Sci-Fi Star's Career Blasts Off

With a resum&#233 resembling an X-File — she was a cult disciple on Melrose Place and a lady killer on Profiler, and currently can be seen as an alien hunter on the Sci Fi Channel series First Wave — Traci Elizabeth Lords easily could get pigeonholed as a poster girl for Fangoria geeks. But, as if to prove that she doesn't give a damn, she just agreed to appear in the sequel to Wesley Snipes's vampire-slayer movie Blade as the evil twin of the blood-sucker she played (and he staked) in the original.

"I've always been a fan of sci-fi," she tells TV Guide Online, "and I've done a lot of it. Some of the best roles for women are in [that genre]."

Unfortunately for Lords, she can't nail down every juicy part that comes up. For instance, as much as she would've liked to get cast as Lara Croft in the upcoming Tomb Raider feature, Angelina Jolie won that gig. "There was talk way at the beginning [about me doing it]," she admits, "but I was not considered studio A-list enough."

Still, Lords isn't pointing a phaser at her head over being denied the opportunity to embody the video-game vixen — instead, she's channeling her favorite superbabes into her First Wave alter ego, militia leader Jordan Radcliffe. "She's got a little taste of Linda Hamilton from Terminator in her, and a little Sigourney Weaver in Aliens," she teases. "And she might even have a little Lara Croft in her."