One non-blond?

Despite her golden glow, Elisha Cuthbert is anything but the 'Quiet' type

There's nothing girl-next-door about Elisha Cuthbert.

For one thing, coming from Canada and given the breadth of her Hollywood experience at the ripe young age of 23, Cuthbert has an aura of worldliness. And then there are those baby blues, that platinum blond hair and that petite but near-perfect body she's not afraid to flaunt.

In her latest film, "The Quiet," opening Friday, Cuthbert is seen ironing a cheerleading uniform in her bra and undies - but, like any other time the actress shows some skin, it's about more than simply tantalizing the audience. In this case, she's, um, simultaneously seducing her father and plotting his demise in equal measure.

If she's a girl next door in "The Quiet," then the next door must be the gate to Hell.

"I can't just play 'The Girl,'" Cuthbert says, meaning the generic, just-add-boyfriend role so many actresses have to take at her age. Sipping black coffee at the Ritz-Carlton, she continues, "It's hard for me to be drawn to a project that doesn't have something dramatic happening to the character, or a dramatic conclusion - a way to come out of the situation."

Her characters in the sex comedy "The Girl Next Door" (2004), the horror film remake "House of Wax" (2005), and even her recurring role on Fox's "24" (as Kim, the fan-polarizing daughter of Kiefer Sutherland's agent Jack Bauer) all fit that description. But playing "The Quiet's" Nina, a high schooler with an incestuous secret, was a new experience altogether. And while Cuthbert may have enjoyed Nina's darker edges, she says she initially had her eyes set on another character: Dot, a deaf-mute teen who moves in with Nina's family.

But when she met with director Jamie Babbit, she changed her mind.

"I thought Dot was perfect, but it was so stereotypical of the blond actress going, 'Yeah, I want to play the introverted, non-talking character in the film,'" Cuthbert says. "But then, who was going to play Nina, who comes off as normal but she needs to exude all these other frustrations and things? So I reread it with myself in mind and thought Nina was so much more intense than Dot's character. I'd passed it by because I wanted to avoid the sort of 'pretty cheerleader character,' but then I realized that Nina wasn't just that."

"Elisha knows what she wants and she's not afraid to claim it," says director Babbit (who also did the 1999 satire "But I'm a Cheerleader" as well as episodes of "Nip/Tuck.") "She's not some timid blond girl waiting for someone to tell her what to do - she's collaborative and easygoing, but also very brave.

"Compared to the young party girls hanging out at [clubs] until the wee hours who barely read the script, she stands apart."

Cuthbert felt so strongly about the suburban-nightmare script that she attached her name to it as an associate producer - a first for the starlet.

"[The production] had no money, so the movie probably wouldn't have gotten made," she says. "The people that work for you kind of steer you away from those kinds of projects unless they know who's going to be in the film, how much [of a budget] they're going to have ... My people were nervous, but I think they know who I am and what I'm interested in. They know they're dealing with a little bit more tough, savvy kind of person."

Laughing, she adds, "I'm just really passionate about what I do and I like to be really involved - maybe it's a control thing."

Unlike her peers on such teen soaps as "The O.C." or "One Tree Hill," Cuthbert's breakthrough role on "24" didn't exactly hit the under-21 crowd.

In fact, Kim Bauer - a role she snagged when she wasn't even yet 18 - didn't always resonate with the show's passionate, somewhat obsessive audience. There's been no word yet as to whether Kim will be making an appearance in the show's sixth season.

"It was hard for the writers to come up with things for Kim to do every week that had something to do with saving the world," Cuthbert admits. "I did the best I could to make every week work.

"But whatever feelings [Kim generates], as long as the audience is getting involved. That's a good thing. It's not always going to be roses."

by: BREANNE L. HELDMAN