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Every actress needs a unique quality to set her apart from the hordes of beauties that flood of the Greyhound buses and onto Hollywood Boulevard everyday. Some spend years trying to inject cool into their flaccid personalities – coloring their hair, hanging out in all the right spots, make up stories about growing up on the streets. But in the case of Clea DuVall, who most recently made her mark by playing a childlike basket case in Girl, Interrupted, she didn’t need to take a bus anywhere (She grew up in the heart of Hollywood) and she didn’t need to make anything up. She won’t elaborate on her upbringing. All she’ll say is that she “Grew up in the scary parts of Hollywod. But check out this revealing factoid she wasn’t grounded when she started getting tattoos at the age of 14. “My first tattoo was a rose and I got it on my ankle,” she says. “I picked it off the wall in the tattoo parlor. I was happy I did it, but I wouldn’t recommend getting your first tattoo until you’re at least 18 or 19even.” Duvall has gotten a tattoo every year since she became a rose-kissed and how has a total of 10, which must rival her Girl, Interrupted costar Angelina Jolie. “Well, she has real tattoos,” says DuVall. “I have the small ones.” Most reports can’t get through an article without noting that she smokes a pack of cigarettes a day. “That’s irrating,” says DuVall. “Is all they can say about me that I smoke a pack a day? Pleeease. And it’s not even true. I don’t always smoke that much.” She may be irritated by the labels, but they have been helping her. She has a reputation in Hollywood for being the real deal and that she can project grittiness better then no other, which may be why she’s been cast in some of the edgiest indies to come out this year. In But I’m a cheerleader she plays a lesbian who falls in love with Natasha Lyonne’s character while they do time at a camp that tries to make gay girls straight. And later this year she’ll play a distressed girl whose suicide attempts keep getting interrupted in director Sarah Thorp’s drama/comedy See Jane Run. Will DuVall forever play disturbed youth or will she brighten up and go mainstream? “Whatever I do I want to be able to scare myself,” she admits. “I always want to play something different. I want each role to get more challenging. That’s why I do what I want.”