have, you know?

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.