CANNES, France – Sweet, sensitive Claire Danes from television’s "My So-Called Life" fighting deadly killing machines out to destroy humanity?

Danes, who shot to fame with the 1990s series about an angst-ridden teen, is taking her first step into action flicks with "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines."

Danes accompanied star Arnold Schwarzenegger and other cast members to the Cannes Film Festival to promote the movie, which opens July 2.

"It wasn’t like I was itching to do an action movie," Danes told The Associated Press on Saturday.

"But this is such a great franchise, if I was going to do an action movie, I couldn’t really do better than ‘Terminator,’" said Danes, whose film career has centered on quieter, character-driven films like "The Hours."

In the upcoming movie, Danes plays a woman who teams up with Schwarzenegger’s cyborg to fight a female terminator.