SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers “Amsterdam Empire” now streaming on Netflix.
Even though Famke Janssen was born in the Netherlands, she began acting only when she moved to the United States in the 1980s. She started as a fashion model appearing in commercials and on television shows. Today, however, she is best known for appearing in blockbuster franchises such as “X-Men,” “Taken” and the 1995 James Bond film, “GoldenEye.” After decades of making her mark in Hollywood playing formidable heroes and villains alike, she just recently made her acting debut in her native country and language, returning to the Netherlands for “Amsterdam Empire,” Netflix’s new Dutch-language crime series set in the eponymous city.
In the show, which premiered on Oct. 30, Janssen plays Betty Jonkers, a former Dutch pop star who is married to one of Amsterdam’s biggest marijuana moguls, Jack van Doorn (Jacob Derwig), the owner of The Jackal coffee-shop dispensaries. When Betty finds out that Jack is cheating on her with a younger Dutch television host (Elise Schaap), she threatens to expose the secrets of Jack’s unscrupulous business unless he grants her the company in the divorce settlement.
As Betty, Janssen also recorded an original song and music video for the series with Netherlands-based musician Palmbomen. She also executive produced the series, which was created by Nico Moolenaar, Bart Uytdenhouwen and Piet Matthys, and directed by Jonas Govaerts.
Janssen spoke with Variety to talk about returning to the Netherlands for the role and the blockbuster career that brought her back there.
How did “Amsterdam Empire” come about and how did you get involved in the project?
I actually got involved very early on in the process. Nico Moolenaar came to me through Netflix with an offer to play this character, Betty Yonkers. I think at that point only one script had been written, and so I had conversations with him and made my deal with Netflix. I said “I’m very interested in this, but I want to come on as an executive producer,” because now I have a 30-year career behind me. I’ve done 80 films or projects, and I’m going back to the Netherlands for the first time to act in my own language. As exciting as that was, I also thought that having Netflix behind it gave it the possibility of becoming an internationally watched show — a possibility, but not a guarantee, because it is still in Dutch.
But what I really liked about it was the authenticity. I think that we’re living in a time where there’s appetite for authenticity in the way that we haven’t seen in a long time, or maybe ever. We have shows like “Squid Game” and “Adolescence,” these very locally made shows that found global audiences because they were so authentically made for their territory. That’s very much Netflix’s platform and idea with these local-for-local projects. “Amsterdam Empire” fit because it’s very authentically Dutch, and because Netflix is behind it, we have a global platform, and I really hope that it will reach a large audience.
Speaking of authenticity, some audiences may be surprised by how intense of a place Amsterdam is depicted as, especially in the coffee shop world.
I mean, foremost, it’s fiction. We can’t forget that it’s a made-up story. Life in the Netherlands, I feel, is very misunderstood and misrepresented in the media. The funny thing is that life there is just the opposite. There’s no sense of any drug culture. It’s family oriented. People ride their bikes. They put their dogs and their kids and everything on it. I think of it more like a village than a city. It has a very different feel to it. Even the Red Light district where we filmed is more of a Disneyland-like kind of place. It feels very tame. I’m sure there are other aspects that I’m just not familiar with, because I’ve never gone deep into that world, but the truth of the matter is that the country’s marijuana legalization does not work the way that people think. It works the way that it’s described in the series: You can carry a small amount, you can smoke it in what’s called a “coffee shop,” but you can’t legally grow it. So there is a criminal aspect to the whole production of it.
Did you enjoy returning to the Netherlands for the role?
It was a great opportunity. It was a character I could run with, and it was fun to go back to where I grew up. I was born and raised in the Netherlands. Dutch is my first language. My family’s there. But I didn’t start acting until I came to the States, so it was my first time acting in Dutch. It was really interesting to go back so deep into my career and do something that I’d never done before. There were a lot of firsts on it, and I really enjoyed it. I loved the fact that I was executive producer, and had a lot more creative say. I love the fact that I could design my own costumes. That was a very big jump to take in my in my career. I’ve worked very closely with costume designers in the past, and fashion has been something that has been a part of me for as long as I can remember because I grew up in the modeling world. I also did a music video for the series, and I had to sing and dance in it, so I was trained throughout the filming for song and dance. And that was definitely the best part of the entire experience.
Was returning to the Netherlands something that you always wanted to do, or did the opportunity present itself serendipitously?
It was a serendipitous opportunity. I think over the years, some things had come my way, but they weren’t right yet. This time, the timing and the authenticity part of it, the fact that the world is now ready for more of these types of authentic stories with Netflix as the distributor, really just changed the whole game. For me, it’s very different to do a project that is only seen in the Netherlands compared to one that could potentially be seen by people around the world.
How was acting in Dutch? Even though it’s your native language, was there a learning curve to performing in it?
It was daunting at first, and it was probably the thing I was most nervous about, but it ended up being the easiest of all the things that I could have worried about. It was so natural to come back and speak it. So it wasn’t the hurdle that I expected it to be thankfully. It was nice because all of a sudden I could create this character, a character I’d never been able to create before. Because I’d never acted before in Dutch and I never played a Dutch person before, it already brought something different with it. And then there’s the fact that Betty is such an anomaly, such a unique creature. I really got to give her so many different colors, not just in terms of costumes, but in terms of personality. It became a very fun and interesting project to work on.
How did you get into character for someone as intense and layered as Betty?
I guess the way that I see acting is that it’s all my life experience up to this point. Everything I’ve come across, every person I’ve interacted with, every pain and hardship I’ve felt, every joy that I’ve experienced, it all ends up layering you. As an actor, I find it incredibly helpful to have those life lessons and experiences, because I get to put them into my work. It’s a very cathartic experience sometimes. I think the more you experience in life, the more you get to give back to your characters. Playing Betty was a gratifying experience, and I just think that it was the right role at the right time for me. I really empathize with her, and I felt that I had to fight for her a lot because she seemed so alone and isolated in the story. She was misunderstood and so quickly labeled as this evil bad bitch. Whenever that dialogue was thrown in her direction, it just hurts so much because I thought, “No, she’s misunderstood! She’s in deep pain.”
Imagine being cheated on publicly. Being cheated on is bad enough, but publicly, and then add the fact that the new person is having their baby on top of everything else. I just empathized a lot with her. I wanted to give her a chance to be seen as someone who’s not only angry but deeply hurt and was coming from a lot of pain and had to learn a lot of lessons in life. She’s very childish, but she had to learn to grow up and fend for herself. I was really there to help her grow as a human being. But it was fun to play that kind of role. I wanted to give her this sort of unpredictability. She’s just filled with emotions that are coming out in every possible way without any type of control.
And the season ends with Betty getting what she wants in terms of The Jackal, but this still leaves her running a pretty dangerous business. Do you think that there might be more to Jack and Betty’s story? Would you be open to a second season?
Whether or not there’s a Season 2 is up to Netflix and the numbers. So we will find out in the near future, but I definitely see room for an interesting journey ahead of what Betty would do with the Jackal and how Jack would try to get it back.
©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection
Speaking of the future, a lot of your “X-Men” co-stars are reprising their roles next year in “Avengers: Doomsday,” and we’ve already seen Hugh Jackman return as Wolverine and Patrick Stewart return as Professor X in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. You’ve said on record that you haven’t been asked to return as Jean Grey.
And then when I say that, people don’t believe me. So I’m just gonna wait for the movie to come out and, you know, people can see for themselves.
If you were offered it, would you be interested in returning to that character in this new universe?
I’m always open to anything. I’m very open minded, and I love my career and the trajectory that it’s taken over time. I’m grateful for all the opportunities that have come my way, including the “X-Men” movies, “GoldenEye, the “Taken” franchise, all of them. It’s just been an amazing journey. So, it depends. It depends on the timing. It’s just a hypothetical question, because I don’t know that they would ever bring back my Jean Grey. At that point I would take a look at it. But I love where my life and career is going right now, the fact that I’m wearing different hats and that I’m executive producing. I did write, direct and produce a film with Milla Jovovich 15 years ago, so I’ve done a feature film before. The costume designing element is also amazing. I just finished a film called “One Second After,” and I designed my costumes for that too. My life is now enriched in all these areas, so it’s really hard to go back to something where I’m just asked to come in and say a few lines. So I really hope that I can continue this journey of establishing more functions within the industry, because it suits me.
The MCU is going to reintroduce the “X-Men” with a new cast after “Doomsday.” Any advice for whoever ends up playing Jean Grey?
No. I’m excited to see who they’re getting next. I mean, Sophie Turner was amazing, and I’m sure the next person will be too. They’ve been so good at casting incredible actors and no one needs any tips from me. I’m looking forward to seeing who they cast.
The James Bond franchise is also undergoing a transition. You had the opportunity to play a Bond girl who was also a Bond villain as Xenia Onatoppin in “GoldenEye.” What do you hope the next iteration of Bond brings to those archetypes?
I hope that there are more female villains, because they are fantastic characters. We’ve seen the franchise have a lot of interesting characters over the past 60 years and I’m curious to see what they do next. They’ve been so clever at reinventing themselves over and over again to remain relevant. I’m very much looking forward to see who is going to play Bond, who else is going to be cast in it, what the storyline is and what exotic locations they go to.
Any words of wisdom for the next actors to step into the roles of Bond girls or Bond villains?
Be authentically yourself. I hope that whoever they cast in any of the parts, they are not just going to think about the people who’ve played those parts before or the pressures that come with playing it. I hope that they can be authentically themselves and I’m sure that it will be absolutely wonderful to watch.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
