QUESTION & ANSWER PANELS ~

TRU CALLING ELIZA DUSHKU

Tru Davies, a college graduate, had started a job on the graveyard shift at the City Morgue. It wasn't long before she discovered that she had an unusual gift. Dead bodies asked her for help and she had the opportunity to prevent their deaths, a lot of responsibility for a young girl who was just trying to make her way through medical school. Over the course of the season, Tru learned to embrace her unique ability and then Jack shows up, there was always something a little bit off about him, but it didn't take Tru that long to figure out that while she was saving lives, he was in the business of taking them. It was clear Jack had a special power of his own, now it's up to Tru to stop him. Here is Tru Davies herself, Eliza Dushku! Thunderous applause broke out throughout the room for her second appearance at Comic-Con. Eliza greeted the roaring crowd with a little impromptu singing of the Phil Collins classic In The Air Tonight as she sang, "I've been waiting for this moment, for all my life, oh Lord… What's up everybody! How's it going?"

"Thank you for coming again, this is very exciting," she said as she took off her jacket to reveal the glittering logo of Super Girl on her shirt she laughingly commented, "Wow, my bosom is reflecting rainbows all across the room. I hope you guys liked the first season, we just started shooting the second year this week. We just finished shooting last night and it's awesome. We have a lot of mysterious twists coming at you this year. The cast is awesome; Zach's back, Sean, Jason, it's really going to be a hot year, I think." Eliza opened up the floor to questions from the audience and the first one asked Eliza for her favorite directors to work with. "Let's see, Kevin Smith, Joss Whedon, Jon Feldman, James Cameron, some of my personal favorite grown up geeks I guess you could say. I've been mesmerized and worked with at some point in my career and probably still am; I'd work with those guys any day. They give people the chance to play strong, smart, sexy individuals with flaws, which makes them fabulous, both the characters and the men." Eliza made it a point to stress how much she appreciates all the positive fan response to the series, "I really appreciate the support, sometimes it feels a little lonely when you gotta make such big decisions, I really genuinely feel 100% support from a lot of you people over the years. I feel so old; I've been in the business for fifteen years almost. So thank you." She was also genuinely excited by the addition of her new cast mate, "It was cool having Jason Priestly come on because the first season I think we started to getting to a point where there was no opposing force for Tru to play off or play against so the 'calling' kind of became that. I started to feel a bit like I wanted her to stop whining, she's feeling sorry for herself, 'Oh, poor me!' So to have Jason there really gives Tru the chance to own her power this year and have something to fight directly against, which I think will be very different and cool."

As to the upcoming season, Eliza teased, "There's some secret guest stars in the bag that we can be expecting any day now, there's some cool new characters introduced this year so keep an eye out for some familiar faces." This sparked Eliza to add to her favorite directors list, "Oh my gosh, in my lineup of favorite grown up geek directors I forgot Peyton Reed who directed Bring It On, and he's here, he's somewhere in the building and I love you too Peyton! Bring It On was one of my favorite movies. You guys have to mob him in the hallway if you see him," she joked. When asked on her intro into the biz, Eliza confessed, "I got my first role, money was good; travel was nice, met a lot of really cool people and kind of stuck with it. So I'm always the worst person to ask, I've been in the business and I see people around me and it definitely takes a real aggressive person, a real tenacious, devoted individual for sure. But at the same time it's so frustrating because it's one of those things where it really is, you have to be in the right place at the right time, 90% of it. You just have to be optimistic and work hard to get it done." When transitioning from such a strong character as Faith to various other roles, Eliza admitted, "I had to stop swinging my limbs so much, and stop taking out my anger and aggression with fighting people. I don't know; everything went a little more internal. I had to compose myself a little more at times and to sit still and think of what I'm saying and listen to the other actors. Not so much the fact that I didn't do that as Faith, but that's just kind of always been something that I have to get into." She recalled a funny incident during her audition of City By the Sea, I remember when I went for my first audition; I was playing this junkie and I got my cigarettes and had the baby and I was kind of all over the place. Michael Caton-Jones directed me when I was eleven years old so I thought we're in together, we're cool, he's gonna hook me up. And after the first take he's like, 'Well that was really, really great, hmm. But everything that you're doing… I want you to stop.' He's all about honesty and all about eyes and you rally have to just communicate and it was a real important lesson for me because that's one of the things I think I struggle with probably just because of my own insecurities, just who I am. Playing Tru has really been cool for me because I feel like she's a character that is in a similar situation that I am in my life," said Eliza, "I feel like we have a lot in common and we're just trying to figure out ourselves, our heads, our emotions."

Eliza Dushku

Fans are never satisfied with only seeing Eliza on the small screen these days so there were many regrets of no new feature films to which Eliza confessed, "I've now just moved back up to Vancouver, I kind of took these last two months after the first season to take it easy and go see some family and friends because I really dropped off the face of the planet when I finally started the show. My family and friends were a little bit annoyed to say the least so I spent the last two months in Boston, I went to Bricksburg, Idaho to hang out with my cowboy cousins. There's like an inner cowgirl in here you guys," she laughed, "I never knew, but I went to this family reunion and I was roping steer with my cousins on the farm, we went to the rodeo and I discovered this whole new person inside myself. So I really just took it easy, now we have the show for the next eight months and then on the next break I'm gonna want to throw a new character on the… I want to play Super girl, that's what I want to play." There was also interest in the upcoming "Tru Calling" DVD and Eliza stated, "We just did a couple commentaries for different episodes with Jon Feldman, Sean Reaves and Zach Galifianakis and I. That dude is so twisted, Zach is out of his mind," she laughed, "I love him though; he's so funny. Remember last year when I was here and someone stood up in the crowd and said, 'I have a question for the guy at the end, are you supposed to be an ugly, old version of the kid next to you?' That was his friend that he planted in the crowd," she recalled, "So I turn and start attacking the guy, 'That's really uncalled for.' And later he showed up backstage and I'm like, 'Hey, you're that jerk,' and Zach's like, 'That's my friend.' But we did a commentary that's really funny and I think it should be ready soon." In closing, Eliza offered what she does best, words from her heart for all the love and support given to her over the years and for her new series from the fans, "There was so much support for the show and it made a difference, and people heard it and that's why we're here again, so thanks guys.