Famke Janssen: I tend to resurrect

Famke Janssen jokes her movie characters “tend to resurrect” often.

The 50-year-old Dutch actress is currently promoting her new film Taken 3, in which she reprises her role as Lenore, the murdered wife of Liam Neeson’s character Bryan Mills.

Famke also portrayed mutant Jean Grey in Marvel’s 2006 release X-Men: The Last Stand and in this picture, superhero Jean rises from the grave as her alter-ego Phoenix.

Famke is beginning to see a pattern with the roles she lands in movies.

“I tend to resurrect in whatever I do, so I’m never that worried about it,” she joked to The Hollywood Reporter.

Taken 3 centres on Bryan Mills’ saga as authorities hunt him down for Lenore’s murder. He is wrongly accused and is utilising all of his skills as an operative to find the true killer.

Famke says she has “made peace” with the fate of her persona Lenore, as the death added a new dimension to the film’s plotline.

“Somebody had to take the bullet, figuratively speaking, and I’m glad it was me,” she said. “I will do it happily. It’s the last installment, and it propelled the story forward in a good way. It gave it more emotional weight.”

Famke has played many coveted action roles during her 22-year career. She was a Bond girl in 1995 film GoldenEye, which sees Pierce Brosnan as 007. Famke has also been involved with Marvel’s X-Men movie series as Jean Grey/Phoenix for the past 15 years.

The star previously spoke about how elated she is to be involved with so many big budget adventure projects.

"We had no idea it would be such a big hit. I never dreamed I'd be part of such an incredible franchise - first the Bond franchise and now X-Men. It's been wonderful," she gushed to British newspaper Metro.