THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 5, 1995 TAG: 9507040011
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Interview
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 111 lines
SHE'S BLOND, blue-eyed and with a figure that would be the envy even of Pocahontas.
She also happens to be deadly.
In ``Species,'' the new $50 million science-fiction spectacular, she's the femme fatale who is most fatal - a deadly female from outer space who is looking for a mate.
Natasha Henstridge, a Parisian model who won the role of Sil over 800 other applicants, doesn't see herself as the man killer she portrays in ``Species,'' which opens Friday. Nonetheless, she is quite willing to scare audiences - especially males.
``I see her as innocent and childlike,'' the fledgling actress said in a recent interview. ``After all, she's a woman out of her element. She must survive. She was actually very naive. I identified with her. She was learning about a new world, and I was in the same situation. I had never been on a movie set before.''
As Sil, the recreated alien, she is an other-wordly woman to be watched. Even Hugh Grant might well pass her by.
This woman is trouble in any world.
Henstridge had major help in weaving her messy spell. M-G-M is putting much of its summertime hopes into the big-budget film - backed by some of the top special-effects creators of the business. Famed artist H.R. Giger was lured into creating the female monster for the new movie. He is the way-out artist-sculptor who has achieved cult status with his mixture of Salvador Dali-like and Playboy-calendar-like images. His creatures in the original ``Alien'' movie won him an Academy Award, but he became disillusioned with Hollywood after he was ignored for ``Aliens,'' the sequel, and didn't like his experience working on ``Poltergeist II.''
Because Giger doesn't read English, director Roger Donaldson and producer Frank Mancuso Jr. flew to Switzerland to persuade the artist to undertake the new project.
Donaldson said, ``It was important that she still have sexuality even when she was in the monster status.''
Henstridge says that she talked with Giger about Sil several times ``and he faxed me material regularly.'' Giger's work may have a dark, mad image, but the movie's creators claim that ``he really is a gentle little man who giggles a lot.''
The movie also features the special effects work of four-time Oscar winner Richard Edlund. (He won Oscars for all three ``Star Wars'' films as well as for ``Raiders of the Lost Ark.'') Edlund points out that Giger created only the on-paper drawings for Sil. The rest of the effects were done in Hollywood - using new computer effects that he claims have never been used on film before.
The plot, as with all good science-fiction yarns, is a cautionary warning. It lets us know that we sent out detailed info about Earth's inhabitants via a radio telescope transmission from a jungle basin in Puerto Rico in 1974. The plot has us receiving a return message.
DNA information about an alien species is obtained via the message from outer space. If we'd been smart, we would have left it at that, but the script reminds us that we are an arrogant species and think that we rule the universe. Consequently, a team of scientists, led by Oscar-winner Ben Kinglsy (``Gandhi'') use the information to create a female of the alien species. The scientists explain that a female was chosen because ``it would be docile and more controllable.'' Another character ruefully counters that ``you guys don't get out much, do you?''
Sil, the new creature, grows to age 12 in a record time. Becoming alarmed, the Earth scientists decide to eliminate her, but she, with strength that amazes mere humans, escapes into the Utah desert and eventually gets to Los Angeles. There she evolves into a real Earth babe. (But watch out when those ``things'' start popping out of her back and her manicured nails turn to talons).
Knowing that she is all alone, and must reproduce if she is to survive, she goes man hunting. Here, we get down to a familiar plot. Her male pick-up is unnerved when she gets him to his hot tub and flatly states, ``I want a baby.'' When he hesitates, she takes fatal action - fatal to him.
Director Donaldson he chose Henstridge for the role of Sil from among 800 women interviewed ``because she is very beautiful and very independent. . . . She had a good sense of humor, and she was uninhibited enough to do the nudity.''
Henstridge admits that the nudity didn't bother her. ``It's very much a professional stance,'' she said. A movie set is not a personal place. I had no problem at all with doing those scenes. More difficult was the make-up for the several scenes in which I had to be transforming from myself to this other, being. I had to tumble out of a simulated womb. It was all gooey and messy.''
Born in rural Newfoundland, Canada, Henstriege won second place in a beauty contest at age 14 and immediately got an offer to go to Paris to become a model. Her parents didn't approve, but she told them, ``They've given me a plane ticket and I'm going.'' She's been independent ever since.
The runaway model got an apartment in Paris and began making big money right away. She was on the cover of French Cosmopolitan when she was only 15. She also appeared in commercials for such products as Lady Stetson, Oil of Olay and Old Spice.
She turned 20 during the filming of ``Species'' and admits that she was worried about what her parents would think back in Canada. ``When I called them and told them there was nudity in the film, they weren't pleased,'' she said, ``but they seem to be aware of the fact that I'll use good judgment. I still am close to my family. It was an advantage, in a way, that I left home so early. I learned to care for myself.'' ILLUSTRATION: MGM
Natasha Henstridge (with Anthony Guiders) stars as the deadly
half-human, half-alien lifeform Sil.
The alien Sil was designed by H.R. Giger for the film "Species,"
which opens Friday.
by CNB