Interview With The Secret Circle’s Natasha Henstridge

Natasha Henstridge first became known to genre audiences for her breakout role in the movie Species. She’s been working regularly ever since, and now, she will be introduced to a whole new generation as one of the mysterious characters we’ll be seeing in The CW’s new series, The Secret Circle.

In Secret Circle, Henstridge plays Dawn Chamberlain, principal of the high school in Chance Harbor. She also happens to be the mother of Faye, and she also happens to have once been a witch herself. We sat down for roundtable interviews with the Secret Circle cast at Comic-Con (you can read our other interviews here), but today, it’s all about Dawn. Beware there are spoilers for the series pilot in this interview.

Visit our Secret Circle forum in time for next month’s series premiere!

Please do not reproduce this interview onto other websites; instead, just place a link to KSiteTV! Questions to Ms. Henstridge are posted in bold; her answers are not.

Your character is part of the previous generation of the Circle. Can you talk about that and how she interacts with the other characters, and does that have anything to do with her becoming principal of the school?

That’s a very good question. I think that it was no accident that she became the principal, because it’s a really, really good way to keep her eye on all of the circle of witches. What a great place to be, and a great excuse to be there.

She is very much, I think, a string-pulling “man-behind-the-curtain,” watching everything that’s going on. She’s lost the power in her circle, because of the deaths in that particular generation, and she desperately wants that power back. The way in which she needs to do it, unfortunately, and fortunately, is to even use her own daughter to do horrible things. She needs that power back.

What drew you to this character?

Kevin Williamson. It wasn’t just the character; it was the idea that he has got a great vision. This is the kind of character that could be a total moustache-twirling, evil, batty, but he brings a lot of dynamics to a character, and so I think it’s not going to be as one-dimensional as some of these kinds of things could be. Also, it’s really fun to be on a really young, hip, relevant [show]. It’s back in that place. It’s kind of fun.

It was really funny. My 13-year-old son was watching the pilot, and he was so funny. We were talking about Team Jacob and Team, uh, Edward on the Twilight series, talking about Twilight stuff, and he’s like “Mom! You’re Team Oldie on this show!” It was very funny, I have to admit. It was pretty cute.

Apparently us witches were having kids very, very young in the Circle. I need to mention that, and make sure you write about it, okay?

Is Dawn one of those characters that plays both sides to her advantage?

Yeah. I think she is the kind of character that – like I said before. She won’t do anything — I was really surprised to read the first script back up after the fact. She won’t do anything. She does have a bizarre moral compass. So she’ll do lots and lots of horrible things, like have Cassie’s mother killed… and even perhaps use her own daughter, but I think she thinks that’s for the greater good. She’ll do just about anything, but there is some sort of moral compass there, still.

Was she ever a good witch?

I don’t know. That’s a good question.

What is it like to work with Gale Harold and Ashley Crow as the other “grown-ups?”

Oh. Ashley is just amazing. I’m such a fan of hers. We just got close really quickly. I think she’s amazing. And Gale is – he’s a wonderful actor; an interesting, unusual man in person, and wonderful in his scenes. And he is a lovely guy. So it’s all good.

The Secret Circle premieres on Thursday, September 15, right after the season premiere of The Vampire Diaries! Visit our Secret Circle forum!