To some, Henstridge will always be the half-alien/half-human/all-hottie Sil, but her debut in Species was 14 years ago. Now 34, she's done a lot since then, much of it in the genre arena.

Like her forthcoming Impact, a four-hour ABC miniseries that debuts June 21. In Impact, a spectacular meteor shower hits the moon and throws it out of orbit; it's up to a team of scientists led by astrophysicist Maddie Rhodes (Henstridge) to save the earth from a lunar collision. (Watch the trailer here.) Henstridge called us this morning from Los Angeles to talk about the project.

What appeals to you about science fiction that keeps you coming back to the genre again and again?

Well, I think the science fiction community just supports me, so why the heck not? No, there is an attraction to some of the stories. In this particular case, I just thought it was a really cool story: interesting, educational — and not even fiction at the end of the day, as I found out. I think that kind of curiosity – there are stories that keep you turning the page, stories that make you think "What if?" And that kind of natural curiosity we all have as humans. Whatever it is — in my case, an alien-human hybrid thing, or many other things that I've done — they're just action-packed, they're exciting, they keep you on the edge of your seat, and they're page-turners. So I always find it interesting to see how they'll turn out. And there are great fanbases as well.

What did you find out was accurate about the science behind Impact?

Up in Canada, I was working at an observatory, and I met an astrophysicist, and we went through the script, just so that I could really sink my teeth in, understand more, and know what the hell I was talking about when I was giving these big speeches. Basically, we're just not quite as protected as we like to think we are, and technology is advanced, but it's not quite as advanced as we think it is. We don't have an eye in the sky everywhere, we don't know what's coming, and things like meteors can be very erratic. So we're not as safe as we think we are, and that was very eye-opening. [Laughs nervously]. And that's what makes this movie even slightly possible.

And how plausible was the solution the scientists reach about how to save the earth?

That might be a little more far-fetched. That one I'm not 100 percent sure on.

Are you trying to extend your range now beyond the sexy roles that have largely defined your career? In Impact, you're a scientist in a heavy sweater.

Most people who work at observatories wear warm clothes because it's very, very cold, so that was just based in reality. But I get what you're saying. I feel very, very fortunate to have been able to step away from the sex symbols, the young it-girl kind of place, and to realize — and for people to realize — that I can do other things. That has been a real gift for me, because you get pigeonholed, and then where do you go when you're not 19 and hot, and you're aging? It's inevitable. So to be able to do other roles that challenge me more – I got to play a lawyer on Eli Stone, which was fantastic, and getting to play an astrophysicist, which I admit is a bit of a stretch. But what an amazing thing to be able to play. To get to play these really smart female characters is fantastic, and I just feel really fortunate. I do, of course, try to stretch, because it would be silly for me to compete with 20-year-olds for roles. It's not going to happen. I'm in a different place in my life. It's just great that the business has supported me enough to be able to do that as well.

Are there any sorts of science fiction stories you'd like to tell?

I wouldn't say so specifically in science fiction, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that [I'm fascinated with] cloning. People always ask me if I'm a science fiction fan, and I'm not a huge science fiction fan, but there is something kind of interesting about cloning and what it will do to society. I've read about it, and whenever there's a film or an article in the paper about the latest thing that's been cloned, it makes me think about God vs. science and all of those kind of questions. It's interesting because the planet gets more and more full, and yet we try to find more and more ways to keep people alive. It's all so fascinating. And yet, if it was my child or my mother, I'd want to do the same thing. So there are all sorts of interesting questions that cloning brings up. Can you imagine, "Oh, I'm going to get myself a new heart from my cloned counterpart"?

Can you think of recent films or books that have handled the subject well?

Not really. I'd like to see some things that are really well done.

What else do you have in the pipeline?

I am doing a really interesting series of really small, five-minute episodes of a Stan Lee cartoon, in which Stan Lee and myself will be voicing the two characters. My character is called Charity Vyle. And it's a super cool character. It's a show called Time Jumper. We're going to do about 10 episodes. I'm not exactly sure of the format; I think it's coming out through the phone. I'm with an absolute legend, and I'm really excited about that. My character is actually brilliant as well, as these cartoon characters – I mean, as these comic book characters often are. She knows how to jump through time, and she does that for some very selfish reasons.

Would you say the message of Impact is that international cooperation is necessary to solve global crises?

I think that is the exact message of the film, all the countries in the world working together for one common goal. That's the political, moral message of the film, and I think that's a really interesting part of the film.

Here's the official synopsis:

After a massive meteor collides with our moon, disastrous abnormalities start happening on Earth - on one side of the planet, cars begin to hover over the ground as if in outer space, while on the other side, the Earth's gravitational pull becomes so intense that the Eiffel Tower crumbles together under its own weight.

A team of international scientists realizes the horrifying truth: the meteor has knocked the moon out of its orbit and has hurled it on a collision course with the Earth. In 45 days, the Moon will crash into our planet. As with the total extinction of the dinosaurs through a meteor shower, history is about to repeat itself, this time with mankind...

The US has a plan, but finds no international support. The Europeans have another strategy, which the Americans don't buy into. Now it is up to a small group of scientists on both sides of the pond to get the nations of the world to cooperate and act as one, before it will be too late...

Unique visuals and powerful human drama will bring this chilling story to life. Get ready to experience the dark side of the moon!

Impact is being made in Victoria, Canada by Munich-based Tandem Communications, which is also making Lost City Raiders, the Waterworld-esque Sci Fi Channel TV movie which we already mocked. They don't have a U.S. market for Impact yet, but they've already sold it in 90 other territories around the world, and it seems likely that Sci Fi will pick it up. It's being directed by Mike Rohl (Smallville).

Besides Henstridge, Impact stars David James Elliott (JAG) as Alex Kinter, an Ottowa-based astrophysicist who teams up with Henstridge's astronomer to try and avert disaster. James Cromwell plays the grandfather of Henstridge's children, and Berlin-based Benjamin Sadler plays a German scientific genius. Currently being filmed are scenes where Kinter's quiet Canadian life is disturbed by news of the moon disaster. Victoria will have to double for "Washington, Vermont, London, Paris, New Mexico — with the Centre of the Universe posing as an observatory there — and Munich," says the Victoria TImes Colonist. Natasha Henstridge photo from Darnell Walker/WENN.

Henstridge To Make Impact [Variety]
Sci-fi film hits Victoria [Times Colonist]

• Barbarella: This movie was all about sex, from the opening credits where Jane Fonda strips down in zero gravity, to her encounter with Dr. Durand Durand's sex organ called "The Excessive Machine." Which is basically a piano that plays with your genitalia. It's supposed to kill her, but of course Barbarella breaks it, oh my. She also has super-sci fi sex in pill form, which manages to curl her hair a bit. There's even a character named Dildano, in case you had any doubts about all the sex.

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• Demolition Man: This movie has a scene where Sylvester Stallone gets it on with Sandra Bullock's character through some high-tech sex helmets. You put them on and "think" about sex, so no bodily fluids are exchanged. That way you can do the nasty and stay "pure." Thankfully, it saves us from seeing them writhing around in bed together. A sad Stallone retires to his apartment to knit (no joke), but he gets a wrong number video phone call, so you can still see some boobies. He probably wrote that scene in himself.

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• Liquid Sky: In this 1982 cult-classic, fashion model Margaret has a troupe of tiny aliens following her around and sucking up the endorphins released by the people she has sex with, because that's where they get their fuel from. Must make finding a service station a bit rough. She has trouble hiding the ever-growing body count until the aliens help her out and start vaporizing them for her. Where else could you get a line like, "I bet you $300 I can fuck Margaret and not die!" spoken by a woman?

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• Battlestar Galactica: There's a lot of sex going on in this show, because apparently Cylons are equipped with a horny circuit that's been switched into overdrive. Except for that short, balding guy. We've never seen him try to do the deed. Plus, Cylon's spines glow red during sex, which you think would make detecting them a bit easier than the iffy blood-test solution that Baltar comes up with. Plus, Starbuck gets strapped down and has an ovary removed in a Cylon reproduction farm, which means they're just having sex for the fun of it.

  
  

• Moonraker: James Bond ventures into outer space, has slow-motion fights with laser beams and while wearing a spacesuit, manages to turn Jaws into a good guy, and also gets down with some zero gravity action with Dr. Holly Goodhead. The film's effects are pretty laughable at this point (the space shuttle has LASER BEAMS, for god's sake), but that sex scene made it all worth it when you were ten years old. Plus Q gets off a good one-liner at the end when the Prime Minister video calls Bond to congratulate him and they sex him and Dr. Goodhead floating naked under some silvery space sheets. M says, "What's he doing?!" And Q, staring at a flight path quips "I think he's attempting re-entry!" Zing.

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• Species: Scientists get a message from the stars in this film, and it sounds suspiciously like spam. "Free unlimited fuel now! Ask me how!" They follow the instructions, which involve splicing human DNA with alien DNA, and it gives birth to... Natasha Henstridge. She escapes into the wild with her supermodel good looks, and the fact that she changed her haircut. What a disguise. Even one of the scientists assigned to track her down doesn't recognize her, and they have sex. She's like Clark Kent with that damn hair. Anyhow, she's hot, struts around naked, and doesn't hesitate to kill people who get in her way.

  
  

• Demon Seed: This 1977 film featured a sentient computer named Proteus that also controlled every aspect of the house that his creator's wife lived in. As he begins to go HAL-style crazy, he tells the good doctor's wife that he just wants to have a child, and she agrees! There's some cyborg/robo sex going on, which has to be seen to be believed, including the robot's line "If you prick me, do I not leak?" If your house starts pleasing you sexually, it's either time to move, or to re-appraise your property.

• Sleeper: In this Woody Allen film, Allen mistakenly gets put into cryogenic freeze and wakes up 200 years in the future, where all men have been rendered impotent, except those of Italian descent. Orgasmatron booths are popular destinations, where instead of making a phone call you get off, and "intoxication orbs" are passed around at parties, which appear to make the holder experience sexual bliss. Sounds like a decent future to me, thank god my great-grandmother was Italian.

  

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