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Michelle Trachtenberg's Future Dawns

By Garth Franklin Wednesday February 18th 2004 09:00PM

He's a man after my own heart - the kind who would put a starved dingo and a two-year-old bathed in meat sauce in a sandbox and see what fun ensues. Yes he's CHUD boy Smilin' Jack Ruby and this week he talked with former "Buffy" sister Michelle Trachtenberg whose bikini-clad cleavage is a big selling point for Dreamworks latest comedy in the old "Porkys" vein.

Since her show has ended, the girl has lined up some pretty impressive projects in her future - most notably a new film from edgy but always creative director Gregg Araki ("Doom Generation", "Splendor"), a light Disney romance, an indie project:

"Ice Princess" "I'm in ice skating training for my next movie.  I'm in three months of training, I skate five days a week and on top of that,Six Feet Under had me doing choreography practice, so I was doing that for four hours a day.  But it's called Disney's Ice Princess and I am the "ice princess."  It's a story of a girl who has always dreamed of being a figure skater, but her family is very studious and very intent on getting her into Harvard.  So, she devises a plan through her knowledge of physics and talks to the three big figure skaters in her town and says, 'Okay, I'll teach you about physics and how to be a better skater through physics if you let me work with your coach and choreographer.'  I get the chance to be a wonderful skater and there's a love story involved.  I'm doing a lot of my own skating, but the triple axles, I'm obviously not going to be required to do, because that takes years of training"

"Mysterious Skin" "After Eurotrip, I took a week off, flew back to L.A. and I went into Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin, which is a very dark movie.  I'm incredibly proud of this movie.  It's based on a true story about two boys who were sexually molested when they were younger - based on a book, actually, about a true story. 

One of the boys is played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt who is basically a homosexual who really goes out and whores himself out.  He sells himself.  The other boy is played by Brady Corbet, who is confused and thinks he was abducted by aliens.  I play his best friend.  He's the only person he's able to confide in and really I help his character discover the importance of embracing and understanding what happened to him when he was younger and how these two boys deal with it"

      <strong>"Odd Girl Out" </strong>

"It's another independent movie I'm doing with Bijou Phillips about two girls in a private school and one is the rebellious wild child and one is the perfect bitch.  I'm the perfect bitch.  I'm the queen of the private school and it's a dark, little rivalry that we have.  Of course, there's much more emotional problems involved.  It's an independent movie, so come on!"

      <strong>"Buffy: The Movie"</strong>

Could it happen? "You know, never say never.  Right now, I'm more focused on new aspects of my career.  I'm not really wanting to go back and repeat characters because I think that's just not as exciting"

      For more of that interview, plus comments from spunk Scott Mechlowicz talking "Mean Creek", be sure to <a href="http://www.chud.com/news/feb04/feb17euro.php3" target="_blank">click here</a>. 

      Thanks again to 'Smilin Jack Ruby'

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