Yankee Review

"Find your own dance partner, Mr. Blume. I'm spoken for."
Sara Tanaka, a student at Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island, auditioned in New York and was cast as Margaret Yang, a student at Grover Cleveland High School. "At first, she comes off as sweet," Tanaka says, "but there's more to her than meets the eye. She's the mature one in the movie." 

Credit: Rushmore press kit

About Sara Tanaka...
Sara Tanaka became an actress almost by accident, by tagging along with her brother to acting class. Her professional credits include theater productions of Kidnapped at the Houseman Theater in New York, Juvie and The Girl With Scoliosis at the Plain Edge Playhouse, several apperances on Nickelodeon, and a film version of A Midsummer's Night Dream, in which she played Puck. Rushmore is Sara's second motion picture, as she was casted in the 1996's Race the Sun. 

Being half Japanese and half Italian, Sara has learned of the prejudice and stereotyping that sometimes exists in Hollywood through experience. However, this was not the case with Wes Anderson and Rushmore: "Actually the most amazing thing about this part is that it completely disregards race. Her ethnicity has nothing to do with the person she is, and I think that was the most glorious thing in the world. I was so grateful to be a part of that."

Credit: Official Race the Sun website

Sara Tanaka's Filmography

Rushmore (1998)
Race the Sun (1996) - Uni Kakamura 

Credit: The Internet Movie Database

Rushmore Criterion Collection DVD

Race the Sun