The Secret Circle

Anyone who remembers Natasha Henstridge from her first acting role in Species knows that she can toe the line between evil and misunderstood expertly. That will come in handy this fall when she joins Kevin Williamson’s witchy CW drama The Secret Circle, where she plays Dawn Chamberlain, the vice principal of Chance Harbor's high school we’ll all soon be talking about. Wetpaint Entertainment caught up with Henstridge at the CBS All Star party to talk shop and find out what being a witch means for her potential love connection with David Caruso on CSI:Miami.

Wetpaint Entertainment: Tell us about The Secret Circle. What do you love about it? 

Natasha Henstridge: I love that it's young, and it's hip. They say the best way to avoid getting old is to not hang out with old people. Well, that's what I'm doing. I'm hanging out with young people, damn it.  And also, the whole genre thing is so popular right now. Just when you think it's kind of coming near its end, it just has another life again.  And this is just a little bit different, but similar to Vampire Diaries. 

Well tonally it must be similar, at least, because Kevin Williamson co-wrote it. 

That's right.  It’s tonally similar, and also, I like the way he does characters because I could be just this very one dimensional, mustache twirling villain, but she's got this morality as well. She has these morals that are not necessarily what everybody would agree are morals, but she has lines she won't cross and things that she won't do.  She has an agenda. There are horrible things that she's willing to do to get to that agenda, but the agenda itself is going to make a world a better place. And I think that's the cool, fun thing about playing this character.

What can we say about the episodes after the pilot?

They're surprising.  From my character's perspective, I was surprised when I opened the script and read it.  I was taken aback.  I literally thought it was going to be one thing, and I was like, “Oh, wow.  Oh, wow!”  She's doing a lot already.  And maybe she's not all that I thought she was.

We also heard CSI:Miami wants you back as the love interest of David Caruso’s character. Will that work out?

You need to talk them about it.  I think the intention was that it would have been really nice to go and do some stuff on the show and possibly recur. Then Secret Circle happened. It's nice to be wanted. Secret Circle is in Vancouver, and I think they're trying to make it work best way they can.  I'm hoping I can pop in, here and there.  We'll see.

But there was chemistry. 

There was chemistry, rumor has it. I like [David Caruso] a lot actually.  There's something about a man who can be on a TV show in his tenth season who cares as much as he cares still and is invested in the scenes and really wants to make it good and really changes it, not because of ego but because he wants to make it better.  But I completely respect it.  I got along with him, really, really well.