Famke Janssen
Interview By: Dan Deevy
DanDeevy@TheCinemaSource.com
Defying the stereo type is pretty much what Famke Janssen has been doing since the beginning of her career. Never satisfied with being labeled as one of the ‘pretty’ girls, she was always on the look out for non-glamour projects that could really showcase her talent as an actress not just another pretty face on a perfect body.
Last year Janssen starred opposite Chris Eigeman in the indie feature film, The Treatment; which walked away from the Tribeca Film Festival having won the award for ‘Best Made in New York Narrative Feature.’ In addition to the award and the accolades, the film also brought a new wonderful friendship into her life that eventually led to her starring role in Turn the River.
“Chris [Eigeman] and I became really good friends on The Treatment,’ she begins. ‘It was great. We just got along really well and had a good chemistry. Then he went on to write this thing and I guess he wrote it with me in mind and presented it to me one night at Nobu; a very different setting than the grittiness of the movie where it takes place,’ she chuckles. ‘And he said this is for you. So I read it and thought it was fantastic. I mean it’s great to be offered a lead in a film especially as a woman. Especially women as we get older the parts become more scarce, and it’s such a great part! It’s gritty and dirty and complicated and fantastic! I’m very happy with it.”
One of the main character points for Famke’s Kailey is that she is one of the most talented pool players around, so naturally she had to spend a lot of time learning the ins and outs of shooting pool. But now that filming is finished, the actress finds that in her real life she’s actually scared to play!
“I’m now intimidated by pool,” she admits. “I had this moment while we were shooting where for whatever reason, it sounds so hokey I really don’t even like to say it but it was almost as if I channeled the character and the pool part of it. I had a pool instructor who taught me how to play pool for the part but some of the shots I have to make in the film are even by the pros standards really difficult shots that you can’t just make on command every single time. I mean you try, but one of the guys who tried to make the last shot that I make in the film, he was about a half a foot off of where he was supposed to be and I made it in the first take when we set up for it.”
It turns out that this burst of luck was beneficial not just for her, but for the entire shooting of the film as a whole.
“We didn’t have much
