Famke Janssen
Famke Beumer Janssen is a Dutch actress, director, screenwriter, and former fashion model. She played Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye, Jean Grey / Phoenix in the X-Men film series, Ava Moore on Nip/Tuck, and Lenore Mills in the Taken film trilogy. In 2008, she was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for Integrity by the United Nations. She made her directorial debut with Bringing Up Bobby in 2011. She is also known for her role in the Netflix original series Hemlock Grove and for her role in ABC's How to Get Away with Murder. Janssen starred in the 2017 NBC crime thriller .
Early life and education
Famke Beumer Janssen was born in Amstelveen, the Netherlands. She has two sisters, director Antoinette Beumer and actress Marjolein Beumer, both of whom changed their surnames to Beumer after their parents divorced.In addition to her native Dutch, Janssen speaks English and French. She learned German, but has not kept up with it. Following her high school graduation, Janssen studied economics for a year at the University of Amsterdam, which she later called "the stupidest idea I ever had." In the early 1990s, she enrolled at Columbia University's School of General Studies to study creative writing and literature.
Career
Modelling and early 1990s
In 1984, Janssen moved to the United States to begin her professional career as a fashion model. She signed with Elite Model Management and worked for Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Chanel, and Victoria's Secret. She starred in a 1988 commercial for the perfume Exclamation by Coty, Inc. Her looks have been compared to Hedy Lamarr and other 1940s films stars.After retiring from modelling in the early 1990s, Janssen had guest roles on several television series, including a starring role in the 1992 ' episode "The Perfect Mate", as empathic metamorph Kamala, opposite Patrick Stewart, with whom she later starred in the X-Men film series. That same year, Janssen was offered the role of Jadzia Dax in ', but turned it down to pursue film roles. Her first film role was alongside Jeff Goldblum in the 1992 crime drama film Fathers & Sons.
1990s
In 1995, Janssen appeared in Pierce Brosnan's first James Bond film, GoldenEye, as femme fatale Xenia Onatopp. She appeared in Lord of Illusions with Scott Bakula. In an attempt to fight against typecasting after her Bond girl performance, Janssen began seeking out more intriguing support roles, appearing in John Irvin's City of Industry, Woody Allen's Celebrity, Robert Altman's The Gingerbread Man, and Ted Demme's Monument Ave. Denis Leary, her co-star in Monument Ave., was impressed by how easily she blended in, initially not recognizing her, as she was already in character. In the late 1990s, she appeared in The Faculty, Rounders, Deep Rising, and House on Haunted Hill.''X-Men'' films
In 2000, Janssen played superhero Dr. Jean Grey in the Marvel Studios film X-Men. She later reprised the role in the 2003 sequel, X2, where her character shows signs of increasing powers, but at the end of the film, she is presumably killed. Janssen returns as Jean, whose death in X2 awoke her dark alternate personality, Phoenix in '. For that role, she won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress. She returned as Jean in the 2013 film The Wolverine as a hallucination of Wolverine. In 2014, Janssen reprised her role of Jean Grey in a brief cameo for '.2002–present
In 2002, Janssen landed the role of villainess Serleena in Men in Black II, but had to abandon the film due to a death in her family and was replaced by Lara Flynn Boyle. Janssen had a prominent role in the second season of the TV series Nip/Tuck, as the seductive and manipulative life coach Ava Moore, which earned her Hollywood Life's Breakthrough Artist of the Year Award. She reprised her role in the final two episodes of the series.In 2007, she starred in Turn the River, for which she was awarded the Special Recognition Best Actress Award at the Hamptons International Film Festival. The following year, she starred in Luc Besson's Taken. Janssen continued to work in television, appearing in TV pilots for NBC's police drama Winters and Showtime's The Farm, a spinoff of The L Word set in a women's prison. Both pilots were rejected by their networks. Janssen provided the Dutch language narration for the Studio Tram Tour at all Disney theme parks.
In 2011, Janssen made her directorial debut with the drama Bringing Up Bobby. She wrote the screenplay to the film, which stars Milla Jovovich, Bill Pullman, and Marcia Cross. She reprised her role as Lenore Mills in Taken 2 and Taken 3. She starred as the main villain Muriel in '.
Janssen has starred in the Netflix original horror thriller television series Hemlock Grove since 2013, wherein she plays the role of family matriarch Olivia Godfrey. Janssen had a recurring role in the ABC crime thriller television series How To Get Away With Murder, appearing in 9 episodes throughout the series, beginning her role with season two of the show and concluding it until the series finale.
Janssen was cast in a starring role in the NBC crime thriller, ', a spin-off of the NBC series The Blacklist, in March 2016; it was picked up to series in May 2016. In 2019, she served as a juror for the Tribeca Film Festival.
Personal life and activism
Janssen was married to writer and director Kip Williams, son of architect Tod Williams, from 1995 to 2000.Janssen appeared with her dog, Licorice, a brindle Boston Terrier, in a 2007 PETA campaign to raise awareness for animal rights. The campaign used the slogan "Be an Angel for Animals." On 28 January 2008, she was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for Integrity for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime at a United Nations anticorruption conference held in Nusa Dua, Bali.
In 2016, Janssen showed frustration in not being cast in the new X-Men movie , saying Hollywood was sexist towards older women. She said, "Women, it's interesting because they're replaced, and the older versions are never to be seen again... whereas the men are allowed to be both ages."
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1992 | Fathers & Sons | Kyle Christian | |
| 1994 | ' | Dr. Sara Lee Jaffee | Direct-to-video film |
| 1995 | Lord of Illusions | Dorothea Swann | |
| 1995 | GoldenEye | Xenia Onatopp | |
| 1996 | Dead Girl | Treasure | |
| 1997 | City of Industry | Rachel Montana | |
| 1998 | Monument Ave. | Katy O'Connor | |
| 1998 | ' | Leeanne Magruder | |
| 1998 | Deep Rising | Trillian St. James | |
| 1998 | RPM | Claudia Haggs | |
| 1998 | Rounders | Petra | |
| 1998 | Celebrity | Bonnie | |
| 1998 | ' | Fiona | |
| 1998 | ' | Miss Elizabeth Burke | |
| 1999 | House on Haunted Hill | Evelyn Stockard-Price | |
| 2000 | Love & Sex | Kate Welles | |
| 2000 | Circus | Lily Garfield | |
| 2000 | X-Men | Jean Grey | |
| 2001 | Made | Jessica | |
| 2001 | Don't Say a Word | Agatha "Aggie" Conrad | |
| 2002 | I Spy | Rachel Wright | |
| 2003 | X2 | Jean Grey | |
| 2004 | Eulogy | Judy Arnolds | |
| 2005 | Hide and Seek | Dr. Katherine Carson | |
| 2006 | ' | Jean Grey / Phoenix | |
| 2006 | ' | Allegra Marshall | |
| 2007 | ' | Gretchen Reigert | |
| 2007 | Turn the River | Kailey Sullivan | |
| 2008 | ' | Kristen Squires | |
| 2008 | Taken | Lenore "Lenny" Mills | |
| 2008 | 100 Feet | Marnie Watson | Direct-to-video film |
| 2010 | The Chameleon | Jennifer Johnson | Direct-to-video film |
| 2011 | Down the Shore | Mary Reed | |
| 2012 | Taken 2 | Lenore "Lenny" Mills | |
| 2013 | ' | Muriel | |
| 2013 | The Wolverine | Jean Grey | |
| 2013 | The Being Experience | Originally titled In the Woods | |
| 2014 | A Fighting Man | Diane Schuler | Direct-to-video film |
| 2014 | Unity | Narrator | Documentary |
| 2014 | ' | Jean Grey | Cameo |
| 2014 | Taken 3 | Lenore "Lenny" Mills | |
| 2015 | Jack of the Red Hearts | Kay | |
| 2017 | The Show | Ilana Katz | |
| 2017 | All I Wish | Vanessa | |
| 2017 | Once Upon a Time in Venice | Katey Ford | |
| 2018 | Status Update | Katherine Alden | |
| 2018 | Bayou Caviar | Nic | Originally titled Louisiana Caviar |
| 2018 | Asher | Sophie | |
| 2019 | The Poison Rose | Jayne Hunt | |
| 2019 | Primal | Dr. Ellen Taylor | |
| 2020 | The Postcard Killings | Valerie Kanon | |
| Endless | Post production | ||
| Redeeming Love |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1992 | ' | Kamala | Episode: "The Perfect Mate" |
| 1994 | Melrose Place | Diane Adamson | Episode: "Michael's Game" |
| 1994 | Model by Day | Lex / Lady X | Television film |
| 1994 | ' | Cleo | Episode: "Voyeur" |
| 2000–2001 | Ally McBeal | Jamie | Episodes: "The Man with the Bag", "The Ex-Files" |
| 2004–2010 | Nip/Tuck | Ava Moore | Recurring role, 11 episodes |
| 2007 | Winters | Christie Winters | Television film |
| 2008 | Puppy Love | Maya | Web series |
| 2009 | ' | Valentina Galindo | Television film |
| 2013–2015 | Hemlock Grove | Olivia Godfrey | Main role |
| 2015–2020 | How to Get Away with Murder | Eve Rothlow | Recurring role, 9 episodes |
| 2015 | SuperMansion | Frau Mantis | Voice role; 2 episodes |
| 2016 | Robot Chicken | Jean Grey | Voice role; episode: "Joel Hurwitz" |
| 2016–2018 | The Blacklist | Susan Hargrave | Recurring role, 5 episodes |
| 2017 | ' | Susan Hargrave | Main role |
| 2019 | When They See Us | Nancy Ryan | Netflix miniseries; 2 episodes |
| 2019 | The Capture | Jessica Mallory | BBC series; 1 episode |
As director
- Bringing Up Bobby, as director, producer, writer
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Nominated Work | Results | |
| 1995 | MTV Movie Award for Best Fight | GoldenEye | ||
| 1999 | Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actress – Horror | House on Haunted Hill | ||
| 2000 | Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actress – Science Fiction | X-Men | ||
| 2006 | Teen Choice Award for Choice Liplock | ' | ||
| 2007 | Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress | ' | ||
| 2007 | Hamptons International Film Festival for Special Recognition | Turn the River | ||
| 2007 | Hamptons International Film Festival for Special Prize | Turn the River | ||
| 2016 | Gold Derby TV Award for Drama Guest Actress | How to Get Away with Murder |