Famke Janssen

When someone holds a knife to your throat it's easy to be scared. It's not hard to imagine what it would be like.

The Dutch are a very practical people.

I'm intrigued by the dark. Out of darkness comes creation.

I personally like to do independent films.

I like the work that I get to do.

My French is still good. That's a beautiful language and I'm happy to speak it.

I'm 5' 11" as I proudly say - just so I don't have to say six feet.

As a European I had fit in almost seamlessly in New York for the last 25 years, but in Oklahoma I stood out like a sore thumb.

I love stories about two people who are doing illegal things, who we really enjoy watching despite the fact that we know they are doomed in some way.

Film has played such a big part in my life, in my impressions of the United States.

Disneyland is supposed to be the happiest place on Earth and I have to say when I'm riding around in that crazy Space Mountain ride I'm happy.

I think there's a big misconception out there about actors and the choices they have.

There's certain things I try to avoid, as an actress, just to keep my world from being as narrow as it could be.

I always feel like I want to do my career my own way.

I never follow anybody's path, what they've done.

The great thing I think when you do independents is that people are really there for the same reason. They're not there because they got a lot of money and they want to just go home and get it over with. They're there because they believe in the script or the director or the cast or whatever it is, and they want to make it work.

I've lived in New York for a really long time.

In studio films, everything has to be boxed in, everybody needs to know beforehand - this is comedy, this is sci-fi, this is drama - and what's the point of independent film if you don't get to experiment?

I keep pushing buttons and trying to grow as a person and as a filmmaker.

I look a certain way. I have a very specific kind of look.

You don't ever know with films. You just hope for the best, but sometimes it's a bit of a crapshoot.

I think every movie is its own little world, and a director certainly sets the tone.

I started as a model in Holland and Chanel took me to New York when I was 19, after which I decided to stay.

I enrolled in an acting workshop and my first acting role was on the TV soap opera 'Melrose Place.'

Everybody gets typecast in movies, but you have to make wise choices. I'd say around 90 percent of movie casting is about the way you look, so you have to fight that. If producers had their way, I'd only be in action films, but I'm interested in a more varied career than that.