Dusk ‘Til Dawn by Matt Springer
Michelle Trachtenberg couldn’t have been more happier when she landed the role of the Slayer’s mysterious new kid sister and she’s still having the time of her life two years down the line…

Buffy has a sister? That was the reaction from many die-hard fans last season when it was revealed that the Slayer had a younger sibling. The reactions were mixed, from outrage about this new character who appeared without warning or explanation, to anticipation from viewers who wanted  to see just what the series’ creator had up his sleeve.
    As everyone soon discovered, Dawn was actually the Key to an inter-dimensional gateway, disguised in human form and placed in Buffy’s protection against the evil entity known as Glory (played by Clare Kramer).
    “I’d say our biggest surprise – even though I’d always suspected it – was the fact that Michelle is one of the greatest actresses of our time,” stated Joss Whedon at the end of the show’s sixth season. “Her scenes with Sarah elevated the show so much, and they really loved working together. That was really the big X-factor going in, because we basically designed Dawn to be the big emotional attachment of the year. If Michelle Trachtenberg hadn’t proved to have the acting chops that she has, we could never have gone to some of the places we have.”
    This season, Michelle has seen her character going into places she hadn’t anticipated. A first kiss in ‘All the Way’ becomes an encounter with an older teen vampire. There was the memorable dance number in the critically-acclaimed musical episode ‘Once More, With Feeling.” And in later  episodes, Dawn’s increasing sense of youthful alienation has led to acts of rebellion that may have painful consequences…
    Buffy Magazine recently sat down with the actress to discuss recent developments involving her character.

Let’s start with what’s going on with Dawn these days. She seems to be experiencing some classic teenage angst.
That can be expected in any teenager. Teenagers in America have so many things to deal with; things that happen to them personally, within their family and friends, so teenage angst is something that’s not uncommon. But that’s something that people don’t want to necessarily realise. Parents will say, ‘Oh, he never went through that, we just zoomed right through those years!’ But in reality, everyone has a certain amount of issues that they have to deal with. This year, Dawn’s issues centre around, “Okay, my sister was dead for a while, my mother is dead, so I felt like I had no one, and all of a sudden, my sister is back.” So there’s this big part of Dawn that feels like she wants to spend every second with her, because God forbid she goes away again; a demon can kill her at any time!
    And also, Dawn is just trying to find a good place to fit in. She realises she’s not a little goody two-shoes who loves school and does everything she’s told, but she’s also not the extreme of the situation. She’s not one to go out and have excessive partying or do a bunch of crazy things. Basically, this season is kind of her middle. She’s tried to go out without telling Buffy, which was exciting to her in terms of doing something that’s not necessarily 100 percent moral, and we wanted to see how it went.
    Please don’t get me wrong – I’m not talking about using substances like drugs or alcohol. That’s something that I would absolutely never do because it really screws up your mind and messes with your head. I’m talking about rebellion in the sense of not telling your parents where you’re going, or whatever. This is Dawn’s year of screaming for attention, trying to fit in and trying to discover herself.

How do you regard Dawn’s relationship with her sister?
A couple of people have asked me, “Is Dawn jealous of Buffy?” But by no means is she jealous. In fact, she has a great admiration for Buffy, but mixed in with that admiration is the desire to be on equal terms. If you’re in a class of 30 kids, and there’s one person who has all-perfect grades all the time, if you’re a goal-conscious person, then your desire may not necessarily be to surpass that student. But it might be to be on an even playing ground, and I think that’s the way Dawn feels. She wants to be considered an equal to her sister, and she wants her sister to consider her an equal.

What have been your personal highlights so far this season?
Basically any time throughout the season where Dawn was not her goody-goody self. That was exciting for me, because if a character stays in one mindset throughout a show’s run, it gets very boring. The fact that Dawn is finally growing up and maturing is not only good for her as a person, but its’s also great for me as an actress, because I get to experience different aspects of Dawn’s personality.
    I liked the Halloween episode, where Dawn doesn’t tell Buffy she’s going out but goes out and meets a whole bunch of boys who turn out to be vampires. That was great for me, because in those scenes, Dawn was viewed as older than she was, or at least she wasn’t seen as just the little sister. That was a real character growth process. There are a couple of scenes we filmed recently between Buffy and Dawn that are less, “Please look at me, please see me!” They’re more along the lines of, “Here I am, choose if you want to look at me or not, but if you do look at me, here are the pros.”

What was your reaction when it was announced that there was going to be a musical episode of the series?
I was looking forward to the dancing part and dreading the singing part! Joss wanted to write me a full song and he wanted me to sing it, and I absolutely refused. Singing makes me too nervous. I feel I’m more vulnerable when I’m singing, so I didn’t want to do a full-blown song, but I made an agreement with him that I’d do a dance number with whatever he wanted in there. Joss ended up sneaking in a couple of songs, which was very nerve-wracking, but he was there during the recording time. Even though I was very nervous going into it, they convinced me it would be fine, so I sang, and it all worked out in the end.

How did you feel about the large amount of work required of you at the end of Season Five?
It was great for me, because it was a challenge and I wanted to see if I could go there as an actress. I felt really comfortable with the dialogue and the whole thing, and Joss made sure of that. I have a great admiration for him. I’ve very lucky to be working with him because he’s an absolute creative genius. He always knows the answer to creative things and thinks them through so thoroughly. He could take a three year-old’s random poem about their dog and make it into an epic story about this dog’s journey from this end of the world to the other. That’s the kind of thing he can do.

What sort of reaction have you had from the fans?
It hasn’t necessarily been overwhelming, because I’ve done other well-known projects before Buffy. So I’d had some experience with fan mail. But I hadn’t really been acknowledged by the fans like this, who specifically care about every single thing. They want to dive into every single part of the show, and understand this, and look for secrets here and read between the lines there. They’re really devoted, so that was kind of fun to find out and see how they would react. But no one liked Dawn when she first came on the show. At first, they were like, “Oh, it’s the cute factor, get her off, get her off!” Until they eventually began saying, “Right, I see it!” I think that was around the fifth episode, where they learned who Dawn really was.

Are there any character developments you personally have in mind for Dawn?
I think it’s very important for an actor and a creator to collaborate in order to bring a character together. I haven’t had a meeting with the writers for next year to talk about Dawn’s development yet, but it’s forthcoming. I think it’s very important, especially at this stage, because these are the most important years in Dawn’s life. These are the years that she is discovering herself.
    I’d just like to see Dawn maturing, and if that means getting a little more rebellious then so be it; as long as she just finds herself a comfortable niche. One thing that I’m looking forward to is that instead of wearing sneakers, Dawn will be wearing heels next year, so that’s my exciting point. As for the specific details of next season, we haven’t really discussed them yet.

So a rebel with heels is all we know at this point?
I guess so. If you want to know any more, that’s a writer’s room question!