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BY HEATHER WADOWSKI

Over the years, Eliza Dushku has developed into one of Hollywood's most talented and attractive young actresses. However, despite being cast as the beautiful cheerleader in both Bring It On and this month’s The New Guy, the 21-year-old brunette says that it wasn't until her feature film debut in That Night that she became a girl.

"I was a boy," Dushku states. "People would always tell my Mom, 'oh what four handsome boys you have,' and she would be like, 'that one's a girl!' All I would wear is hand-me-downs and she would give me Barbies and I would cut the hair off, rip the heads off and feed them to my dog. I just really had that guy thing in me."

Growing up a child of divorce and living with three brothers, Dushku admits that the testosterone in her house rubbed off on her. She cut her hair like a boy, played with G.I. Joes, Transformers and Star Wars action figures like a boy–she even went to the urinals at Fenway Park with her brothers. Although her Mom did everything in her power to get her to act like a girl, Dushku refused to conform. She was kicked out of Brownies for throwing sticks at the counselor and even flunked out of dance class. In fact, it wasn't until she was twelve that Dushku finally realized the advantages of wearing dresses and make-up–they get the boys' attention.

"I was sitting in the make-up chair and I was so not into it," Dushku recalls. "There were these two young boys in the movie though and I thought they were so cute. Unfortunately, they were really into the two other girls on the shoot and I always wondered why. Then one day the director put me in this pink dress and I had my hair curled and I was like, 'wow!' I just thought the curls were so pretty and I had never thought something was pretty before."

While Dushku may have finally learned to acknowledge her gender, it didn't last for long. A "complete nerd in school," Dushku quickly discovered that no matter how hard she tried she could never do anything right. Sick of being picked on by the popular crowd for always wearing the wrong clothes, Dushku decided to change her image. Trading in out- of-style clothes for Army and Navy jackets, Dushku put up a defense by presenting herself as a tough girl. She portrayed the image so well that it caught the eyes of the casting directors on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, and Dushku was quickly cast as Faith, Buffy's arch-nemesis and fellow slayer.

Dushku's role on Buffy re-opened the doors for the former child actor, and she was soon cast in a series of feature films as–not surprisingly–the bad girl. In Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back Dushku plays a member of an all-girl gang and, although she isn't an evil person in Bring It On, her character definitely has an attitude and a rebellious nature. With The New Guy, though, Dushku finally gets to shed her bad-girl image and she couldn't be happier.

"Wasn't I nice in this movie?" Dushku exclaims with glee. "It’s so much less stressful to be nice and not so confrontational all the time–to not have my scenes with people be mean and malicious."

In The New Guy, Dushku plays Danielle, the beautiful head cheerleader who falls for DJ Qualls. Though Dushku is fast to add that Danielle "still has some sass," her character is definitely a stretch from the bad-girl roles she's usually associated with. In real life, however, Dushku is anything but vicious.

Coming from a giving family of professors, Dushku works hard to make sure that she gives to those in need and spends her free time trying to educate herself in any way possible about other cultures. She recently returned from a political and socioeconomic study of women in South Africa and co-owns a house in Ecuador with her four brothers, one of whom has spent the past four years in the Peace Corps. Unlike many other actors who spend their paychecks on $1,400 Gucci shirts, Dushku likes to see her money go to something more important–people who need it.

"I feel like this town just sometimes gives out money. Not me particularly, but I see how much people my age are making and I'm like, wow. If I could get to that point and be raking in millions of dollars, think about what a huge favor and gift I could give someone by sending a hundred bucks here and a hundred bucks there. I definitely want to be that girl who isn't greedy. You just can’t be greedy–people need so much in this world. It just blows my mind the poverty I've seen in some places."

Besides helping others, Dushku plans to use some of her money to go back to college. Although she knows that being a student and juggling a film career will be tough, Dushku insists that she will live out the college experience no matter what.

"I'm really just interested in learning more. It's set in my brain how important education is to me and has been to my family," she says. "I would really love to study history or English and literature or writing, cause I think writing can be a nice past time. Instead of watching TV it's nice to make your brain work. Knowledge is power and ignorance makes all the crazy things happening in this world."

In the meantime, Dushku is simply working on living life to its fullest. She recently moved into a new house in Los Angeles, where she spends plenty of time at the Saddle Ranch riding the mechanical bull. She was also a bridesmaid in her brother's wedding, and became certified in scuba diving to explore her "outdoorsy" side. No matter how famous she gets, Dushku refuses to let fame keep her from having a normal life.

"Sometimes I get, 'Hey! It's that chick from Buffy!’ or something, but it's not so bad," she says. "It can make me a little uncomfortable, the recognition, sometimes. Like when you just don't expect it and you are feeling very private it can be a little bit freaky to have someone come up to you and catch you off guard. But you can't stop living because of it. And if that's the only thing that I have to complain about, then I'm doing all right."