interview Famke Janssen
chatted with Nathaniel R on April 25th, 2008 @ Keystone Cinemas
Famke
Janssen on Turn the River and her filmography |
There's plenty of high speed big thrill activity now playing at the multiplex but if you want an actress to get your heart racing this summer, you're going to have to look for counter-programming. Look no further than Famke Janssen's film elevating, career expanding work in Chris Eigeman's directorial debut Turn the River. The year is young but Janssen's work is arguably the best lead performance so far this year. The low key drama about a pool shark playing high stakes life games, opens in limited release May 9th. Janssen plays Kailey, an estranged mom looking to make a risky break for Canada with her son (wonderfully played by Jaymie Dorman) in tow. The trouble is this: she doesn't have custody, not even have visitation rights. But Kailey isn't the sort of woman to think too far beyond the current game and what balls (and bills) she's pocketing.
I had a chance to sit down with the actress (still best known for glamazon spins in action films like GoldenEye and the X-Men franchise though the career holds more variety than that) at the Indianapolis International Film Festival recently. She had just completed a Q & A with an audience who were clearly fond of her frazzled character work in Turn the River. We sat in the corner of a noisy nearby lounge to talk. Though interrupted frequently by well wishers and festival goers, the actress was patient, frank and generous with her time.
Her director Chris Eigeman, the charming actor you'll remember for those 90s Whit Stillman films (Metropolitan, Barcelona, The Last Days of Disco) also stopped by for a brief chat and very welcome compliments about the Film Experience blog. All in all, the night was the highlight of the festival. [Please Note: What follows is the actual conversation with Famke only, minus personal asides with minor edits for clarity, big spoilers or omissions due to noise levels on the recording.]
NATHANIEL R: First of all, I thought you were great in Turn the River.
FAMKE JANNSEN: Thank you.
NATHANIEL: One of the Q & A questions –usually in Q & As the questions can be kind of strange but I thought the question posed about the gender and sexuality of the character was great. [An audience member had asked about how desexualized the character was]
FAMKE: I thought so, too.
NATHANIEL: One thing –one scene that I really loved was when you invited yourself into the pool game between the men and the women.
[In the scene in question, Kailey hustles her way into a game between two cocky men and two girlfriends, ostensibly to make money but also, it seems, to humiliate the men.]
FAMKE: mm-hmm.
NATHANIEL: To me that was sort of an inversion of the sexuality. You said she wasn’t using her sexuality but it’s... It’s almost like there was anger. It wasn’t necessarily on the page. It felt like an actorly choice.
FAMKE: Yes. It was because of what had happened right before that with Quinette, Quinette [Rip Torn’s plays Hailey's friend, a pool hall manager] having used her for a game. Her knowing that she needs to raise money. Then finding out from the Terry Kinney character how much it’s going to cost to get passports for both of them. Being on a real mission with a lot of anger and frustration over, you know, ‘I’m going to get money and I’m going to raise it my own way’
NATHANIEL: right.
FAMKE: Even if its $100 and I get it from a bunch of yuppies in a place. You know, she just has her own way of doing things, Kailey. When you play a character you just fall in love with the character you’re going to play despite their flaws –probably because of their flaws. And she has lots of flaws. She’s very human. She makes terrible decisions and terrible choices all the time.
Famke as Kailey Sullivan in Turn the River
NATHANIEL: Speaking of character choices… you can correct me if you feel I’m way off base here. I felt you were –I felt a hint of something in the character that wasn’t necessarily in the script. I felt she was excited about the games… in terms of addiction. A gambling addiction?FAMKE: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.
NATHANIEL: That’s not explicit in the film. But I really felt within your performance that that was your idea about her. Can you expound on that a little.
FAMKE: I just think that if you were --I felt if you were in any of those types of fields of… whatever you want to call it, you know, playing poker or pool. I think there has to be that sort of element of addiction. It needs to be part of it. It needs to be something that you do it –- sure, maybe she does it in part for the money --but, really, the thrill of it is the most important part of it.
NATHANIEL: It came through loud and clear to me that even if she had the money and things were successful she'd continue… I applaud you on that. I’ve known people in 12 step programs and that felt like a real choice...
FAMKE: She’s hooked. I mean, yeah. Like an addict I think she makes really bad decisions when it comes to –I mean every part of her life, really --whenever she’s at a pool table…
She’s extremely good at what she does but she shouldn’t have hustled those guys. In that bar. With those girls there at that moment. It was going to end badly. People make really bad decisions when they need something, when they need a fix of some sort.
NATHANIEL: Right.
FAMKE: And that’s who she is.
NATHANIEL: That’s my favorite part of the performance. I really felt that coming through. You knew that even if she got to Canada, there would still be more.
FAMKE: Oh, it’s never -- her decisions have been bad from even before the movie started: clearly when she has an affair with the guy in the seminary she gets pregnant by a guy who is supposed to become a priest!
NATHANIEL: Right.
FAMKE: I mean, can we talk about bad decisions? That’s not -- that’s not a good one to make.
NATHANIEL: (laughter) True.
FAMKE: [edited out lots of spoilers] Every decision, every step along the way it’s a bad decision. And that continues, that trend continues throughout the film.
NATHANIEL: Terrible choices.
FAMKE: I know but we love her. She’s… it’s coming from a good place but the decisions are not smart. The decisions are not helping her, they’re hurting her.
NATHANIEL: Clearly you were carrying the film. It’s about your character but the cast was very good as well. Matt Ross is one of my favorite character actors so I was excited to see him.
FAMKE: Yeah, he’s great.
NATHANIEL: Now with –you had acted with Chris Eigeman [Writer/Director of Turn the River] before this, right?
FAMKE: Yes in The Treatment.
NATHANIEL: So how was to move to him being your director?
Next Page
Famke Janssen on working with Chris Eigeman, her deglamming career move, and why she hasn't yet worked in Dutch cinema...
