'Buffy's' sis is on Trach

After 'Buffy'... Michelle Trachtenberg
...She's In the Buff: Trachtenberg getting raunchy in 'Eurotrip'

Buffy's little sister is all grown up and slaying guys instead of vampires by wearing a bikini in the raunchy teen comedy "Eurotrip."

Michelle Trachtenberg is 18, after all.

"There's a scene at a nude beach, and in a certain shot the bottom of one of my...things started to fall out.

"The filmmakers said, 'Oh, we won't use that, don't worry.'"

The fast-talking, coffee-loving Trachtenberg purses her bigger-than-life lips and acts offended.

"Yeah, right - guess which shot they used?

"It's fine though - I did the bikini scene because gravity is kind to me now," she says.

"But I'd never go topless in a teen movie. There was a brief flashing scene in the script, and I didn't want to do that.

"I think nakedness is a crutch. I can see where it's a confidence-booster - they're not sure about other things, so they emphasize their body.

"However, there is a rumor that the 'Buffy' girls get a letter from Playboy when they turn 18 or 19. I don't think it's real, but if I get that letter, I'll frame it."

If Trachtenberg sounds hard to shock, it's -because she's been acting since she was 3, when her dad and mom - a fiber-optics technician from Germany and a bank manager from Russia - let her "pursue her dream" and try acting, first in -commercials, then on TV and in movies.

In 1994, she became a regular on the soap "All My Children." In 1996, after a couple of years as Nona Mecklenberg in Nickelodeon's "The Adventures of Pete and Pete," she starred in the Nick flick "Harriet-the Spy."

On "All My Children" - she succeeded Mischa Barton as Lilly Benton Montgomery - she met fellow cast member Sarah Michelle Gellar, who brought up her name up for "Buffy."

The role of Dawn Summers had been "almost cast" when Trachtenberg, a "Buffy" fanatic, got to try out for it. She joined the show for its final three seasons, playing less an actual teenager than a key to the show's supernatural world.

After "Eurotrip," she'll be seen on HBO's "Six Feet Under" as a spoiled, Christina Aguilera-like pop diva.

In one concession to her career, Trachtenberg has deferred going to the University of Southern California for a year while she concentrates on working and "having a life" - which, of course, includes dating.

"I've dated other actors - it's fun, but it can get competitive. But dating someone who isn't in the entertainment business is difficult.

"They don't understand your schedule or that you work every second of the day. And there's a privacy concern. If I saw a guy that I thought was hot, I couldn't date him. "But with musicians or actors, they know where you're coming from. They know to keep it low-key."

Originally published on February 25, 2004