What Happened to Famke Janssen, Marvel’s Jean Grey from X-Men, 19 Years Later?

Longtime Marvel fans will recall the face of Famke Janssen, who portrayed Jean Grey in the initial X-Men movies. A mutant doctor allied with Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart), she also captured the hearts of Cyclops and Wolverine (making Wolverine quite a bad friend in the process).

Throughout the X-Men trilogy, her character transformed into “Phoenix,” a powerful entity capable of great destruction, eventually switching sides to join Magneto (Ian McKellen). But what has the actress been up to since she hung up her mutant cloak?

Fame Before X-Men

Before her role in X-Men, Famke Janssen was already making a name for herself. Born in the Netherlands, she moved to the United States and worked as a model from 1984 to the early 90s. In 1992, she landed her first on-screen role in “Fathers & Sons” with Jeff Goldblum, and even shared the screen with Patrick Stewart in an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

She gained further recognition as a Bond girl in “GoldenEye” (1995), and starred in “Deep Rising” by Stephen Sommers and John Dahl’s “Rounders” (1998), as well as “House on Haunted Hill” and “The Faculty” (1999).

Life After X-Men

Following her stint in the X-Men trilogy, Famke Janssen joined another franchise: Taken. She played the ex-wife of Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) and mother of his daughter Kim. She appeared in the series spanning from 2008 to 2014, during which she also reprised her role as Jean Grey in “The Wolverine” and made a cameo in the final scene of “X-Men: Days of Future Past.”

She then starred in Netflix’s third original series, “Hemlock Grove,” a horror series by Eli Roth, for three seasons, and appeared in Giancarlo Esposito’s directorial project “This Is Your Death” (2017).

While Famke Janssen has been quite active, some of her works have only been available on video (like “Once Upon a Time in Venice” with Bruce Willis) or not released at all, such as the thriller “Bayou Caviar” with Cuba Gooding Jr., or the romantic drama “Endless.”

Television: A New Chapter for the Actress

In 2019, she appeared in the acclaimed miniseries “When They See Us” by Ava DuVernay and alongside Nicolas Cage in the adventure movie “Primal,” before starring in the action thriller “Dangerous” (2021) with Scott Eastwood and Kevin Durand. Two years later, she portrayed a formidable brothel madam in the western “Redeeming Love” (2023).

That same year, Famke Janssen took on the lead role in the Netflix crime drama “Locked In.” As of this writing, she has just finished shooting the Dutch police series “Amsterdam Empire,” which Netflix has acquired the rights to broadcast, and the sci-fi movie “The Experiment,” where she leads under the direction of Chee Keong Cheung (“Redcon-1”).