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The career bad girl is back on the wrong side of the law for Kevin Smith's latest...

"She's a sassy-ass, crude-talking bitch," Eliza Dushku grins of her role in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. "My mother is going to have a heart attack." Mrs Dushku's health must be permanently shaky. Best known for her stint as Faith, Buffy's punky 'n ; promiscuous rival in the vampire-staking TV hits, little Eliza hasn't played a good girl since she made her film debut at age 12 (opposite Juliette Lewis in the coming-of-age drama That Night).

"A lot of actresses out there are the girl next door," muses the 20-year-old Bostonian, who trademarked moody-daughter roles in both True Lies and This Boy's Life, before shaking her pom-poms as the sexy but sulky cheerleader in last year's Bring It On. "I relate more to character who have an edge."

Director Kevin Smith's road comedy Jay and Silent bob Strike Back sees her play Sissy, boss of a gang of female jewel thieves (made up by Ali Larter, Shannon Elizabeth and Smith's wife Jennifer Schwalbach-Smith). Despite also featuring Chris ock, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, Dushku says "It wasn't a guy's club. Once we got there, four girls running around in black latex catsuits, there weren't a lot of people saying 'no' to us."

Next up for Dushku is the high-school comedy The New Guy, followed by City by the Sea, playing opposite Robert DeNiro. Not bad going for someone who literally fell into acting. "When I was a kid, my brother Nate was auditioning for a commercial and I tagged along," recalls Dushku. "I tripped on the way up the stairs and got a bloody nose and I turned into this drama queen. The agent was like, 'We should bring your sister in for something.' I did my first commercial when I was nine and I got paid $135. I thought I was Queen Diva."

- Dennis Hensley