GIRLS ON FILM

tomorrow’s a-list today

Erika Christensen’s stark portrayal of a heroin-ravaged adolescent in last year’s Traffic brought the film’s antidrug manifesto into disturbingly sharp focus. Early next year, the nineteen-year-old will expand her repertoire of angst-ridden teens to include a girl struggling in the aftermath of a high-school shooting in Home Room, and the promiscuous daughter of Susan Sarandon's overbearing socialite in The Banger Sisters.

The real-life Christensen radiates calm, which she attributes to a close relationship with her parents and her practice of Scientology. She credits her affinity for roles that reveal the darkest side of teen anomie to acting coaches who questioned her ability to uncover anger: “It was just revenge to go, ‘Watch this. I can be a drug addict, I can be a psychopath. I can be everything.’”