MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG – SFX issue August 2003, Interview by Guy Haley
Transcribed by Chrissie

Michelle Trachtenberg is a bundle of energy. She’s been meeting fans all day, and he plane to Prague leaves in minutes, yet she practically buzzes as she chats to SFX. And what a pleasure it is. Eighteen this October, she has more professional acumen than many actors twice her age. She thinks this is funny.

“A lot of people tell me I look much younger but I sound like I’m older. They’re like, ‘Well you look like you’re 14, but you sound like you’re 30.’” She rolls her eyes with mock anger. “I’m like, ‘I don’t look 14 anymore. Okay people, I’m 18! I can vote!’” She pauses. “Um, what else can you do when you’re 18? Not very many exciting things.”

Trachtenberg speaks fast. On the one hand she is a nice American teen, on the other she is a coolly realistic professional. Words like, “synonymous” and “career path” tumble out in a torrent of giggles and breathless chatter.

“It’s by Dreamworks and it’s a big, old comedy,” she says of her new film, The Ugly Americans. “It’s about four high school seniors who go to Europe for their graduation and the funny situations they get into. Three boys and one girl.” She is, she assures us, the girl.

“I want to go back to movies,” she says. “Working on Buffy was really, really fun and an amazing opportunity for me because… erm, let me catch my breath for a minute!” She laughs, takes a deep breath and then dives in again. “Wooh! This is too exciting! It has been my favourite show since it’s debut. I loved actually being on the show and finding everything out about behind the scenes. And Dawn was a great character, but I guess I like change. There is some security and comfort to being on a television show, but even so…”

Trachtenberg has been working since she was three, but she insists that it has been her choice, and that it was great. “Everyone always asks me, ‘Do you think your childhood has gone?’ I hate that question! I’ve been very lucky to have my mom. My first trip to London was when I was ten, doing the press junket for Harriet The Spy, and she made them give me an extra four days off so we could tour round London. Exactly how many people can say, ‘I’ve been to Germany, Prague, London, Paris, all over Europe and around the United States’? She always makes sure I get breaks.” Suddenly, there’s a huge subject change. We’re back to teenager Trachtenberg. “And I’m addicted to instant messaging on AOL. My friends and I talk all the time. Somehow my mom is amazed how my cellphone bill seems to rise every month… I don’t really know how that happens!”

She goes on to say she is always very careful to pick roles for their quality, not simply for their exposure. This is a girl with a career plan, one that takes her behind the camera.

“You have to have a good balance of everything. I’m starting film school in the fall, I want to produce and direct. Later in the year I’m going to be co-producing an independent movie. I’m not a ‘child actor’ anymore – I graduate high school in a couple of weeks, I can’t wait! – and that phrase is really synonymous with drugs and death and alcohol. No-one ever really focuses on the successful child actors – Sarah Jessica Parker, Jodie Foster. Even Drew Barrymore, who had her little rough patch, but she got over it. I don’t want to be one of those little actresses who are there for, like, five minutes, and that’s their little acting thing. I plan on being in it for the long haul.”

If you think Trachtenberg is too busy thinking about the future to mourn the passing of Buffy, think again. “You know, I’ve grown close bonds with certain cast members. Sarah I’ve known for about eight or nine years [they were on Days Of Our Lives together before Buffy]. She’s in Vancouver doing Scooby now, and we still e-mail. When I’m planning my birthday party she’s going to be first on my list. It was almost like having another sister. And Nicky – Nick Brendon – called me on my cellphone a couple of days ago and left me a message and he’s like, ‘I Know you’re in Prague but I just wanted you to know that I haven’t forgotten you.’”

So, she’s over the last, fateful day, then?

“You know, it wasn’t so much upsetting as a feeling of just, ‘Wow, it’s getting to that point when we’re not going to be here anymore.’ It wasn’t the last day of shooting, but the last day when we were all together in Buffy’s living room. Joss came out, and they called cut and said, ‘That’s a wrap for today.’ It was a Friday, and Joss said, ‘Well, this is where it all began and this is where it all ends. Thank you to everyone so much.’ We all had a tearful moment, sat on Buffy’s living room couch – which must be filthy now after all these years! All the house lights dimmed on that set. And you could hear Sarah and James rehearsing in the room next door, and we just sat down and listened to all the echoing voices…

“But my last day, my last shot,” she grins, “was me fighting.” Joss was like, ‘Action!’ and I ran through the frame with the sword slashing. I thought it was an awesome way to go out.”

Then she’s off. Her much-loved mother, a smiling Russian woman, comes to collect her. She smiles even more broadly when young Michelle is praised for her professionalism and intelligence, but still shakes her head just a little.

“Sometimes she is 17 getting on 40,” she says, in a rich accent unchanged by 32 years of US life. “Other time she is just 17.”