Famke Janssen Thought Jean Grey's Return Was a Secret
Filed under: Action, Casting, Fandom, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
I swear to you, I let out a snort when I first read this. Okay, maybe a chortle (that's a chuckle and a snort together, for those of you who don't know your Carroll). Anyway, actress Famke Janssen of X-Men fame recently appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres Show (which itself is almost snort worthy), to discuss both her role in X-Men 3 and the homemade dog outfits she creates for her dog Licorice ... okay, so this entire story is full of snorting moments. The point of this article is a story related by Janssen, in which she discussed the studio's efforts to keep the existence of her character in the third film a secret. "The funniest part was that when we were shooting, we had a lot of people from the press coming and they wanted to keep it a secret that I was back, so every single time anybody from the press would come over, they would shove me in a closets or in anywhere the hallway, so they wouldn't give it away." I'm being honest, she said that. Apparently, it wasn't until she saw her character emblazoned on a billboard that she was allowed to admit to being in the film.Okay, so did even the most non-geek, non-comic book fan really think she was staying dead? I mean, I know I sometimes view life from a distorted perspective here inside my geek bubble ... but I'm pretty certain every True Believer in the world covered their eyes and sighed "oh boy, here comes the Phoenix saga" when Jean died. And with that many people being fully aware of what was happening, I can't imagine the news stayed secret from anyone with a television or computer for longer than say, 17.4 seconds.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-12-2006 @ 11:00PM
afs said...
X2 ended with scenery rushing by with the Phoenix logo subtly sorta-kinda transparent center screen. Anyone who had ever actually seen Phoenix in the comic books knew exactly what was happening.
The question isn't whether Jean Grey as Phoenix is returning. That's a given. The question is whether it's Phoenix for a very short time then straight to the demi-god-level powers of Dark Phoenix. Dark Phoenix did things like making a sun go nova and then snacking on the energy released. Fighting off an entire advanced interstellar civilization single-handedly. Neat Stuff.
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5-13-2006 @ 1:01AM
brian said...
haha. maybe they were just shoving her in the closets because she is annoying?
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5-13-2006 @ 1:45AM
Jay Allen said...
Dude, Famke Janssen is the kind of woman we couldn't sleep with because we spent all of our free time painting AD&D miniatures and oggling that copy of issue 137 behind glass at the comic shop. Cut her some slack.
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5-13-2006 @ 9:19AM
Jess said...
I think this points to how different segments of our population latch on to different cultural markers...in other words, is they stupid. It seems like a huge Hollywood duh factor is in play. If they really wanted us to be shocked or surprised, they should bring in unexpected characters like...the Sentinels...uh, no...the title implies Sentinels...or maybe Submariner or someone.
I guess it goes to prove that you can act smart, but be clueless.
Still, it's funny.
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6-02-2006 @ 12:27PM
WiliQueen said...
To be fair, all any of those comments prove is that she was contractually obligated to *treat* it as a big secret. Although I do rather hope for her sake she really didn't know how open a "secret" it really was --that would mean she didn't have to bite her tongue to keep from telling everyone how pointless it was every time they stashed her somewhere.
That said, I know several people who are enthusiastic fans of the movies only, and who made it through the last three years with their complete ignorance of Phoenix intact. So it wasn't *entirely* pointless, as much as it might seem so to us.
As for making doggie outfits...dude, I went to opening day of the first flick in a Phoenix costume I stayed up most of the night to finish. I have zero room to talk. ;-}
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