Sometimes there is nothing better than playing the victim. Just ask seventeen year-old actress Michelle Horn, who co-stars with Bruce Willisin Miramax's anticipated drama "Hostage" based on the best-selling novel by Robert Crais. In the film, Michelle, who portrays the daughter of a man with a sordid history with the mob, is held hostage by three young thugs, with Willis playing a former LAPD hostage negotiator responsible for keeping her alive. Although only now on the brink of womanhood and the roles her beauty, talent and the great showcase of the Willis film will bring, Michelle Horn has been a star of TV and film for over a decade. She remains so with her current role of Patricia Richardson's daughter on Lifetime's "Strong Medicine." Michelle's award winning performance in "The Ruby Princess Runs Away" led the Hollywood Reporter to name her as its "One to Watch" in the category for young actresses. She was also an important presence on such series as CBS's "Family Law," ABC's "The Practice" and the film "Return to the Secret Garden." Her feature film career started at age eight with Howard Raimis' "Stuart Saves His Family." Michelle has teamed with some of the industry's leading up and coming young Indie actors, working with Jonathan Tucker and Ben Fosterin "Hostage" and with Shawn Hatosy, DJ Qualls, Rachel Miner and Michael Pena in "Little Athens." That film recently finished production in Los Angeles and is expected to be selected as an official entry into the Sundance Film Festival. The film, which is being described as a cross between "Go" and "Short Cuts," centers on a single day in the lives of four groups of restless Gen Yer's living in a small rural town. Born and raised in Southern California where she still lives with her family, Michelle asked to go to acting classes at age six after having seen "Free Willy." She's had awarded actresses Kathleen Quinlan ("Family Law") and Patricia Richardson ("Strong Medicine") as her TV moms, and she intensively studies the techniques of the acknowledged actors with whom she works, another great education. Michelle is one of Hollywood's most enthusiastically employed young voice-over actors. She voiced Kiara in "Lion King 2, Simba's Pride," and she can mimic most voices almost without concerted effort. She's one of Hollywood's top new actresses, but she also stays in touch with her audience. She enjoys staying a kid. She likes Rock music, "hanging out with my friends" and "the mall thing." And soon she'll be up on those wall marquees in a thriller which has been testing over the top and which should be one of the early box-office hits of 2005.