Role call
There’s no denying it:Martin Hendersonoften ends up with the ladies.
“It’s been really nice, the response to the show,” he tells EW.
“It’s such a cultural phenomenon.”
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Here, the 46-year-old New Zealand native looks back on his lifetime of playing the really good guys.
“It was a very short little stint on the show,” he says.
I came on to marryIsla Fisher’s character [Shannon Reed], if memory serves me right."
“I didn’t even meet the director, Gore Verbinski, until I arrived on set.
He just saw my tape and liked it, I guess.
It was kind of one of the most seamless audition processes I’ve ever encountered.”
Merrick Morton/Dreamworks
“It exceeded everyone’s expectations.
It’s become a classic,” he recalls.
“It definitely put me on people’s radars.
Britney Spears/YouTube
Prior to that, I was still sort of running around town, desperately trying to get jobs.”
It all had to do with his appearance inTorque, a 2004 action-comedy that’s likeFast and Furiouson motorcycles.
“It was a very last-minute thing,” remembers Henderson.
Jaimie Trueblood/Universal
He was Britney’s guy.
I think they did a little MTV, making-of-the-video-throw in thing.
So it was purely cross-promotion because Joseph went back to direct that for her.
MARIO PEREZ/ABC
No one believes me, but I never got paid for that."
“My stuff was mainly with Chris Pine, whose career was just starting,” Henderson says.
“I remember meetingAlicia Keys,Taraji P. Henson… it was just fun, cool.
And to work with Joe Carnahan, who’s one of the coolest directors?
He’d pump music on the set.
It’s just a really fun way to work.”
Universal Pictures
So already you have a bunch of people that are looking for some kind of excitement.
It ceased to become something that was a little more politically relevant and thought-provoking.
I don’t think it ever got a chance to be what was supposed to be."
Mitch Haaseth/ABC via Getty Images
“I was in the States when I got this,” he says.
It was really juicy fun, a fun thriller with a brilliant twist."
Everest(2015)
Spoiler alert!
Jack Sheridan (Martin Henderson) and Melinda Monroe (Alexandra Breckenridge) on ‘Virgin River’ season 2.NETFLIX
But boy, did he have fun playing an experienced (but ultimately luckless) climber.
“We got to shoot in Kathmandu and the foothills of the Himalayas,” he recalls.
Severe storms came through and made filming extremely challenging.
Those kinds of things bond you, in a way.
Coming back from a 10-, 12-, 14-hour day, you’re freezing cold.
But the director’s urging you forward and everybody’s in it together.
It’s just an extremely bonding experience that I’ve never had on a film before."
“It wasn’t lost on me that they were extremely big shoes to fill,” he says.
He adds, “My commitment to the show was always a shorter-term thing.
I didn’t sign a multiyear deal.
When I read this, I thought it would be quite nice to just play someone who is wholesome.
People do still want some goodness.
It feels like an honor to be bringing that to people’s homes right now.”
