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Famke Janssen Decries 'Bond Girl' Label, Says GoldenEye Role Nearly Pigeonholed Her

She says she reshaped Xenia Onatopp through improvisation to keep the part from defining her.

Overview

  • In a new interview cited by multiple outlets, Janssen says the 'Bond Girl' title was demeaning and she initially hesitated to take GoldenEye.
  • She explains that she improvised Xenia Onatopp’s heightened, pleasure-in-violence persona to make the character memorable, noting the approach could have failed.
  • After the film, she says she was offered mostly narrow roles—“any woman with a gun”—and chose lower-profile projects to avoid typecasting.
  • Her career choices moved from independent films like City of Industry and The Gingerbread Man to later turns in the X‑Men and Taken franchises.
  • She is now starring in Netflix’s Amsterdam Empire, which reports describe as her first screen role performed entirely in Dutch.