Superhero Famke: X on legs

In terms of mutant superheroism, you might say that Famke Janssen has got the short straw in the sci-fi blockbuster X-Men. She doesn't get to slink about in body paint, transforming her appearance at will, as does Mystique; or whip the weather into a frenzy, like the aptly named Storm. All her character does is read minds and move objects - and then only small ones, because she's still learning. Even her name seems ordinary: Jean Grey. But, as the Dutch actress wryly remarks, 'I'm the smart one.' If it's an actress who is drop-dead gorgeous, looks tremendous in a latex jumpsuit and is manifestly smart you're after, you could do a lot worse than Famke.

Since bursting on to our screens five years ago in the James Bond movie GoldenEye - smouldering with delicious malice as Xenia Onatopp, the Russian assassin who throttled her male victims between her thighs - Janssen has joined an elite club. There aren't many actresses (think Ursula Andress, Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg) whose careers have lasted beyond Bond. Janssen's done so with a CV that is positively schizophrenic - on the one hand, starring in sci-fi/horror movies (Deep Rising, The Faculty, The House On Haunted Hill), high on effects, low on character, in which she has been lazily stereotyped for her exotic looks and sly sense of humour; on the other, distinguishing herself in a string of arthouse movies, notably Woody Allen's Celebrity (as Kenneth Branagh's publisher girlfriend), Robert Altman's The Gingerbread Man and the poker drama Rounders, opposite Matt Damon.

'I'm absolutely not a horror fan,' insists the 35-year-old with a comic grimace. 'I don't like gory films. If anything, I'd be the last person to go to a movie theatre to see a film like that. Unless it was The Shining, because Stanley Kubrick's a genius. What's happened,' she explains, 'is that usually I follow my passions and work with the directors that I admire - acting for Woody Allen was a milestone for me, I'd seen all his films. But I realise that once in a while I have to come out to "play Hollywood", do a film that makes a lot of money and all that stuff. And when it comes to the big studios, people tend to cast me in films like X-Men, rather than, say, romantic comedies, which I love. I've turned down a lot of offers that would just make me a Bond girl for the rest of my life.'

There is something appealingly off-putting about meeting Janssen. It's not that she's 5ft 11in (a height so often labelled 'imposing') with unusual, almost feline looks and never-ending pins that bring to mind the lethal Onatopp. It's more to do with the contrast between her personality, which has the irony and measured frankness of a European, and the distinct American accent with which, after more than a dozen years in the States, she now speaks. There's also something about the way she looks at you, a steady, warm mahogany gaze right in the eyes - as though she is, indeed, reading your mind.

One might argue (but not too hard) that with The Usual Suspects director Bryan Singer at the helm, X-Men dovetails the two strands of Janssen's career, being a special-effects blockbuster with a semblance of characterisation. Based on the incredibly popular Marvel comic strip originated in the Sixties, it posits an age when mutant humans with extraordinary powers are shunned by society as freaks. While the X-Men, guided by Patrick Stewart's benign Professor Xavier, still wish to protect mankind, Ian McKellen's Magneto wants to destroy it. Such films might not be her cup of tea, but Janssen gamely talks the talk. 'Even though I'm a superhero, I'm not physically equipped to do anything bizarre, like all the other characters. Mine are mind powers,' she explains. 'I'm telekinetic and telepathic. My character is Professor X's protege and I have the same powers. Although,' she adds, finally introducing the tongue into her cheek, 'I have a little issue with the control part of it - I keep dropping people.'

She also provides the film's romance, being the centre of a love triangle which includes her fiance, Cyclops, a man who has to go to bed with his visor on, and Wolverine, whose hands sprout razor-sharp blades when he's excited. Not much of a choice. Wouldn't she be better off with the Prof? 'Oh no, he's my mentor, the father figure in my life. Which is great, because Patrick's a great actor and I do actually look up to somebody like him who's had a career like his.' However, the pair have been amorous in the past. 'I did an episode of Star Trek years ago. It was called The Perfect Mate and Patrick fell in love with me. That episode apparently means a lot to Star Trek fans - I still get recognised, even though it was six or seven years ago in my pre-Bond years.'

Janssen actively views her career as 'pre-Bond' and 'post-Bond'. Born and raised in Amsterdam, she moved to America in her early twenties as a model, parading on the same catwalks as Linda Evangelista and Cindy Crawford. Aware of the stigma attached to models-turned-actresses, she first 'went back to school', studying literature at Columbia University (she read economics in Holland) and attending drama classes on the side. Despite her good intentions, the transition still wasn't easy. 'The first four years of my acting career, before Bond, were rough. I was struggling to get anything,' she admits. 'Bond changed everything.'

Though she describes work as 'booming', it's obvious that Janssen - who cites Peter Sellers and Cary Grant has her favourite actors - would like to challenge the likes of the Roberts and Pfeiffers and Bullocks in the top league of romantic leading ladies. Anyone doubting that she can should simply watch her other significant film this year, Love & Sex.

A success at the Sundance Film Festival, it's a very funny, very true romantic comedy, in which Janssen's character, Kate, relates her hapless history of doomed love affairs, notably with Adam (Jon Favreau). The pair meet, fall in love, move in together, bore each other senseless, split up, miss each other... and wonder whether they've just let 'the real thing' slip through their fingers.

'I know what it's like when a relationship gets to the point where you go, wait a minute, we used to be romantically involved, and now what are we doing? We're cutting our toenails in bed,' she laughs. 'That's what I love about the film, that it deals with relationships once they start getting ugly, the fact that you have to realise that living together is hard work.'