Famke Janssen: Nobody's Sidekick
It has been a good summer for actress Famke Janssen. She was one of the stars of X-Men, and she also has had her first leading role in the new comedy Love & Sex.
She plays Kate Wells, a journalist who is trying to figure out her own love life as she writes an article about relationships. Throughout her life, she has had nothing but imperfect relationships, and the move flashes back to show her at age 10.
"And then it bumps up to 17 and I start playing my own 17-year-old with braces," says Janssen, "and it goes through the current day romance with Jon Favreau's character, Adam."
In the movie, Kate Wells learns a lot about herself through the men she dates.
"Every person who watches the movie will probably find things that they have experienced in their lives, because it just deals with relationships…the terrible parts of then, funny parts of them," says Janssen.
There are times in the film when her character is a mess, and Janssen says it was surprisingly easy for her to keep that up.
"We had 21 days to shoot the film," she recalls. "I felt like a mess during the production -- running to the makeup trailer, doing makeup changes because I go through so many different changes in the film. We didn't have that much time to shoot it. I always felt like I was running behind."
A former model from Holland, Janssen did take a role in the James Bond film GoldenEye. But she since has made a decision to steer away from glamorous acting roles.
"Longevity is what I'm going after here," she explains. "I want to make sure I have a career for a long time, because I love what I do, and I didn't want to be the person who appears as somebody's sidekick in a film or somebody's wife or girlfriend."
She studied economics and literature in college. But she is finding her greatest fulfillment in her work.
"I love acting, and I think that it's sort of a combination of every single aspect of life that I love," she explains. "I think there is literature in it…. It's creative. There is no doubt about that. I love the fact that you work with a large group of people who all come from various backgrounds… It's a great character study, in general. It's a very fun life. And you never know what's going to happen from day to day."
| FAST FACTS ABOUT FAMKE JANSSEN |
- Janssen was born Jan. 1, 1964, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
- The actress, raised in The Netherlands, moved to the United States in 1987.
- Janssen started working as a model in Holland and eventually began working for top designers. At age 25, Chanel brought her to New York, and she decided to stay.
- She atteded University of Amsterdam, majoring in economics. She later attended Columbia University, where she received an master's degree in literature and took up acting.
- Her first TV role was on an episode of the Fox nighttime soap Melrose Place.
- Janssen's first film role was in the little-known 1992 film Fathers and Sons.
- Her breakthrough role came in 1995 when she played the villainous ex-Soviet fighter pilot Xenia Onatopp, who crushed men to death with her thighs, in the James Bond film GoldenEye.
- After that, steering clear of mere glamour roles, Janssen chose characters that stretched her acting muscle.
- In 1996 alone, she appeared in six films, and critics marveled at her uncanny ability to imitate accents.
| FILMOGRAPHY |
- Model by Day (1994)
- Lord of Illusions (1995)
- GoldenEye (1995)
- City of Industry (1997)
- The Gingerbread Man (1998)
- Rounders (1998)
- Monument Ave. (1998)
- The Faculty (1998)
- Deep Rising (1998)
- Celebrity (1998)
- The House on Haunted Hill (1999)
- X-Men (2000)
- Love & Sex (2000)
- Circus (2000)