|
|
Natasha Henstridge (born August 15,
1974) is a Canadian fashion model turned actress. Her
most notable roles include Species and Species II. Born
in Springdale, Newfoundland and Labrador, she was raised
in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. At the age of
thirteen, she entered the Casablanca Modeling Agency's
"Look of the Year" contest and was chosen
first runner-up.
The following year, Henstridge went to Paris to pursue
her modeling ambitions. At fifteen, she was featured on
her first magazine cover, the French edition of
Cosmopolitan. Several magazine covers followed and
Henstridge went on to do television commercials for
products such as Olay, Old Spice, and Lady Stetson. Her
modeling career established, Henstridge decided to try
her luck in movies. She was married to Director Damain
Chapa twice.
The following year, Henstridge went to Paris to pursue
her modeling ambitions. At fifteen, she was featured on
her first magazine cover, the French edition of
Cosmopolitan. Several magazine covers followed and
Henstridge went on to do television commercials for
products such as Olay, Old Spice, and Lady Stetson. Her
modeling career established, Henstridge decided to try
her luck in movies.
While modeling in France gave Natasha the recognition
she deserved as a beautiful woman, she quickly became
bored by her job and did not feel that she was being
challenged enough. She sought something more exciting
and presented herself with a new creative challenge:
acting. Blurring the lines between acting and modeling,
Natasha's first role was in the science fiction feature
film, Species.
The role of Sil, the alien in a woman's body trying to
get pregnant in order to reproduce her alien species,
still demanded a beautiful face and figure, both of
which Natasha possessed. She was chosen among over 100
other hopefuls, and although she was one of the less
experienced women to audition, she succeeded in
portraying her seductive yet evil character.
Model-turned-actress Natasha Henstridge first earned
fame to say nothing of notoriety as Sil, the human-alien
clone with a deadly need to mate and reproduce in
Species (1995).
Due to the strenuous demands of her character, the
blonde, willowy Henstridge was required to spend much of
the film naked, something that inspired plenty of
testosterone-laced men's magazine profiles but little
chance for critical respect. However, the actress
persevered, gradually finding work in films that focused
on her verbal skills rather than her ability to shed her
clothing.
Joining other models-turned-actresses such as Cameron
Diaz and Rene Russo, Natasha has surely met her
challenge of succeeding in another career. She has
recently finished working on Second Skin, Kevin of the
North and A Better Way to Die, and has starring roles
lined up in The Judith Exner Story and Ghosts of Mars,
in a role Courtney Love was originally set to play.
Originally hailing from Springdale, Newfoundland,
Henstridge grew up in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada.
Leaving home at 14 to pursue a modeling career, she
moved to Paris, eventually becoming successful enough to
grace the cover of French Cosmopolitan when she was only
15. Henstridge also appeared in ads for Oil of Olay and
Lady Stetson, but she soon realized that she was meant
for a more creatively stimulating calling.
Whether her starring role in Species could be deemed
creatively stimulating is arguable, but it did provide
Henstridge with her breakthrough. Unfortunately, she
next opted for near-nonentity status in such critical
missteps as the Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle Maximum
Risk (1996) and Species II (1998), which was nowhere
near as commercially successful as its predecessor.
Natasha won an MTV Award for Best Kiss, which she shared
with her Species co-star. While Species was physically
demanding, it was not enough of a role to consider
Natasha a burgeoning actress. But more roles began to
follow her feature film debut.
Henstridge broke into new territory with the romantic
comedy Dog Park (1998), co-starring alongside Janeane
Garofalo and Luke Wilson. She continued to flex her
comedic muscles in 2000 with The Whole Nine Yards,
sharing the screen with a cast that included Matthew
Perry, Bruce Willis, and Michael Clarke Duncan. Later
that year, she appeared in Bounce, a romantic drama
about a man (Ben Affleck) who falls in love with the
widow (Gwyneth Paltrow) of the plane crash victim to
whom he had given his seat on a doomed airplane.
Movies and television: Her first movie, Species
was a box office success raking in $113 Million (USD).
Her role as the alien 'Sil', was determined to reproduce
with a male at the first opportunity. The film was
notable for its sexual content and spawned a sequel
Species II, where a male alien was attempting to mate
with Eve, a genetic duplicate of Sil.
Eve was played as gentle and more docile
than the original Sil. The film was a failure at the box
office, taking in $19 million (USD) domestically. A few
smaller independent movies followed, including Bela
Donna and Dog Park, with varied box office returns.
In 2000, she starred in The Whole Nine Yards, which led
to its sequel The Whole Ten Yards, and also Ghosts of
Mars. The latter was not well-received, with a 21%
rating in Rotten Tomatoes.
She has played a number of roles on television, such as
Caracara, The Outer Limits, She Spies, and in the
acclaimed ABC drama Commander in Chief. The show was
cancelled after 18 episodes. She also hosted Mostly True
Stories: Urban Legends Revealed on TLC, a show about
urban legends.
Species: In her movie debut, in Species,
Henstridge plays a genetically engineered human form
with extraterrestrial DNA. She breaks from the captivity
of a laboratory and embarks on a killing spree. A team
of experts bands together to stop her. With a strong
cast and an interesting story angle, Species was an
instant cult hit. That year, Henstridge won the MTV
Movie award for "best kiss", for a scene in
which her character, while kissing an aggressive
would-be suitor, impales his head with her tongue.
This movie was a box office hit and made Henstridge an
instant star in the sci-fi movie genre. The movie gave
Henstridge a perfect platform to launch her acting
career, but she could not capitalize on it as most of
the following movies failed to generate the same
excitement. Species is perhaps the most successful debut
movie for any model turned actress. The movie netted $60
million in North America and about $53 million overseas.
Species II: The long-awaited sequel of Species
was released in 1998 by MGM-UA to much fanfare. In the
film Species II, she plays a cloned version of Sil the
alien she played in Species. Her new character is known
as Eve and displays more human emotion than her previous
encarnation.
Unlike its predecessor, Species II was a failure at the
box-office, dispite having it's own following within the
series. Undaunted, Henstridge continued to pursue
various roles. Despite having some reservations about
the sci-fi genre, she signed up for John Carpenter's
Ghosts of Mars in the lead role and reprised her role as
Eve in a brief cameo in Species III.
Caracara: Henstridge played the protagonist in
her TV movie, Caracara (released in the US as The Last
Witness), which received poor ratings. She plays a
lonely ornithologist Rachel Sutherland who allows her
home to become an observation post for the F.B.I., in
their efforts to zero-in on a would-be assassin of a
foreign president. She falls in love with one of the
agents, who turns out to be the assassin himself. How
Rachel foils the assassination and escapes from the grip
of the assassin is the subject of the rest of the story.
Bela Donna: The following year, she played in a
multilingual movie called Bela Donna which did well in
Brazil and South America. In the movie, she plays a wife
to an explorer who goes on a treasure hunting spree to
Brazil. There she is stalked by a fisherman with whom
she falls in love. What follows is a web of intrigue,
betrayal, and suspense. The movie received positive
reviews in Brazil, where it was exclusively shot and her
role widely acclaimed.
Current Projects: Henstridge was working on the
TV show She Spies, prior to its cancellation. She has
also completed a TV movie titled Widow on the Hill which
has received critical acclaim. Henstridge has begun
taking roles in independent films to help build up her
acting credibility.
From 2005 to 2006, Henstridge had a recurring role on
Commander in Chief, which starred Geena Davis as a
fictional female U.S. President.
She has recently begun filming the CTV original
mini-series Would Be Kings in Hamilton, Ontario.
Personal life: Henstridge was married to actor
Damian Chapa twice. However, the second marriage lasted
only a few months and the couple divorced in 1996. She
has two sons by actor Liam Waite, named Tristan River
Waite, born October 14, 1998, and Asher Sky Waite, born
in September 2001. She is dating Scottish
singer-songwriter and actor Darius Danesh. Henstridge
said that she and Danesh met at a pedestrian crossing in
Los Angeles. |
Snoron Celebrities and Models Wallpapers 
