Famke Janssen
Interview By: Jeremy Holt
JeremyHolt@TheCinemaSource.com
With the release of GoldenEye in 1995, a relatively unknown actress, Famke Janssen, caught our attention and revitalized the James Bond series with her stand out performance as Xena Onatopp. Having the pressures of portraying a Bond Girl and the stigma that seems to linger with previous ones in the past, noteworthy performances in such underrated films as Love and Sex and Eulogy, proved that Janssen is much more than a femme fatale with a provocative name. Her TV debut on the hit show Nip/Tuck exposed a complex and versatile actress, only advancing her career and securing a spot as one of Hollywood's up and coming actresses.
Demonstrating her ability to portray the physically lethal in GoldenEye and the emotionally twisted in Love and Sex and Nip/Tuck, Famke Janssen was a natural choice to cast in the role of Dr. Jean Grey, a beloved character from the Uncanny X-Men comic book series. Helmed by acclaimed director Bryan Singer, the mastermind behind The Usual Suspects, X-Men premiered during the summer of 2000. It was then that America got to witness Dr. Jean Grey come to life on the silver screen. Janssen not only looked the part of a highly intelligent woman with hidden telekinetic powers, but also stayed true to the character by presenting a self-conflicted woman, one on the brim of an unspeakable transformation.
The highly anticipated sequel that was released during the summer of 2003 marked an important chapter for the character of Jean Grey. Continuing to remain faithful to the comic book and pleasing millions of fans, Bryan Singer returned to take Jean Grey's storyline even further, as he exposed her on going inner-turmoil and selfless compassion that has made the character an integral part of the series. Janssen's enigmatic performance in X2 was both captivating and memorable, as the last scene of the film subtly suggested the birth of The Phoenix, Grey's sinister alter-persona.
Famke Janssen was kind enough to sit down with us to discuss her highly anticipated reoccurring role as Dr. Jean Grey inX-Men: The Last Stand. 'Well the interesting thing about that (playing Jean Grey) was that it wasn't just purely playing somebody who was extremely powerful, it was somebody very tormented by her powers still. Trying to control them in one moment and then the powers taking over. So I began virtually playing a schizophrenic character which, you know, is the exciting part as an actor to do that.' Explains Janssen. As for whether or not she was aware of her characters massive transformation, she responded by saying, 'No, I knew about the Phoenix. I knew what the Phoenix was going to be like. I wasn't sure entirely how they going to put her on the page this time but I knew of the storyline. She is the most powerful mutant. So that part I knew. ' She wasn't aware of every detail though. 'The fact that they made her this conflicted, I didn't know. We worked on that a bunch because we wanted to make sure it was believable and it went with how we saw the character in the comics.'
Creating such a memorable character as Xena Onatopp naturally stirred inquisitive reactions in the interview, due to a few scenes displaying remnants of her unforgettable role as the Russian assassin. 'You know what, I didn't really think about it but now that you mentioning it, I can understand that. I think that probably if we analyze every movie I've been in, there are going to be things that run parallel or whatever. But yeah, I didn't actually strangle Hugh [Jackman] with my legs in this one.' As for getting back into the role as Jean Grey, Janssen explains that retaining specific emotional responses for certain scenes was challenging. 'It seems hard, it seems hard to shoot. And the hard part that makes these scenes so difficult to make, especially when you have to play emotional scenes is that they're dragged out over a week sometimes. Where as in an independent film, that scene would take half a day to shoot and you can keep your emotional intensity for exactly the amount of time it takes to shoot. But in this case the scene when Patrick [Stewart] and Ian's [McKellen] characters come to my house, where I'm sitting there. It took a week to shoot that scene because we were inside the house, there were walls that were shaking, things blown out, things that were flying around and every single time we had to play that scene with a different background or you know, different things had happened to make the transition, it's just really difficult as an actor to keep the same exact emotional intensity and then throw it out over a week.'
As for the long shooting days Janssen elaborated by saying, 'For some reason all of my close-ups ended up at three or four o'clock in the morning. Lucky me. [Laughs] So it was a challenging experience.' Due to the film's content, the use of computer-generated imagery (C.G.I.) was heavily employed, so the challenge of performing in non-existent environments, as wild as it sounds, offered Janssen to imagine the scene in her own mind. 'Most of it I had a sense of it because the infirmary scene was basically as was, things were shaking around so there wasn't so much added there. They did have a stunt double for Hugh [Jackman] flying against the wall and when that happened I remember going, 'Oh my god that's crazy!' The way it looks in the movie, it looked like that when I was sitting there. The way he got you know, I supposedly threw him up against that wall.' In her opinion the only scenes that were dramatically different in her mind was during the end of the film. 'The biggest change or dramatic difference was the finale of the movie because we were standing there, we were outside, we were just against a green screen. So certain things like cars being upside down were there, but some of the big stuff wasn't.'
Whether or not it was challenging to recall the specific emotions we've witnessed Jean Grey experience, Janssen explains her experience of viewing her performances from an emotional standpoint. 'I find that when I watch movies that I'm in where I've played emotional moments, I just watch and remember what I was playing, what I used or whatever. So it is a little bit difficult to watch things sometimes because I will still feel those things as I'm watching it.'
With hundreds of millions of dollars that have been grossed by this wildly successful franchise, we were curious to know life after becoming a superhero. 'You know what' I'm so lucky and blessed I get to live a completely anonymous life, basically. I walk down the street and sometimes kids go, 'Hey Jean!' or 'Jean Grey! I can't believe you're coming back.' Generally around the release of these movies it gets a little bit more but I live here in New York and I can go anywhere I want to. Its fantastic, I don't want that to change. I'm very happy with that.' We couldn't be happier ourselves Famke.
