Tonight on ABC, the two week Sunday movie event IMPACT premieres and I had the chance to talk to the star of the film (and ELI STONE favorite) Natasha Henstridge about the movie.  In the movie, an asteroid hits the Earth’s moon, and suddenly, the moon is moving all over the place, hurting people, putting others in danger, and causing viewers to think “Could this really happen?”  Natasha was great, and answered all my questions, including that very thing.

I just got finished watching IMPACT, and it’s absolutely an event that gets you seriously thinking about what could possibly happen out there in the skies!
Doesn’t it?  I know! Yeah, I know, it is scary, I know.  Somewhat possible which makes it even more frightening!

That was actually one of the questions that I had coming into the call – you know there are a couple of things in there that you think could that actually really happen?  And it’s like, yeah, it really could.
Yeah, that’s the truth of the matter.  We spent some time up in Canada with an astrophysicist, going over some of the ideas in the film.  They’re not as farfetched as we would like to believe they are.  That’s the truth of the matter.  I can’t remember all of the details about how we sort of solve the problem at the end.  I can’t remember how much of that is possible at this point, but certainly, the idea, of getting hit by the brown dwarf, and changing the gravitational pull.  Things like that are very based in science.  Frightening!

What drew you to this role?
You know, there are things that you do just for money, I’m not going to lie.  I’m an actress, I have two kids, I have a family to support.  There are things that are just page turners.  And this was a page turner.  I thought “my goodness, if they can pull this off remotely as good as it’s written with the anomalies” and you get a little worried because it’s a TV movie, and it could look really bad.  I just thought, the science was interesting. I thought the international community having to come together was a really neat political and sort of moral center of the story.  I thought getting to play a brilliant scientist was fantastic.  I mean, God, I never had to go to school for all those years, and I still get to play a scientist. [laughs].  I thought, well, my kids will get to watch this!  How fun will that be?  If the effects are good, then it will be a really fun ride.  And I think it was.

I agree, completely.  You’re right, with a TV movie, you’re not sure how it’s going to turn out, and you get a little nervous because there are some bad ones out there.
It reads like a 150 million dollar film and you know that we didn’t have 150 million dollars to make this, and you know, they did a good job!

You mention the science aspect drawing you to this film – were you a science fan in general, is that something that had always interested you?
I do kind of enjoy science, I have to say.  I do enjoy astronomy.  I like to read certain magazines, I can’t remember the titles right now, so don’t ask me, ha, but science magazines and things like that from time to time.  And certain articles always interested me.  That stuff interests me, there’s no doubt about it.  To get the opportunity to learn more was fascinating.  Always interesting.  Whenever we’re naming a new planet, or we’re finding something new, or there’s going to be a meteor shower, or what it means, and why, and how, and all that stuff. That’s always been kind of fascinating to me.  So this was just one of those things that piqued my curiosity.

Was nailing the lingo difficult?  Your first scene, you come in, guns blazing, with this science lingo that I know would have taken me a million takes to get!
Oh my god, you don’t get a million takes, that’s the truth of the matter ha!  Burning time [laughs]. I got hired about 3 days before we started filming,  basically.  I think they were already filming when I got hired.  I flew up to Canada, and I locked myself in a room for three days.  I hired someone to come and help me.  It was very intense dialogue. It’s the kind of dialogue that you can’t memorize the night before.  You need to learn it, know it, understand it, weeks before you shoot it.  There were a couple scenes, you know, I watched the movie, too, where I was like, oh okay, I was barely hanging on the lines there, so that’s disappointing [laughs], but for the most part, it’s about knowing what you’re talking about.  You really have to be convincing and know what you’re talking about, yourself.  So that was interesting.  It was tough, no doubt about it.

Why do you think people should tune in?
It is a nail biter.  You don’t know what’s going to happen next.  Just when you think the problem’s solved, just when you think it’s a minor catastrophe, it just snowballs. And it’s a movie that you can watch with your family.  I have a 7 and 10 year old, and they were both riveted through the film.  We watched the first night on one night, here, I have the DVDs.  You know we watched it one night, and the next night, they were begging me to watch the second part.  That was exciting for me.  I’ve had my kids watch things that they could watch.  Not a lot of my stuff they could watch [laughs], and they’ve never really had that reaction.  They were really into it.  It was exciting.  And there’s great relationship stuff happening there with the kids and their grandfather [played in the film by James Cromwell].  All that kind of stuff, too.  It’s got a lot going on, for a lot of different people. I think men and women will both enjoy it, which is fun.

I just want to switch gears quickly and talk about, sadly, the last few episodes that are coming up of ELI STONE.
Yeah…

I’ve been a fan of the show since day one, so it’s bittersweet to have it back and ending.  I haven’t seen them yet, so I’m very excited.
I haven’t seen them yet, either, by the way!  And I almost forgot they were going to be aired.  When they canceled the show, they said they would air them in the summer, and we were like, yeah, right, why would they.  But they are! And I’m so excited about that.  There were so many fans of the show.  It’s like robbery when you rip them away like that!

Did you guys have a chance to wrap up the storylines?
There’s a bit of closure, but I wouldn’t say it ties up every end.  So just be forewarned.

What would you say to fans that stuck by you guys on that show?
Just I am so happy that people responded to the show the way that we responded to the show when we were making it.  We all thought it made a difference.   I think were a lot of interesting arguments brought up in the show.  I think people tuned in because it was smart.  It was also really fun.  Just thanks for watching.  I wish we were making more.  We all do.  We really enjoyed making the show.  We thought it was really nice, and I think a lot of people felt this way, that it was nice to have something on TV that wasn’t violent, nobody was dying.  It was a great show with a really great morality, and it was entertaining.  You can have shows that are exciting and entertaining, yet moral.  I think a lot of us fans appreciated that, too!

What else besides IMPACT do you have coming up?
Right now, I am doing a mobisode, actually, which is not an episode or a webisode, but these little mini mobisodes that will come out on telephones, on your mobile phones, with Stan Lee. I’m doing a comic book series with Stan Lee called TIME JUMPER and he’s voicing one of the characters, and I’m voicing a character names Charity, and the title kind of gives you a little bit of an indication what it’s about, jumping through time.   But it’s a super cool character, really great 5 minute scripts.  Getting to work with Stan Lee is such an honor, he’s such a legend!

Tune into IMPACT tonight and next Sunday, and catch the final episodes of ELI STONE on ABC Saturday nights through July 11.