Natasha Henstridge (born August 15, 1974) is a Canadian fashion model turned actress who has starred in several movies, including Species and Species II. Born in Springdale, Newfoundland, 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.
Her first movie Species was a box office success. Her role as an alien determined to reproduce with a male human at the first opportunity, was notable for its sexual content. In the sequel Species II, she played a gentler and more docile version of the alien. A few smaller 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, and She Spies.
In her movie debut, in Species, Henstridge plays a genetically engineered human form with some of the DNA of an exterrestrial alien. 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.
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 the alien she played in Species.
Unlike its predecessor, Species II was a failure at the box-office. 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.
Henstridge played the protagonist in her TV movie, Caracara, 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.
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.
