Change of Character for Henriksen

Poor Lance Henriksen. He’s champing at the bit to do a comedy or even play a romantic lead.

“I want to play D’Artagnan,� says Henriksen. But so far these roles have eluded the actor, best known as the benevolent android Bishop in “Aliens� and astronaut Wally Schirra in “The Right Stuff.�

“They (casting agents and producers) get scared (of) me in meetings,� he says sheepishly. “I don’t know why. I guess they are looking at something I am not seeing.�

Henriksen adds with a chuckle: “I did play a loving father in ‘Pumpkinhead’ and a loving leader of a vampire group in ‘Near Dark.’ But no one has been able to type me at all.�

This is big week for Henriksen. His latest feature film, “Stone Cold,� opened Friday. In the action flick, he plays Chains Cooper, the evil leader of an outlaw biker gang.

“It’s really an original film,� Henriksen says. “The bad guy doesn’t get stopped by the hero (Brian Bosworth). He actually does what he sets out to do.�

On Monday, a kinder, gentler Henriksen stars opposite Jill Clayburgh in NBC’s movie, “Reason for Living: The Jill Ireland Story.�

Although Ireland, who lost her long battle with cancer last year, was married to actor Charles Bronson, Henriksen says his character is referred to in the film simply as “Charlie� for legal reasons.

“But it doesn’t take much imagination to guess who I am,� Henriksen says. “He’s a man desperately in love with his wife and his family and would do anything to keep sanity flowing.�

Henriksen relished “showing a side of me I don’t often get to show.�

But he did have one problem during the production: “I thought I would get fired every day. That’s how I felt through the whole thing because I heard rumblings of controversy and they (the producers and director) never filled me in on what it was.�