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Press - 2005
Michelle Trachtenberg skates free of typecasting
The star of Disney's 'Ice Princess' mixes wholesome and edgy roles
At the age of 19, Michelle Trachtenberg has been many things to many people. And
she's hoping to be many more.
While a teen, she killed a slew of vampires and monsters as Dawn, the younger
sister of television's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." At the age of 10, she was an
inquisitive tweenster in "Harriet the Spy." A generation of former youngsters
knows her from the cast of "The Adventures of Pete & Pete" on Nickelodeon; and
soap fans recall her from mid-'90s "All My Children."
But she tries not to let fans lock her into any of those roles.
"An actor changes," she says. "How do people see Julia Roberts in a different
role? How do people see Gwyneth Paltrow in a different role? If you really are a
fan of the actor, then, hopefully, you'll like whatever else they do.
"I value my fans so much -- they're awesome," Trachtenberg says. But, "I'm not
going to stop myself from creatively growing just to appease a small amount of
people."
So now she's doing a balancing act, trying to keep from getting typecast while
still staying open to a wide variety of roles.
Sitting in an empty restaurant in Park City, Utah, during the Sundance Film
Festival in January, Trachtenberg is weathering interviews for her turn as a
Gothy best friend to a young male hustler in the fiercely independent film
"Mysterious Skin." And, yet, at the same time, she's preparing for the very high
profile release of the Disney Film "Ice Princess," opening this Friday.
The two movies are worlds apart, and that's fine with Trachtenberg.
"The second I get a project, I get offered a million projects just like it," she
says. "And I'll usually, nine times out of 10, stay away from that."
Thus, since the conclusion of "Buffy" in 2003, Trachtenberg has stayed away from
the wholesome stuff. Which means the time was right for something like "Ice
Princess," the tale of a high school girl who decides to become a champion
skater.
"It's a Disney movie. It's a good family movie and you can take your kids to
it," she says. "But it also has humanity in it. That's what I look for in every
movie.
"I don't want to ever do anything that's super-superficial," Trachtenberg says.
Not that she's committed to absolute seriousness. Prior to "Skin" and
"Princess," Trachtenberg did the outrageous comedy "Eurotrip," in which she
played a girl who ended up making out with her own brother.
"At that point in my life, I had just done 'Buffy,' I was 17, I wanted people to
know I was growing up, and so you kind of go for the shock value," she says.
A stint on the HBO series "Six Feet Under," playing a manipulative 21-year-old
seductress, was another stretch she enjoyed. "I think you're born with good and
evil," the angelic-looking Trachtenberg says. "Ask my mom. She knows every part
of my personality. She knows I can do it all."
Mom also apparently knew she didn't want her daughter sucked into the Hollywood
vortex.
"My mom said, fine, you can be an actress, but you can never give up your
education," Trachtenberg says. "I worked my butt off (in high school) and I
graduated magna cum laude with a 4.0.
"I'm smart. I swear I'm not one of those dippy little actresses," she adds with
a smile.
But she is a lifelong actress, committed to the job since she was a small child.
"I have never been pushed into acting. It was my choice. I've always wanted to
do it," she says. "I love being on a set. I feel at ease and at home."
The trick to being able to play regular people who don't feel at home on a set
is observation, she says.
"I'm a big people watcher. I'll just observe certain people and things they do
or don't do," Trachtenberg says, looking around the empty restaurant as waiters
prepare tables as if they might set the template for a forthcoming role.
"Reading and watching means everything," she says. "You put it all in
perspective and put a spin on it."
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