Xenia Onatopp played by Famke Janssen in 1995’s GoldenEye
Dutch actress Famke Janssen worked as a model in New York in the early
1990s, and moved to Los Angeles several years later to take up acting.
One of her first television appearances was in 1992 in an episode of
Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The 1995 James Bond flick GoldenEye was the first to star Pierce
Brosnan as James Bond. This was the 17th film in the James Bond series,
and was unrelated to any of novelist Ian Fleming’s work, unlike its 16
predecessors. In this movie, an arms syndicate wants to use the
GoldenEye satellite weapon on London so as to cause a worldwide
financial meltdown.
In addition to being the first Pierce Brosnan Bond film, it was also
the first where M was cast with Judi Dench – the first woman to play
that character. The decision to cast M as a woman is believed to be
inspired by Stella Rimington becoming the head of the British MI5 in
1992.
In GoldenEye, Janssen played the role of Xenia Onatopp, a villainous
former fighter pilot for the Soviet Air Force. Her preferred method of
dispatching with enemies is to crush them between her strong thighs. The
movie was the first Bond film to be made since the collapse of Soviet
communism, and there was speculation that the Bond series could fold,
since so many of James Bond’s enemies were Soviets. But the movie was
successful, and the Bond franchise continues with Daniel Craig currently
in the role of 007.
Janssen, meanwhile, moved on to roles in the X-Men movie series, and
won a Saturn Award for her role in X-Men: The Last Stand. She had a
fairly major role in the second season of television series Nip/Tuck as
a transsexual life coach. She has also tried to fight being typecast by
taking roles in movies by Woody Allen and Robert Altman.
