Eliza Dushku: ‘I Eat What I Kill’

As the “Active” Echo on FOX’s “Dollhouse,” Eliza Dushku is thrown into different harrowing situations each week, ones that require both skill and strength to get out of. And in real life, the actress is almost as tough as her imprintable character, having once taken down an hefty four-legged animal.

“I own my own bow and arrow and last Christmas, while hunting in Colorado, I shot an elk,” the actress told FHM’s September issue. “In other words: I eat what I kill.”

Eliza might be an avid hunter, but she’s also a pet owner and lover of exotic animals.

“As a child I had pet python I carried around with me. And in high school I had a few scuffles. I was a little bit of a tomboy,” she continued.

Eliza’s early start in Hollywood also introduced her to a world off limits to most teenagers.

“The first time I met [Mickey Rourke,] he offered me cigarettes then asked if I wanted to go to a whiskey bar that night,” she told the mag.

But not all of her run-ins with her elder Hollywood colleagues were as salacious. Eliza credits Arnold Schwarzenegger – who she starred with in 1994’s “True Lies” – with helping her navigate celebrity life.

”[Arnold] said to me, ‘Just believe in yourself, know what you want in life and don’t stop until you get it,” she said of the actor-turned-Governor of California. “And it’s that approach to life, if anything, that’s been my mantra since.”

Eliza returns for Season 2 of “Dollhouse” on September 25.