To celebrate the release of Amsterdam Empire, which comes to Netflix this week, we had the pleasure of sitting down with star and producer Famke Janssen to find out all about the new show.
Jack van Doorn, the rich and notorious founder of the coffee shop empire Jackal, has had to fight his entire career against criminals, competitors, and absurd Dutch laws to become the biggest of them all. When his affair with a well-known journalist comes to light, it turns out that his most dangerous enemy has been living under his roof all this time: his betrayed wife, Betty (Famke Janssen), an ex-pop diva who knows all his weak spots and secrets and will not rest until she has taken everything from him. Amsterdam Empire is an extravagant crime drama full of glamour and grime at the heart of the Amsterdam cannabis scene.
Chatting to Janssen, we discuss the lure of the show and why she wanted to get involved both as star and producer, why she was keen to help steer the show as producer and why she felt it was important to be part of the whole make-up of the series, how her history of working on big Hollywood films helped her prepare for her producing role, why the story will resonate with audiences and much more.
We also take a trip down memory lane and talk about her big breakthrough role alongside Pierce Brosnan in 1995’s Goldeneye, as well as her work on the X-Men series, why it is still ahead of its time and whether she was given an “actor’s chair” like her fellow X-Men stars for a reappearance in next year’s Avengers: Doomsday.
You can watch our extended interview below:
Amsterdam Empire streams on Netflix from October 30th.
