Famke Janssen Is Hungry for Authenticity in Fashion

With three decades of experience and 80 film and television credits to her name, Famke Janssen has proven herself as a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood. She's done it all. She's played a telepathic mutant (X-Men), a Bond villain (GoldenEye), and a vampiric being (Hemlock Grove), and in 2011, she stepped behind the camera to write, produce, and direct the film Bringing Up Bobby. But Janssen is not done reinventing herself yet. With her latest project, the Netflix crime drama Amsterdam Empire, the Netherlands native adds a new title to her ever-expanding list of talents: costume designer.

For as long as she can remember, Janssen has loved fashion. From the handcrafted pieces her grandmother made for her and her sisters to her time working as a model in the '80s and the costumes that informed her many characters, fashion has played an integral role in Janssen's life and career. It's not just an outlet to express herself. More importantly, it's a way of maintaining her authenticity. When presented with the offer to return to her home country and act in Dutch for the first time, Janssen saw a unique opportunity to take on more creative control. Yes, there was the intriguing aspect of playing Betty—an ex pop diva out for revenge following her wealthy husband's affair—but perhaps more enticing was the chance to create a bold and vibrant fashion world for the character to live in, one not too far from the actress's own personal style. Think saccharine baby-doll dresses, statement jackets, and patent-leather Mary Jane shoes.

With more costume credits in the works and plans to design her own collection in the future, Janssen is entering an exciting new era. We caught up with the actress to talk about her fulfilling foray into costume design with Amsterdam Empire, her vision for Betty's look, and reinventing her overflowing closet.

You not only star in the Netflix series Amsterdam Empire, but you are also credited as an executive producer and a costume designer. What about this project, in particular, made you want to wear so many hats?

I grew up in the Netherlands, but I left when I was 18 as a model, traveled the world, came to the States. It wasn't until I came to New York that I started my acting career, so I had never acted in Dutch before. I now have almost 30 years of experience in the field and 80 films under my belt, so when this project came to me and they offered the role of Betty, I said, "Well, I am interested because I think it's a very fun and seemingly colorful character to play, but I want to come back as an executive producer, and I want to have more agency than I've had before because I'm going back to my own country now with all that experience under my belt, and I want to put it all to use." That actually made this project so exciting, and I had no idea going into it what a humongous learning curve this would become. Wearing that many different hats… Just the costumes alone, I can't tell you how time-consuming that was—and fun and creatively fulfilling.

It sort of felt like all my experiences over the years all came together. … I did write, direct, and produce a feature film that Milla Jovovich starred in about 10, 15 years ago, so I had that experience behind the camera already. Fashion has been a big part of my existence coming from the fashion world as a model and making my own clothes part of the time and having that as a creative outlet already. Bringing in my knowledge of being a woman on a heavily male-dominated set in this case, I really thought, "I have something to offer here," and I'm grateful for the experience that I was able to contribute so much.

You have played so many different women throughout your career. What about Betty felt new, interesting, and exciting to you?

So many things. When I read the first episode or two, I thought, "Okay, well, this is interesting" because we're going into a War of the Roses fight here, but it's an unequal fight because we have Jack on the one hand, who has a very rich world portrayed in this series. We see his current love affair. We see his ex-wife [Betty]. We see him in his work environment, with his children, and then we have Betty, and she literally has nobody. She has to steal the dog to have a companion because she has nothing. She has no family. She has no friends. I tried to make [the writers] see it through the eyes of a woman—like, "Do you guys realize you're setting this up in an unequal way?" So from that moment, I thought, "All right, this is on! If you can't give it to me through the writing, I'm going to give it to you as an actor. I'm going to make this character as rich in her emotions as I can." It's those moments where I thought my experience of all those years in the 80 films that I've done I can now put to use because now I'm involved as an executive producer, and I have a more agency than I've had before, and I can work with the writers on trying to create a more full-fledged character.

And then her fashion, her way of dressing, so much of me is in that. You have no idea. What I loved about it is that anytime there's a music award ceremony, the music-business people are just colorful. They dress in a way that all bets are off. You can do anything. You can be a swan. Whatever it is, just do it. And you don't see that in the film industry. It's much more tame, even in the fashion industry. I wanted to bring that element because, obviously, Betty was a former one-hit wonder, so she had brought that with her, and in her case, she is also very much wanting attention, wanting to be seen, and being childlike and the reluctance to grow up and all of those things are reflected in her wardrobe. It was so much fun to play with that.

I noticed a lot of bold baby-doll dresses styled with Mary Jane shoes and little socks.

That's me, by the way. That's all me, how I dress. I have this photo that sits next to me, and it's of my grandparents and my two sisters and I. I'm probably 5 years old in it, and I look at that picture, and I go, "I still dress that same way. I still wear socks with patent-leather shoes and little minidresses and all that kind of stuff." It's this childlike way of dressing that aesthetically, to me, is very pleasing, but for Betty, I thought I wanted to bring it into a way where it's this reluctance to grow up. It's a reluctance to take responsibility for her life and her actions and having lived through her ex-husband and this journey that she goes on to become more of her own person and see her own power.

Do you have a favorite Betty look?

There's so many. I just love the colors. I love the vibrancy, and I like authenticity. That's very much what I do with my own clothing too. I'm constantly embellishing. I'm sewing on patches. We just live in a world where authenticity is under scrutiny. It's almost nonexistent at this point because I think with everything from social media to this global world, anybody can get anything. It's probably partly the need to fit in but also the fact that anyone can get anything, anytime, anywhere. … To be authentic has become an incredibly difficult task, and it's something I strive for every single day because isn't that what life is about? It's about being unique, about being authentic, about being your true self, and I find fashion is a very fun way of expressing yourself.

Having worked with so many costume designers and wardrobe departments over the years, what were some of your biggest learnings that you applied to working on Amsterdam Empire?

I've worked with so many incredible costume designers and worked so closely with them because fashion, to me, has always been something very important, and the way that my character dresses says so much. Working on Nip/Tuck, I worked very closely with the costume designer on creating a really memorable wardrobe there, and on Hemlock Grove. I've loved over the years working with costume designers to create the characters and make them as memorable as possible, which, obviously, on some projects is easier than others. The one I'm working on right now called One Second After, we're filming in Bulgaria, and I just got credit for my own costume design on it too. That's a very different vibe. I gave her this more '70s denim and boots and denim coats and long coats to the knee. It's very fun. It's so hard because now I got a taste of it and what it's like to have so much input, and it's hard to take that away, so I really hope I can find people to work with in the future who will allow me that because I have 30 years of experience under my belt, and it is something I know about, and I would love to continue working on that level.

Before you started acting, you modeled in the '80s and worked for brands like Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, and Giorgio Armani. Is that where you really cultivated your love for fashion and design?

It was well before that. My grandmother used to make a lot of our clothes. She should have been a designer. It was so beautifully handcrafted. She probably influenced all of it unknowingly for me. We grew up in a household where we always had a sewing machine. I tried to make my own clothes. What I've done over the years, for as long as I can remember, is buy something and be like, "Well, that's nice, but it would be better if it was shorter" or "If I change this…" or "If I add this or whatever…" It's been part of my upbringing, and I think she probably was the biggest influence on that.

How would you say working as a model early in your career has influenced your relationship with fashion as an actor?

I think it's an amalgamation of everything coming together—of my grandmother, the fashion world I grew up in, the fact that authenticity is just disappearing out of our lives, and wanting to fight more and more to have my own style and be my own unique person. So I think it's all of it together, but I am so grateful for this moment and for Amsterdam Empire because I was given that voice and showed people that I could do it. I didn't go into the project saying, "I am going to design my own costumes." It just ended up happening. So then I was like, "Wait, I'm designing my own costumes. I need to make sure I'm credited for it." It's been a really amazing journey. Organically, it's sort of growing into its own thing.

You have played so many iconic characters over the years. Is there one whose costumes stand out as being memorable to you or a favorite?

I'm gonna say definitely Amsterdam Empire because Betty is the most colorful person I've ever been able to play, but … on Hemlock Grove, we worked very hard on being all in white, for example, and we did a lot of vintage pieces in that as well. Nip/Tuck was also a good experience. It's rare that you get an opportunity where you work on a project [like Amsterdam Empire] where a character is that colorful. Most of the time, it has to be a realistic world where a person is like, "Okay there's seven days in the same outfit because something has happened in the world." I really hope to find more of it in my life because I love clothes. I love the creative expression of it. I love the craftsmanship. I'm obsessed with Valentino. Those dresses and the way they are made, it's art. I have a great appreciation for it.

I heard that you might even be planning your own line. What can you tell us at this time?

I'm working on it! I have to see what shape it's gonna take because, at the moment, mostly I'm looking at my life going, "Wow, so much of my income I spend on clothing." I have a closet that's overflowing, so what I started doing with clothes is, I'm not wearing this dress as much anymore—what if I add this, or what if I do that to it? At the moment, it's been a project of trying to authenticate the pieces that I already have, which is also a more sustainable way of looking at clothing. It's wonderful to see that the world is heading in that direction. I think any younger generation is thrifting. They're not buying new clothes in the way that my generation did. I think that is… Part of it is, Why not use a Valentino or Gucci piece or whatever it is and just do something else with it that then makes it even more authentic?

Check out Amsterdam Empire, now streaming on Netflix.