Famke Janssen
What has Famke Janssen been doing since leaving “Nip/Tuck”?
—Corbin Deutsch, New Britain, Conn.
Janssen, 47, is currently starring in the new Netflix supernatural series “Hemlock Grove.” It is the first series the Netherlands native has done since leaving “Nip/Tuck,” but she has been working making movies, including “The Wolverine,” “The Being Experience,” “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters,” “Taken 2,” “Down the Shore,” “The Chameleon” and “Bringing Up Bobby,” which she wrote, directed and produced.
Janssen says she agreed to play Olivia Godfrey on the 13-episode series, which could get picked up for additional seasons, after reading the script. She thought, “This is somebody who I could see growing into, but then, of course, you never know until it becomes something. I haven’t done much television. I come from mostly having done films, where you read a script, your character has an arc, and you know where it’s going.”
What was worrisome for her was the thought that the producers of “Hemlock Grove” wanted her for the role because they were looking for a character similar to the one she played—life coach Ava Moore—on “Nip/Tuck.”
“That was a fascinating role,” she says, “but when I first read this I said to the guys involved that I did not want to repeat anything I’d done on ‘Nip/Tuck.’ If that’s where they wanted to take any direction similar to, I wasn’t interested. It’s never fun to repeat yourself.”
Janssen is best known for her role as Jean Grey in the “X-Men” series of films and her introduction to worldwide audiences as Bond Girl Xenia Onatopp in “GoldenEye.”
