Eliza Dushku (TRU CALLING, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER) takes on 2 new roles:  a character named City Hall (no, that’s not a typo) in the upcoming indie film NOBEL SON and as Echo in TV’s DOLLHOUSE.

NOBEL SON stars Alan Rickman, Bryan Greenburg, Mary Steenburgen, Bill Pullman, Danny DeVito, Ted Danson, Ernie Hudson and Eliza Dushku.  According to the official website synopsis,

"Barkley Michaelson is in a deep life rut. He’s struggling to finish his PhD thesis when his father, the learned Eli Michaelson, wins the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Barkley and his mother, Sarah, a renowned forensic psychiatrist, now have the ill-fortune of living with a man-eating monster whose philandering ways have gotten less and less discrete. As if Barkley’s world is not bad enough, on the eve of his father receiving the Nobel, Barkley is kidnapped and the requested ransom is the $2,000,000 in Nobel prize money. Needless to say, Eli refuses to pay it and so starts a venomous tale of familial dysfunction, lust, betrayal and ultimately revenge. In the words of Michel De Montaigne, the 16th century philosopher: ‘There is more barbarity in eating a man alive than in eating him dead.’"

In a note on the website, Eliza says, "I fought my ass off for this role."  Per an interview with TV GUIDE,  she told them
"I just loved the script. It’s sort of rare when you turn that last page and go, ‘I have to be in this movie, I have to play this character.’"  Early in the movie, City Hall, a damaged soul, spends an amorous evening with Barkley Michaelson before he goes to see his father accept the Nobel prize, setting in motion a series of wild and weird events in this very original and twisted movie.

And while early in her career she stated, people have "a better chance of seeing God than seeing me naked," they come quite close in this film.  (To seeing her naked, that is – she’s down to very small underwear in this one.)

And while TRU CALLING is still canceled (regardless of how many fans write in), Eliza will be back on TV on FOX in Joss Whedon’s DOLLHOUSE, a sci fi thriller.  She’ll be ECHO, an operative who has her original mind removed and has covert mission-specific personalities imprinted on her.  According to the TV GUIDE interview, she’s "played probably twenty-some different characters in the past couple months, and every one is a thrill. I’ve been riding motorcycles and deer hunting, I had a Muay Thai fight scene with a 6-foot-5 cop, I went river rafting, rock climbing…"  Her character can be anyone, but doesn’t remember who she is. (Sounds a bit like THE PRETENDER / MISSION IMPOSSIBLE / MY OWN WORST ENEMY all mixed together…?) 

Planned as a mid-season replacement, so far 7 episodes of 13 have been filmed, but with a possible actor’s strike coming up, the future of the rest of the episodes are unknown. The show will be on Friday nights at 9pm, with THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES as its lead-in.

Here’s an interview with Joss Whedon (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, FIREFLY) and Eliza about the upcoming show: 

Screenshots from the movie NOBEL SON:

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