I had a moment of panic as I walked into the room with Famke Jannsen on the recent press day I attended for “The Wolverine” in New York. I have spent much of the past fifteen years referring to her in print as “The Dutch Treat,” and as long as I am just a faceless person on the Internet, I can enjoy a silly way of acknowledging that she has always been a strikingly lovely and intriguing performer.
But I’ve had several moments recently where I had a conversation with someone and realized that they’ve read the site and that, more specifically, they’ve read things I’ve written about them. I am always pleased to hear that and happy to then dig into the conversation afterwards, but in Jansen’s case, I had a sort of mini panic attack because I have no idea what she’d think about that nickname, and since she is seven feet tall when wearing big crazy high fashion heels, as she was that day, I was pretty sure she could kick my ass easily if she didn’t like the joke.
Thankfully, Jannsen seemed to in a great mood. It helps sometimes when you’re the last person scheduled for an interview that day, because you walk in and they’re in this sudden great mood because someone just told them this is the last one. They get that one last blast of energy, but by that point, they’re sort of punchy, and that can be the perfect condition to be in for an interview. It also might help that I was a bit punchy myself because of the travel I had just done.
Whatever the case, talking to her about this particular film should be a difficult thing because I don’t want to give away too much of what she does in it, but I also wanted to really discuss it as a choice. If you don’t want to know how she fits into the film, bookmark this page and then come back to it once the film is out next weekend. If you aren’t afraid of a tiny bit of spoiling, then you might enjoy our conversation here.
When we talked about how this builds off of the ending of “X-Men: The Last Stand,” it came through clearly that she was frustrated by that film and by the way it wrapped up a storyline in which she was the focal point. We talked a bit about how this film redeems some of that one, and it felt like things wrapped up very quickly. Once the cameras were off, we talked about the film’s biggest surprise, and then they told her she was done for the day. Considering the last few films in the series, it was great to talk to her about the way the series seems to be rebounding now.
See for yourself when “The Wolverine” opens everywhere July 26, 2013.