Boy Kills World: Famke Janssen Reveals Grim Inspiration for New Movie

The X-Men star breaks down her process for getting into a really messed-up character.

By Russ Burlingame

Former Bond Girl and X-Man Famke Janssen told ComicBook.com that when she has to play a disturbed character, it has to come from a grim place. The actress, who spoke with us in support of her new movie Boy Kills World, said that she can never use existing characters as an inspiration for a performance, and instead has to dig into the emotions behind the character's motivation. That means, in the case of someone like Boy Kills World's Hilda, going to a pretty dark place.

Of course, just getting somewhere dark doesn't mean staying there. We're pretty sure Janssen wasn't going all "method" while her character was going literally scorched Earth in the X-Men franchise. Still, it's always interesting to get a glimpse into someone's process.

"I never use other characters from other movies as my inspiration, because then I worry that I'm imitating someone or something that's already been done before," Janssen told ComicBook.com. "So I try to go into this deep well of hurt and childhood dysfunction, and all the voices that...mm!...and then I use it."

Janssen also recently starred in Locked In and Knights of the Zodiac, but won't be one of the former Fox heroes returning for Deadpool & Wolverine. Speaking with ComicBook, she said she thinks she is probably done with the character of Jean Grey -- but who knows?

"I don't know. I mean, I didn't expect to come back after dying as Jean Grey," Janssen exclusively told ComicBook ahead of her new movie, the bloody action-thriller Boy Kills World. "I came back as the Phoenix [in 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand], and I came back in flashback scenes in The Wolverine, and then in Days of Future Past."

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In Boy Kills World, Bill Skarsgård plays "Boy," a man set out on revenge after his family is killed by nefarious forces. Hilda Van Der Koy's post-apocalypse holds many challenges for our world-weary protagonist. In a weird quirk for this particular genre, Boy is almost completely silent while all the bodies continue to fall all around him. He sets out to have his revenge and the only way to get it is with his fists. The IT actor's character is trained by Yaya Ruhian as the apocalyptic setting has more than he bargained for.  

Boy Kills World is in theaters now.

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