Even without her new extraterrestrial aura, Henstridge would be hard to miss.The 20-year-old Canadian stands an immodest 5'9". And her eyes are hypnotic,hovering like a pair of glinting coins. A model by training, Henstridge admits that the art of being beautiful yielded gradually to the craft of acting."There are some scenes where I'm walking down the street and I look like I'm walking down a runway in Paris," she says. "I remember the director just having to say to me sometimes, `No model. No model.'"
Her previous posing experience, including face time on the cover of French Cosmo, did help in some ways. She was already accustomed to being distinguished by genetics from the general populace. Plus a few colleagues provided good character examples. "There are some raw, cold women in that modeling world. Some wonderful ones too, though," she says. While Henstridge relished her bone-crushing, blood-splattering role, she doesn't think her character, Sil--who is half naive young woman, half rabid survivalist--is really all that evil; her clinical creators simply forgot to include a snooze button with her biological clock. "Basically she just needed somebody to mate with," says Henstridge. "I think instinctively we're all trying to stay alive." Though the film succeeds for a while in drawing out the humanity in the monster, there isn't enough for Henstridge's taste. "There could have been some moments at the end where you see more of her good-side personality," she says, "and you feel some sympathy for her."
Relief from villainy--aside from indulging in her passions, scuba diving and horseback riding--comes with Henstridge's next role, playing a science-fiction cop in Adrenalin: Fear the Rush, due out in the fall. "It's set in the year 2007," she says. "Me and my partner hunt down this cannibal-killer-type dude. I play a good girl. I have that dimension." Next month, she'll start filming Cry Me an Ocean, in which she'll play a jaded singer. "It's a little Michelle Pfeiffer-in-Scarface," she says. From there, there's the possibility of two post-Species movies with MGM. This actress on the verge of a career signed a three-option agreement with the studio before Species even opened. Would you say no to her?
