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What is great acting all about? It's an abstract concept, hard to put into words but for a demonstration there's none better than Claire Danes in the TV show My So Called Life. She's so vivid, it's like being a teenager all over again; I can feel myself erupting out into acne and my voice breaking.�

A whole range of aspects of teenage life are covered incisively and originally in the show. Sexual awakenings, tension around parents, losing life-long friends, making new friends, self-image crisis. It's the naturalistic acting that saves the show from the trap of sentimentality that sent The Wonder Years crashing down. Claire holds back and paces her performance, so when her emotions let rip - her trembling lips, her watering eyes, her reddening face - it's like a powerful volcano. It's the only proper way to act - live the part.�

"You can't have that kind of talent and not be a deep-thinking person," observes Winnie Holzman, the creator of the show.

Of course Claire Danes is ultra-photogenic and very beautiful. But her beauty has a complex messed up quality, so you can still believe that she could nurse a hang-up over being ugly and passed by.

Quality ran from top to bottom in the show, and appearing in the 19 episodes of My So Called Life has got to be the greatest education there is in the art of making great drama. Presumably setting Claire up for life with an excellent acting career. So what has happened in her 'so-called' after life?

She's been in great demand since the show closed in 1995, making a dozen pictures. Her profile soared with Romeo and Juliet. The film where William Shakespeare hooks up with MTV for what is really one very long stylised gimmick. The style of acting with soliloquies and antiquated phrases is a world away from the naturalism of My So Called Life. It was however, a great success - nice set design too.

She recently starred in The Mod Squad, which was not a spectacular hit in either box office or critical terms. A bit of a turkey.

But her latest picture, Brokedown Palace - released in the UK in November - about two girls arrested in Thailand for smuggling drugs, showed more promise. A side from the big disappointment that she wasn't in any prison shower scenes, it's a very competent movie.

But Brokedown Palace falters because the banter between her and her best friend, played by Kate Beckinsale, never really comes to life - ironically one of the strongest elements of My So Called Life. Claire re-affirms in Brokedown Palace the great actress that she is - displaying some hitherto unseen serious grit and anger, and those are the best scenes in the film.

Claire turned 20 in 1999 and having been in the limelight since the age of 14, she has had a job keeping a grip on any sense of a normal life, not least seeing through her education. She might have lost her way with a few of the roles she's picked, and it's possible she may have consciously, or unconsciously, shied away from any parts that were too revealing or intense. But it's more likely that such challenging parts like Angela Chase in My So Called Life just don't crop up that often for young actresses.

What she needs now is to land herself another challenging role that will allow her to cement her reputation as a great performer. It's clear she's an actress with longevity - one who is going to be around for decades to come, but the way she speaks now shows a real determination to grab her career by the throat and really make her mark.

"I just want to make good movies," Danes says. "I want to make movies that have something to offer, that are surprising, that have something going on. Everything seems so familiar lately, just regurgitating old ideas, and that's a little bit irritating."

"I'm going to do good stuff, believe you me," she continues. "I'm focused on it now. For a long time it wasn't my priority. I was much more interested in figuring out who the hell I was as a person. I wasn't ready to leap into another character and comment on myself, or my life. I had no sense of it. I had been working like a dog, that's what I do. So I've been scrambling to put a piece of a life together, and I'm satisfied with it and now I can make a movie."

In 2000 she starts shooting Flora Plum, directed by Jodie Foster, a fine actress that Claire makes more than a passing resemblance to. Set in the 1930s, it's apparently a character study movie similar in style to All About Eve. This could well be the one.

By the way, you can buy My So Called Life videos on import over the internet.

I would if I were you…