A cool, confident-looking blonde with evocative, glamorous eyes and a clefted, jutting chin, Karen Sillas began a collaboration with filmmaker Hal Hartley when she performed in his student thesis film, "Kid" (1985), while the two attended SUNY-Purchase. Moving to New York City, she studied at the Actors Studio and appeared in such Studio productions as "Miss Julie", "The Cherry Orchard" and "Rasputin" before making her feature debut in a small role as the no-nonsense Nurse Paine in Hartley's striking "Trust" (1990). Sillas continued her affiliation with the director, playing a more prominent
