Updated

Updated · Hollywood Reporter · Jun 28

Famke Janssen Says 1995 GoldenEye Fight Broke Her Ribs During Pierce Brosnan Scene

Updated

Updated · Hollywood Reporter · Jun 28

Famke Janssen Says 1995 GoldenEye Fight Broke Her Ribs During Pierce Brosnan Scene

Q: How did Famke Janssen and Pierce Brosnan's strategies to escape the 'Bond' typecast ultimately shape their careers differently?

Famke Janssen and Pierce Brosnan both tried to avoid being trapped by Bond, but Janssen treated *GoldenEye* as a label she had to actively outrun, while Brosnan folded Bond into an already broader career and kept expanding from there. For Janssen, the risk was especially acute because she arrived with a limited résumé and the added “Bond girl” stigma. She has said she deliberately turned down roles that resembled Xenia Onatopp, including projects centered on guns or similar femme-fatale traits. Instead, she pursued contrasting work to prove range and longevity, later building a varied career that included dramas, thrillers and a major non-Bond franchise in *X-Men*. Her strategy was defensive and selective: use Bond as a breakthrough, but refuse to let it define her. Brosnan’s position was different. By the time he became 007, he was already an established actor from *Remington Steele* and other film and television work. Rather than rejecting Bond-like material outright, he made sure his Bond contract allowed outside projects, co-founded Irish DreamTime, and kept taking varied roles during and after his 007 run. That led to a career spanning capers, dramas, musicals such as *Mamma Mia!*, thrillers and later franchise work, while Bond remained his signature role. The result was that Janssen’s post-Bond career was shaped by a conscious effort to escape a narrow stereotype, whereas Brosnan’s was shaped by diversification around an iconic role he never fully needed to disown.

3 articles · Updated · Hollywood Reporter · Jun 28

Janssen, 61, said a GoldenEye bathhouse fight left her with broken ribs after she urged Pierce Brosnan to throw her against a padded wall during filming.
The actress said production halted when she could not speak or breathe, but the injury was not confirmed until she returned to New York months later after the 6-month shoot.
Speaking at a Vanity Fair masterclass in Malta, Janssen also recalled reaching the final 3 or 4 candidates for Xenia Onatopp and losing sleep before her screen test with Brosnan.
GoldenEye marked Brosnan’s first of 4 Bond films after a 6-year hiatus, and Janssen said the role both exposed her to Bond’s huge publicity machine and gave her career-changing visibility.