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Eliza Dushku expected to knock fans dead at Boston Super Megafest

Craig S. Semon, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Eliza Dushku has stood against vampires, demons and the forces of darkness and even worked with James Cameron, but this weekend she will confront her biggest fear yet, the Bay State fans, as she embarks on the Boston Super Megafest this Saturday and Sunday at the Sheraton Framingham.

"I'm so comfortable at home, and I'm so comfortable in Boston. I love it so much," the 32-year-old Watertown native said while taking a break from filming in New York. "And I've done fan conventions all over the world. But this is my backyard. These are Boston people. I'm so excited, but I'm a little nervous."

Best known as driving a proverbial stake in the heart of pop culture as the emotionally troubled vampire slayer Faith on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (and the show's spinoff, "Angel"), Dushku is a "badass" in every good sense of the term. It also turns out she has a heart as big as the Hellmouth.

After a five-month search, a then 10-year-old Dushku was discovered and cast in the lead role of Alice in "That Night." It turned out that, despite her Boston brogue, casting agents thought her a natural.

"I remember my first casting director wrote on my casting sheet, 'Pretty good instincts. Horrible New England accent.' So I guess I had pretty good instincts but I did have a coach follow me around and knock my Boston accent out of me," Dushku recalled. " 'That Night' was a coming-of-age movie we shot in Baltimore with Juliette Lewis, and she won the Academy Award for 'Cape Fear' while we were shooting. I literally went to my first audition and next thing I knew I was the lead in this movie with this Academy Award-winning actress."

"That Night" would not be the only time Dushku would be cast opposite an Oscar winner. Her next movie, "This Boy's Life," had her acting alongside two-time Academy Award winner Robert De Niro and multiple Academy Award nominee Leonardo DiCaprio. The following year, Dushku played Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis' rebellious teen daughter (even though she was only 12) in James Cameron's "True Lies," which she enthusiastically confesses she would love to do a sequel to.

Even though she had done three major motion pictures before she was old enough to drive, Dushku said she imagined herself following in the footsteps of her mother, Judith Dushku, a political science professor at Suffolk University. In fact, she was enrolled at her mother's university when she got the call from the "Buffy" people that changed her life.

"I thought, I should go and do three episodes and make some money for my first year of school. So I went out to L.A., shot the first three episodes and immediately after those episodes aired, I had a response for that character that blew my mind. It really rocked my world to start getting messages from people that related to the character so much, so I felt strong and empowered by the character of Faith," Dushku said. "When they asked me to stay, I withdrew from school and that just continued."

Dushku acknowledges that one reason she was so good in the role of Faith was that the two shared many personality traits, except one.

"I've never killed anyone," Dushku said. "There were a lot of similarities. I remember I was 17 years old when I booked the job, and I was kind of doing the heavy makeup and 'badass' thing to the horror of my mother and my father at the time. So it was a little bit of art imitating life, without the murder."

Dushku said one of the joys of playing Faith was that Joss Whedon, the show's creator, didn't make the character black and white, but very complex with a lot of gray areas.

"Even though Faith did horrible things, it didn't mean she was bad. There's this whole path of redemption and finding out who she was and making horrendous mistakes and having consequences and still finding redemption and people who live for her. It was beautiful," Dushku said. "And, in the end, she was working with Buffy in the series finale, which I loved so much. Joss made Buffy and all the slayers give out the slayer power to all the women of the world. It doesn't get more empowering and feminist than that."

Her favorite Faith moment of all time actually happened on the "Buffy" spinoff show, "Angel," in the "Five by Five" episode from the first season.

"I kind of burned Wesley's face with Pam cooking grease and a flame and then Angel charges Faith and they crash out a window and the fight continues in the alley, and then I'm begging Angel to kill me and he just wraps his arms around me and helps me," Dushku said. "I remember that as a specific episode and experience that I really tapped into a deeper place in my acting as far as feeling it. I really kept surprising myself in a way, and people responded to the episode so intensely. It was really rewarding."

Despite her deep connection to the Faith character, Dushku turned down a "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" spinoff in favor of "Tru Calling." On the Fox series, Dushku played Tru Davies, a medical student/morgue attendant who has the ability to talk to corpses and to "relive" and right the wrongs of the previous day. When "Tru Calling" was canceled, Dushku reunited with Whedon for "Dollhouse" (also on Fox). She played "Echo," a "doll" for hire who ended up wearing a lot of skimpy outfits.

Currently, Dushku is providing the voice to the "She-Hulk" on the animated TV series, "Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H."

Dushku said after years of playing characters that "smash" people up, she is actually much calmer these days.

In addition to "Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.," Dushku is starring in the upcoming television reboot of the Roger Moore international espionage classic, "The Saint," as the feisty Patricia Holm. The pilot airs Jan. 15 on a cable network yet to be determined.

Last week, Dushku was finishing up "Jane Wants A Boyfriend," a film about a young woman with Asperger's trying to find her first boyfriend with a little help from her older sister (played by Dushku).

"I play a normal girl. No leather pants. And she doesn't have any super powers," Dushku said. "It's just a woman trying to deal with life and relationships."

In addition to working steadily on the big and small screens for more than 20 years, Dushku is deeply involved in two charities — THRIVE-GULU, a trauma, healing and reflection center for former child soldiers and victims of the war in Northern Uganda, founded by her mother in 2009; and Camp Hale in New Hampshire, a camp for inner-city Boston kids. Traditionally an all-boys camp, Dushku helped to establish an all-girls program there in 2012.

In addition to being at the Boston Super Megafest Saturday and Sunday, Dushku will have a "Meet and Greet Camp Hale Charity Drive" at 6 p.m. Saturday at the event. (Donations are $50; no photo-ops or autographs during the charity drive.)

As for her personal life, Dushku has been dating former Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers (and "Dancing with the Stars" contestant) Rick Fox for years. Fox will also be attending the Boston Super Megafest.

Guests Christopher Lloyd ("Back to the Future"), Eliza Dushku ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), Tom Felton ("Harry Potter" films), Manu Bennett ("Spartacus: Vengeance" and "Arrow"), Jon Heder ("Napoleon Dynamite"), Barbara Eden and Bill Daley (both "I Dream of Jeannie"), Ray Parks ("Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace"), Josh Sussman ("Glee"), Bronson Pinchot ("Perfect Strangers"), Aaron Ashmore ("Smallville"), Cassandra Peterson ("Elvira, Mistress of the Dark"), Ernie Hudson ("Ghostbusters"), adult film stars Jenna Jameson and Ron Jeremy, plus many others.
When 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Nov. 23; concert 7:30 p.m. to midnight Nov. 17 (included in show admission). 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Nov. 24.
Where Sheraton Framingham, 1657 Worcester Road, Framingham.
How much $25 for one day, $30 for both days; $7, children younger than 12 for one day or $10 for both days. The "Friday Nite Cosplay & Comedy Kickoff Party" is $25 at the door.
For more information www.supermegafest.com.