Natasha Henstridge developed a phenomenal cult following with her very first film when she played the half-human/half-alien killer babe in Species. But inexperience and folly caught up with her. Now she's not much older, but considerably wiser.
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There's always been more said about Natasha Henstridge's body parts than her acting ability. First it was her deadly tongue in 1995's Species; then her breasts in 1995's Adrenalin: Fear the Rush, then her legs in 1996's Jean-Claude Van Damme kick-boxing/kung-fu caper Maximum Risk, and then her breasts again in 1998's Species II. It's an age-old dilemma for beautiful young actresses, particularly those who come to Hollywood not quite fully prepared.
Henstridge was 14 when she left the trailer park in the small oil town of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, where she'd been raised by her biker/contractor father and her housewife mother, and moved to Paris. After starting a modeling career there, she went to New York and landed TV commercials for Old Spice, Oil Of Olay and Lady Stetson. Then, at age 20, she won the part of the knockout with nasty alien DNA in Species, and overnight she became the goddess of a massive male following. She quickly made two more films, Maximum Risk and Adrenalin: Fear the Rush, both of which tanked, and those disappointments were compounded by the failure of her brief, impetuous marriage to actor Damian Chapa. Then the sequel to Species, the film that made her, bombed. Now on the other side of a hard spate of self-doubt, she's testing her range by starring in the independent comedy Dog Park with Luke Wilson, as well as the upcoming comedy The Whole Nine Yards with Bruce Willis, Matthew Perry and Rosanna Arquette. Henstridge is also moving on with her personal life--she's engaged to actor Liam Waite, with whom she now has a baby son.
DENNIS HENSLEY: What are you doing in a movie about dogs?
A: NATASHA HENSTRIDGE: Dog Park is not about dogs--it's about people who own dogs. They meet in a dog park and you get to see what kinds of ties they have to each other. I play a woman scorned who decides she's not going for it anymore and--of course, she meets somebody.
Q: What kind of dog do you own in the movie?
A: A miniature Newfoundland, which, to tell you the truth, I fought not to have.
Q: I knew I could get you to diss your costars.
A: Man, that friggin' dog was just the wrong dog for me. It was so homely and sad, and it must have been 180 years old. I went to the director and said, "Please, can I have another dog? Dogs are supposed to take after their owners and I'm not this lonely and depressed." He wouldn't have any of it.
Q: Who plays your love interest?
A: Luke Wilson, who's very cool.
Q: What's the big love scene like?
A: We have a scene where I drink way too much and we make out. When we were shooting it, the director came up to us and said, "About 80 percent more humidity, if you know what I mean." It can be a little odd making out with somebody you don't know.
Q: Maybe guys are freaked out to kiss you because during a scene in Species your tongue turns into a drill and puts a hole right through your date's head.
A: I think you might be right. I mean, since that film I haven't had as many people running up to me on the streets trying to kiss me. [Laughs]
Q: Species was your first acting gig. Who broke the news to you that you'd gotten it?
A: I was in my apartment in New York and my agent at the time came with a bottle of champagne and told me the news. I was ecstatic because it was my first role and I thought if I never did anything else in my life, I was at least making a movie. It's kind of like I'm immortalized now.
Q: After Species hit, did you feel pressure to capitalize on your good fortune?
A: Oh my God, everybody was just waiting to see the next thing. I felt like I was a fish in a fishbowl. As a result I went on a downward spiral. I felt it was such a fluke I should take the money and run, because it wasn't going to go on much longer. I was afraid of being famous, and I fought my agents on every decision they tried to make that was good for my career. I was so insecure I thought, "I've got to be in shitty movies because I'm not good enough to be with these other people."
Q: So you felt like a phony?
A: I didn't think I was a phony, I just thought, "I don't belong, I'm not worthy." I know now that working with better actors makes the movie better and makes you look better.
Q: Did you feel any guilt?
A: Oh yeah, especially when I'd hear about people who'd gone to school to study acting, who'd starved themselves for it and who'd auditioned for years without getting anything. I definitely had some issues with that. But we're all on a different path and my path is this, so I gotta go with it.
Q: Did you turn down good projects?
A: There were good opportunities, things that were so close, things that I could have had if I'd wanted them.
Q: When did your attitude change?
A: I'm still struggling with it, but I'm finally starting to feel a little more confident. Now I think, "If I work hard and I try to do the best I can, then maybe I'm worth it." It's going to take years of therapy to get over this self-worth issue. It goes deeper than acting, you know.
Q: Are you in therapy?
A: No. I'm going to, though. I think it would be helpful.
Q: Right after Species you made Maximum Risk with Jean-Claude Van Damme. What was it like working with the Muscles from Brussels?
A: I got along with him very well. He showed up late a few times, but other than that I really didn't see all the weird stuff that I kept hearing about.
Q: After Maximum Risk you made Species II, which I didn't see.
A: Nobody saw Species II. I was really hoping that it would be more subtle. It's like they took something that made money the first time around and they said, "Let's go a little further with the sex, the prostitutes, the violence, the blood," and they just went too far.
Q: Didn't you recognize that when you read the script?
A: Honestly, I'm not the best person when it comes to reading a script and knowing how it's going to turn out.
Q: Did it bother you that Species II wasn't a hit?
A: It didn't affect me at all.
Q: At 14 you left home to model in Paris. Did your parents flip out?
A: They were a little shocked. They didn't really want me to go, but I was very strong-willed.
Q: How did the opportunity come up?
A: Through a modeling contest called Look of the Year. I showed up at this contest, looked around and thought, "What the hell am I doing here? These women are gorgeous. This is embarrassing." All the other girls seemed so sophisticated. Then, when I got picked to be in the top 10, I thought, "They must have made a mistake." I ended up being first runner-up.
Q: What do you remember about your first day in Paris?
A: I walked into a modeling agency and they immediately tried to convince me to get an eye job--and I was only 15! I thought, "You guys are out of your mind." I was not a good model.
Q: A few years ago you were married briefly to actor Damian Chapa, right?
A: Yes, right after Species, while I was in my fishbowl-downward-spiral phase. I knew when I walked down the aisle that I was making a mistake.
Q: Why did you go through with it?
A: There's so much psychology involved it's beyond me. I was like, getting back at, who knows, my father, myself, and making fun of the institution of marriage by doing all these crazy things. I was really just being stupid. I did it without thinking it through for a minute and I felt like an absolute fool after the fact. Then I knew I needed to get a divorce. Living with the consequences of that was difficult. I come from a family that's really quite well put together. My parents have been married for years and all my aunts and uncles have remained married. After my divorce, I felt like the outcast.
Q: Where did you get married?
A: We ran off to Vegas, then I felt so guilty that I'd gotten married without my parents knowing that I had a ceremony in Canada.
Q: What got you out of that phase?
A: Age and time and just growing up a little bit.
Q: You're now engaged to an actor named Liam Waite, who, coincidentally, also appears in this issue. How did you meet him?
A: It's a funny story. I was on a blind date with one of his good friends and he showed up. It became obvious that I was just going to be friends with the blind-date guy, but we kept hanging out and we'd go to a movie or whatever, and I kept saying, "So, is Liam coming?" Eventually, I had to come out with it so I told him, "I gotta tell you, I like your friend." He was kind of in shock and I think his ego was a little hurt, but it was a fleeting moment.
Q: How did you end up hooking up with Liam?
A: The blind-date guy told Liam to call me and Liam was like, "No, wait a second, this is too weird." So I paged him about a month later.
Q: Numeric page?
A: Numeric page.
Q: At least you didn't have to come up with a message.
A: Right, I didn't have to say anything like, "Hi, uh, you left your sock over at, um, your friend's house." But he was so cool when he called back. He talked to me as if it wasn't at all bizarre that I was calling him, which it was. We went out that night and have been together ever since.
Q: Do you have any reservations about getting married for the second time?
A: I have some, because I don't want to make the same mistake.
Q: You two had a baby together last year. Did you think you'd be a mom this young?
A: Always. My mother was a mother at 18. Liam's mother was a mother at 18. I see my mother now, at 44, and she's just getting to have a life and it's beautiful. It's nice to have the energy for the kids and then after they get out of the house, you still have a life.
Q: Let's talk about your next film, The Whole Nine Yards. What's it about?
A: It's a really twisted comedy about a hit man, played by Bruce Willis, who's sent to jail for five years, and when he gets released he moves to a simple town where all kinds of crazy stuff happens. I play his estranged wife.
Q: The Demi of the picture.
A: Exactly.
Q: Did you get to make out with Bruce Willis?
A: Actually, I didn't have any scenes with Bruce.
Q: If you don't have any scenes with him, who do you have scenes with?
A: Matthew Perry, who plays a dorky dentist neighbor of Bruce's character.
Q: Did you feel pressure to be funny when you acted with Matthew?
A: He's very quick, very smart and he was always coming up with ideas, but my character isn't supposed to be funny. She's more of an ultra-glamorous tough broad.
Q: What surprised you most about Matthew?
A: Well, he's got no attitude. He's just a good Canadian boy. I guess that surprised me a little bit, with the fame and living in Los Angeles, that whole lifestyle, and being on a hit TV show.
Q: Did you have any other adventures on the set?
A: Our last day of filming was in Niagara Falls and a whole bunch of us went on the Maid of the Mist boat that goes near the falls. It looked like it would be totally touristy and cheesy, but it was magical, like being in the middle of a huge thunderstorm. We were right in the front of the boat. Because of Matthew--special treatment. Gotta love hanging out with those star types.
Q: What are you good at that might surprise people?
A: I'm pretty athletic, and I can usually pick up a new sport quickly.
Q: Have you ever beaten a guy at some sport while you were on a date?
A: I've gone out with guys who say, "Hey, let's play some pool," wanting to show off, and then I beat them terribly.
Q: What's the lowest point in your life so far?
A: Sometime after Species. Being successful as an actress was everything that I'd always wanted, my dream was coming true, but I was like, "This is not how I expected it to be." Then I started going back to the simplicity of my life, the way it was before.
Q: Who in the business has impressed you?
A: I've always been a big fan of Jim Carrey. God, he's so hot and so funny and so talented. I saw him at a party and I was so starstruck that I literally inched by him just to touch him with the side of my arm, which is so goofy. I never even talked to him.
Q: What work are you the most proud of?
A: A romantic comedy that hasn't come out yet, called It Had To Be You. There's a moment when I had to break down crying and I've always had a problem with that. I've never been a crier. Maybe I just have too much testosterone. So if crying is hard in my personal life, how the hell am I going to do it in a movie? In It Had To Be You I actually dug deep and conjured up some tears, so I'm proud of that.
Q: If your acting career ended tomorrow, what would you do?
A: I've thought about that a thousand times. As much as I hated school, I would love to go back and study to be a psychologist, because I'm constantly analyzing other people. Now, analyzing myself, that's a problem.
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Dennis Hensley's novel, Misadventures in the 213, is now available in paperback and on audiocassette.