h Magazine - Behind The 8-Ball with Famke Janssen

Behind The 8 Ball with
Famke Janssen

words by Devoe Yates, photos by Robert Todd Williamson

You’re probably most familiar with Famke Janssen (pronounced Fam-kuh Yan-ssen), as the evil Bond lass, Dr. Ontoppa, who crushed men to death with the strength of her wondrous thighs in 1995’s GoldenEye or as the sultry and telepathic Jean Grey from the X-Men films. But it would seem that this model turned actress has more to offer than strange powers and highly-arousing good looks.
In her latest film, Turn the River, she’s out to strut her acting chops and dirty up her image a bit. The film, which opens on May 9th, is the heartbreaking tale of a down and out booze-swilling pool hustler who’s out to steal back her son from his abusive father. At times warming, witty, and alternately dark and saddening, it’s the film that won her the Best Actress award at the 2007 Hamptons Film Festival and the respect of many a dubious critic. Over the h hotline, she recently gave us some insight into her latest foray.

h: Your cast-mate from 2006’s The Treatment, Chris Eigeman, wrote (and directed) Turn The River as an acting vehicle for you. Did you guys discuss working together while you were filming The Treatment?
Famke: Chris and I became really good friends while we were making The Treatment; we stayed in touch and went to dinner quite a bit. He may have said that he was writing something, but he never mentioned that it was for me, and I never would’ve presumed such a thing. So when he finished it, he handed it to me one night at Nobu, going, “Here, this is for you.” And I read it and I thought ‘Wow, why would you think of me?’ It was the greatest part, and it had absolutely nothing to do with me obviously.

h: So, you don’t ever gamble?
Famke: Never. (A weird munching noise is heard).
h: But you must play some pool once in awhile?
Famke: Well, that was the challenge because I’m not a pool player and we were so low-budget that we had to make everything work in a take or two. When Chris and I talked about it, it was extremely important to both of us that I made my own shots in the film, so over the course of a month or two I was trained by the guy in the movie who plays Duncan, his name is John Chuback. It was a bit of a crash course. But the film couldn’t have worked if I didn’t pull it off right because that’s really what the film’s about.

h: Your character in the film has had some pretty long nights, how did you go about making yourself look rough around the edges?
Famke: For me, knowing what I know about how people seem to perceive me, it was extremely important that I look as crappy as I could. So I wore a little rug, a little hair piece. The bottom of the hair is my own hair and the top is another piece, so that just made it look extra weird and crappy. Additionally, there was no make-up, just dark circles under my eyes. (munching noises again).

h: Did you still take showers?
Famke: (Laughs) I did shower, but we were shooting mid-summer in New York in pool halls that had no air-conditioning. It was about 110 degrees inside, so it wasn’t hard to achieve the disgusting sweaty look.
h: How was it winning the Best Actress Award at the Hamptons Film Festival?
Famke: That was great because they don’t even have actor awards at the festival! I was keeping my fingers crossed for our film and for Chris, but the jury ended up creating this special award for me, it was extremely flattering and totally unexpected.

h: Did you watch the film with the audience there?
Famke: I sat through one of the screenings, but it’s nerve-wracking for me. I get petrified. I do it once and then I move on (more munching noises).

h: So you don’t watch old movies that you’ve been in?
Famke: No, never!

h: What was your first acting experience?
Famke: Well, it was actually the first movie I was in, Fathers and Sons with Jeff Goldblum, Michael Imperioli, and Rosanna Arquette and…oh God…I can’t remember his name. This is terrible. Maybe it’s because I’m eating licorice right now.

h: Isn’t that the name of your dog?
Famke: (Laughs) Yes. And it’s also what I’m eating right now. I try not to eat licorice anymore because it’s so addictive and not that great for you, but I just saw my family in Paris and they brought me licorice and now I’m eating it and it’s affecting my brain.

h: What kind of licorice is it?
Famke: I like the sweet and soft ones. I try not to eat it all in one sitting except I can’t help myself and I just gorge and…Samuel Jackson – ha! I couldn’t remember his name. Whew. Jesus. Where were we?

h: Fathers and Sons?
Famke: Right. So, that was my first movie and I was so excited that I would end up ruining takes. We were shooting this scene where I’m saying goodbye to the Jeff Goldblum character and I go around the corner and I just wanted to jump up and down, and I think I did, going, ‘I can’t believe this is so much fun!’ and I ran back into the scene which was still filming. My excitement sort of just took over for a second. (laughs) I still feel excited about it, but now I know better than to walk into a scene.

h: So, you’ve come a long way since then?
Famke: I think, relatively speaking; I get to do my better work now, at this age, than I did earlier on. From the beginning, what I fought really hard to get were different types of characters to play so that I wouldn’t be typecast, even though I’ve had to play a lot of smaller supporting parts to do so. If your career and the parts you play are based only your looks, then once your looks go, everything else goes too.

h: Is it hard finding those interesting roles as you get older?
Famke: Well, I think there’s a shortage of great female parts, period. For any age, at this point. If you compare films today to films of the 20’s and 30’s, my favorite time in film, they’re all female driven movies and they were all billed before men! That doesn’t exist anymore.

h: Who’s your favorite actress from that time period?
Famke: Irene Dunne, particularly in The Awful Truth and My Favorite Wife, two movies she did with Cary Grant, she has such great comic timing.

h: Do you think the resurgence of iconic leading-ladies will happen again?
Famke: If I have my way and I run this business, it will (laughs).

Purple dress by Lanvin, shoes by Manolo Blahnik, diamonds and madeira citrine cuff by Moritz Glik, rose quartz pendant with 14k cluster on a silk cord by Mizuki

Blue dress by Lanvin; shoes by Marc Jacobs; diamonds, gold and gray moonstone ring by Moritz Glik; diamond, gold and crystal necklace by Moritz Glik

One shoulder blue dress with black strap by Monique Llulhier; shoes by Christian Loboutin; bracelet by Moritz Glik; chain used as bracelet by Gara Danielle

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