Latest / Kyle Meredith With... / Famke Janssen on Amsterdam Empire, Pop Stardom, and Revenge
Transcript
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- 1:01[SPEAKER_01]: We've had some great guest drop by lately including Michaela J. Rodriguez and Ron Funches you've seen them both in Loot we talked about season three on Apple TV plus
- 1:11[SPEAKER_01]: Broken social scene, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Marty Stewart, Ian Ashtabary of the cult, Colin Haye, Bruce Coburn, Evira, Cassandra Peterson, was here, Olivia Allen Land, dropped by to talk about wayward, on Netflix.
- 1:26[SPEAKER_01]: We spoke with Jeff Tweety of Wilcoe as well as Mary Stewart, Masterson, Rob Cordray, and Michael Chickalis about the senior.
- 1:34[SPEAKER_01]: Hannah Stocking, Madison Pettison, Yvonne Orgy about the wrong Paris and Willem Dafoe and Cory Hawkins about the man in my basement.
- 1:42[SPEAKER_01]: Just an example of what you get when you subscribe to the Kyle Meredith with podcast.
- 1:46[SPEAKER_01]: That's me, Kyle Meredith.
- 1:48[SPEAKER_01]: Today my guest, Funky Jensen.
- 1:51[SPEAKER_01]: Dutch actress, model, former Bond girl.
- 1:55[SPEAKER_01]: She first broke out in Golden Eye.
- 1:58[SPEAKER_01]: You remember she was the one who would literally crush men to death with her thighs?
- 2:02[SPEAKER_01]: Then she carved out a solid a Hollywood run as Jean Grey in the X-Men movies between those prestige TV, Nip Tuck, Himluck Grove, crime thrillers.
- 2:12[SPEAKER_01]: She's in the taken series and it's sequels.
- 2:14[SPEAKER_01]: and now she's back in Amsterdam Empire on Netflix.
- 2:18[SPEAKER_01]: That's what we get to talk about.
- 2:20[SPEAKER_01]: She plays Betty, a former pop star, out for revenge after her husband's very public affair.
- 2:26[SPEAKER_01]: Fomki is going to dive into developing Betty the character as both actor and executive producer of the series.
- 2:32[SPEAKER_01]: She's working at her native Dutch for the very first time.
- 2:36[SPEAKER_01]: It's never happened.
- 2:37[SPEAKER_01]: Somehow, and we'll talk about creating the character's colorful child-like fashion
- 2:42[SPEAKER_01]: uh... herself as a co-designer see you got that right she's executive producer co-designer and lead actress all happening in this uh... she shot a full music video in character as Betty will talk about that and performing her own vocals and choreography and what it's like to rediscover her roots back home in the Netherlands as well so let's get into it we're talking about Amsterdam Empire on Netflix Kyle Meredith with funky johnson
- 3:11[SPEAKER_01]: Hi, congrats on an Amsterdam empire, um, what a crazy cool show that you all have put together here.
- 3:19[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you, part of it.
- 3:21[SPEAKER_01]: every now and then we get lucky and we need to get to go and kind of blinds and get blown away by, you know, no trailer or anything.
- 3:27[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what I did with this one.
- 3:28[SPEAKER_01]: Didn't know what to expect.
- 3:29[SPEAKER_01]: Totally went in on barely knew anything on the story.
- 3:32[SPEAKER_01]: And to watch you all, this weed empire and Amsterdam and the whole thing and just like the story is very engaging.
- 3:41[SPEAKER_01]: I guess is what I'm trying to say to over complement you.
- 3:44[SPEAKER_03]: Well, thank you.
- 3:45[SPEAKER_03]: I'll take it.
- 3:46[SPEAKER_03]: We worked very hard.
- 3:47[SPEAKER_03]: We aimed to please, you know?
- 3:51[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, the usual place to start.
- 3:53[SPEAKER_01]: What did you see in the story?
- 3:55[SPEAKER_01]: Why did you want to be a part of this?
- 3:57[SPEAKER_01]: As it landed in your old backyard?
- 3:59[SPEAKER_03]: I know, right in my old backyard.
- 4:02[SPEAKER_03]: The show runner who was developing the project at the time.
- 4:06[SPEAKER_03]: came to me through Netflix and he had only written one episode at that time and he just said there was only one person he wanted to play this part and well that's flattering like that and you know and then I was sure I looked at them that first episode and I was like wow okay well she's a fun man.
- 4:27[SPEAKER_03]: And so, you know, we started the negotiation deal on the game executive producer on the project and I'm actually so grateful and happy that that ended up working out because I since I was the first one cast and
- 4:42[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I had the chance to be creatively involved and have more input than I ever have been able to have before as an actor.
- 4:51[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I wrote directed and produced a feature, but that's, you know, a certain thing.
- 4:54[SPEAKER_03]: But in this case, I thought this is amazing.
- 4:57[SPEAKER_03]: I can really help develop Betty because, you know, it was just a character that I thought.
- 5:04[SPEAKER_03]: could be really interesting, but could also just turn into this angry, you know, whirlwind of a mean spirit, a person who's, you know, and then I thought, that we don't, we don't, we need to see that, and no one can identify with that because
- 5:20[SPEAKER_03]: anyone who really thinks that's growing, being cheated on, terrible enough as it is, but then it being a public event for everyone to know about, and then the fact that he also impregnates the new woman in his life.
- 5:35[SPEAKER_03]: Like it's just
- 5:36[SPEAKER_03]: You know, yeah, I mean, no one has to even think about how hurtful that would be.
- 5:40[SPEAKER_03]: And so I wanted that anger, even though we see it at times, but it had to be grounded in like a reality of real hurt and devastation.
- 5:52[SPEAKER_03]: And so I wanted to see glimpses of that and work very hard in making sure that we saw different aspects of that, different facets of that character.
- 6:02[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, right from the beginning, too, because you do, you get this moment where when it's happening, when the breakup is happening at the beginning of it, and we don't know these characters yet, you know, and we're learning about them very, very quickly, and he says something about a divorce, and you just stop.
- 6:20[SPEAKER_01]: And you're like, wait, why do we have to get a divorce, which I thought is so very European from our business.
- 6:26[SPEAKER_03]: Wait, you cheated, whatever.
- 6:29[SPEAKER_01]: I think that instantly says everything about what you're saying about Betty, you know, it's like, it's like, because it could be very easy for a two-dimensional character for someone to say, oh, she's crazy or something like that, right?
- 6:46[SPEAKER_01]: And I guess I just like to hear you talk about you know that development more because as you say and coming on is an executive producer and being able to to do that Like where do you take a character like this exactly with a story like this like how did it develop like that
- 7:04[SPEAKER_03]: It developed, I mean, it was, you know, Niko's idea or any to co-writers with him and they had been developing the idea, but it wasn't a full-fledged ones when I signed on.
- 7:15[SPEAKER_03]: And so I am so happy that I got actively involved in more of the development of it, because there's so many different and I think that's the interesting
- 7:25[SPEAKER_03]: Sorry, that I've now learned over the years because I come from a film background.
- 7:29[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, that's really the majority of my work is in film, and it wasn't until I was asked to be in a talk that I saw the inner workings of a series where you realize, oh, wait, they've written one episode, we're filming, but they don't really know where this character or the story is going to go.
- 7:45[SPEAKER_03]: It's all in the fly.
- 7:47[SPEAKER_03]: They constantly change things and stuff like that, which
- 7:50[SPEAKER_03]: is really interesting but also as an actor can be very daunting because sometimes using you're going to have a different arc and that's the the better to me always the part of you know working in film.
- 8:03[SPEAKER_03]: I know what I'm signing up for.
- 8:04[SPEAKER_03]: I know the arc of my character, know the story, you know everything where it's going to go.
- 8:08[SPEAKER_03]: So I have a safety net and you don't have that safety net on a series, but at the same time it's also you can find things while you're working because you don't You didn't realize that, you know, oh wait, this character is actually better suited going in this direction or whatever.
- 8:21[SPEAKER_03]: So there were some loose lines of things that they wanted to do, but it changed a lot over time and the last episode they were, you know, we were still working on that very close to filming it.
- 8:33[SPEAKER_03]: It, you know, and you have to love that about the creative process and that I think that with, you know, Netflix and these streamers coming, giving people opportunities to work on this level of, you know, having good budgets behind it with them, you know, being incredibly creative and still allowing people to find characters and stories as they're going.
- 8:59[SPEAKER_03]: And giving people a platform that we, you know, before we had an hour and a half on a film and now we have you know seven eight episodes or whatever that we can watch characters with so it's a I think it's a very interesting time and what I mostly love and the reason why I ended up deciding to do Amsterdam Empire is that because of the global world that we live in now and the fact that you know and especially I guess with sweet grapes changing everything for
- 9:26[SPEAKER_03]: People being no longer, especially in America, I think people use to be intimidated by subtitles or anything that was in foreign language.
- 9:34[SPEAKER_03]: And now it doesn't matter anymore.
- 9:36[SPEAKER_03]: If anything, it probably becomes a, you know, the appealing part of something, because it's authentic and different.
- 9:43[SPEAKER_03]: And yet we can identify with some of the characters, even though they're in Korea or in Instagram, or whatever it is.
- 9:50[SPEAKER_03]: So I really loved when this came along and I thought, okay, so it has this package of its Netflix, which gives us the global view, and but it's authentically Dutch, and it's a fantastic character for me to play.
- 10:04[SPEAKER_03]: And then in cameo, the other part of, you know,
- 10:07[SPEAKER_03]: the clothing design, I didn't ask to become a designer initially.
- 10:13[SPEAKER_03]: I just became the designer because I had such a clear idea about who Betty was and how she was going to be dressed.
- 10:21[SPEAKER_03]: And so it just, at some point, I was like, wait, I'm just basically, you know, making people execute my ideas.
- 10:29[SPEAKER_03]: Like, this is, that's what a designer does.
- 10:31[SPEAKER_03]: So I said,
- 10:37[SPEAKER_03]: Desire, I mean, exciting and creative aspects of this job is to have that much control over, especially a character like Betty in terms of how she dresses because it's another character, part of her.
- 10:50[SPEAKER_03]: It's almost like her, her outfits are another, you know, dimension of the character too, who she is.
- 10:55[SPEAKER_01]: And we'll be right back right after this.
- 10:58[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back, kids, Kyle, Amanda's with Fompkey Jensen, which by the way, you did a music video for this, too, right?
- 11:03[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, we did the music video.
- 11:05[SPEAKER_03]: It's coming out.
- 11:06[SPEAKER_01]: Wait, wait, the whole, I kept seeing the little part.
- 11:08[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, this got to be a full version of this music video.
- 11:11[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, there's a whole music video.
- 11:13[SPEAKER_03]: And we shot it and I sing and I dance.
- 11:15[SPEAKER_03]: I beat everything myself.
- 11:17[SPEAKER_03]: There's no tweaking that.
- 11:18[SPEAKER_01]: How was it for you?
- 11:19[SPEAKER_01]: How was that?
- 11:20[SPEAKER_03]: I like, I mean, if I say a dream come true, it would seem as if I wanted to become a processor, which I never did, but dancing is one of my favorite hobbies in the world, because not because of ever been trained professionally, but more because it gives me so much freedom and joy.
- 11:35[SPEAKER_03]: and all of a sudden to have your own private choreographer and I had the best choreographer Vincent Villana and he's he's Dutch like I am but with a very international appeal because on TikTok alone I think he is like millions of followers and he's like me a perfectionist and so we worked what I worked my ass off is this was just fine but mine probably does it here
- 12:01[SPEAKER_03]: I did, but oh my god, I trained and trained because not only did I have to look good right now I have to look good as if I was 20 years younger.
- 12:11[SPEAKER_03]: You know what I mean?
- 12:12[SPEAKER_03]: So there was a lot of pressure on it and you know because I'm not a professional dancer or a singer I thought when we do this we better do it really really well.
- 12:21[SPEAKER_01]: Which is interesting because all that work for
- 12:23[SPEAKER_03]: in one point, a three minute video or whatever it is, yeah, like that's the things that happen in this job is it but it's the best it's the best I mean I've been on movies where I had to you know be on a horse and that was like having a beautiful connection with a
- 12:42[SPEAKER_03]: You just, you know, I think I have a dream life, just I travel the world, I work on different projects and, you know, I mean, it's competitive and it's tough, I'm not going to lie, but wow, what a journey, you know?
- 12:57[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm super grateful.
- 12:58[SPEAKER_03]: So in this case,
- 13:00[SPEAKER_03]: It sort of felt like everything came together, you know, it was one of those rare moments in life where it's had kind of full circle.
- 13:07[SPEAKER_03]: The fact that I went back to my own country where I was born and raised, even though I left when I was 18, and you know, the fact that I was acting Dutch for the first time in my life, and then had all these added, you know, job descriptions to it, and it all sort of came organically.
- 13:23[SPEAKER_03]: It wasn't a forced thing and just
- 13:26[SPEAKER_03]: It just kept growing into something else.
- 13:29[SPEAKER_01]: Does the language change the acting at all?
- 13:33[SPEAKER_01]: A lot.
- 13:35[SPEAKER_03]: A lot.
- 13:36[SPEAKER_03]: And, but also because it's not just a language, it's the culture.
- 13:41[SPEAKER_03]: pollen is such a different culture than America, you know, I mean, like it's just, it an entirely different experience, it's after there and then so I actually, initially I thought this is going to be my biggest hurdle is the Dutch thing because I associate acting with the English language, but in the end, it brought me so much for the character that I really,
- 14:07[SPEAKER_03]: enjoyed it.
- 14:08[SPEAKER_03]: You know, then it came back so I mean, not that I could ever win away, but I don't speak a daily, like I speak English daily now.
- 14:15[SPEAKER_03]: So it just was a, it became a fun to everything with a child.
- 14:20[SPEAKER_03]: Fun to have a child.
- 14:22[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, I grow a lot of, you know, challenges.
- 14:26[SPEAKER_01]: Let's even think in a minute ago, and you were talking about the language and how people are so much more accepting of it, because I remember the German series, I think it was called Dark.
- 14:35[SPEAKER_01]: That was one of the around our house.
- 14:38[SPEAKER_01]: We could have selected the dubbed version, and very quickly figured out that doesn't work.
- 14:45[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, sometimes it's fine, but it really did distract from that story, and it is.
- 14:50[SPEAKER_01]: It used to be like in the 90s people would get upset if it was letterboxed, you know, if you had bar, like that's what they had a problem with.
- 14:58[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, you know, no, I think it comes like you're changing and there are people waiting on to the past.
- 15:03[SPEAKER_03]: But interestingly, I did dump myself in English because I and I had that, you know, put in my contract from the beginning because there's the first thing that came to mind is, you know, they always dump series and if someone's going to watch this in a dump version
- 15:20[SPEAKER_03]: I've never done before, and it brings a lot of different challenges too, because it's about matching your mouth, it's not about performance, and you try to give the, but you know what I mean, like, and the language never is going to quite fit, and so it was an interesting, you know, I learned a lot on this whole project.
- 15:41[SPEAKER_01]: And we'll be right back right after this.
- 15:47[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm just realizing that I ask you a question a minute ago, and then we got detracted because we were talking about Betty's fashion and coming up with it.
- 15:54[SPEAKER_01]: So what I would love to hear you actually define, you know, what it is about her fashion.
- 16:01[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I think number one is that Betty wants to be noticed and seen and feel relevant and not be forgotten.
- 16:11[SPEAKER_03]: And I think the time in her life where she was most seen and relevant was the time during which she had her
- 16:19[SPEAKER_03]: hit forever proteger which is 20 years ago.
- 16:22[SPEAKER_03]: So I think there's a child like nature about her anyway, but it expresses in her fashion style.
- 16:30[SPEAKER_03]: The reluctance to grow up to let go of the past, you know.
- 16:34[SPEAKER_03]: to be very colorful.
- 16:36[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, in the way that when you see little girls when I look on the street and I go like, oh, I want to wear that.
- 16:42[SPEAKER_03]: They just don't care.
- 16:43[SPEAKER_03]: They're like, I'm princess today.
- 16:45[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to wear this, you know, things like stripes and stars and socks and the cumbers and the, you know, to our whatever it is, like they just don't care because they're
- 16:57[SPEAKER_03]: creative in, you know, and I wanted a part of Betty to have that childlike wonder to her of, you know, this colorful, you know, just childlike creature.
- 17:11[SPEAKER_03]: But creative and unique and authentic.
- 17:14[SPEAKER_03]: And then, you know, as she progresses and the character progresses in story progresses over time, we do see a bit of a shift in terms of color palettes and it's not that she's going to be a full adult because she'll always be tough like in a way, but there is something a little bit more sophisticated and older about her as or more mature or whatever we want to call it as the series progresses, but
- 17:39[SPEAKER_03]: So it was used very intentionally all the time.
- 17:42[SPEAKER_03]: So there was never something that wasn't in terms of color or how vibrant or how many patches or how many things, like everything was customized, which I do also, because what I'm wearing right now, I customize with all these butterflies, I'm just trying to think about it.
- 17:59[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you very much.
- 18:00[SPEAKER_03]: But so it's...
- 18:02[SPEAKER_03]: This is what I do and I love that I got to do that with a character like you really get an opportunity where you get to play a character that's so colorful in terms of the emotional journey and the fashion aspect of it so I grabbed it and ran with it.
- 18:21[SPEAKER_01]: It's interesting you what you were saying to because there I never known if it was really how true this statement was But there was this whole line that you were used to hear I don't know recently, but that people Whatever age you got famous at Or to where you got stuck mentally yes, and it sounds like for her or at least for Betty.
- 18:43[SPEAKER_01]: That's absolutely true
- 18:45[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, for me it's much younger apparently because ironically which is so silly that all this time I have this photo of my grandparents and my two sisters and I had a wedding something and my grandmother used to make our clothes for us and this picture sits next to me.
- 19:03[SPEAKER_03]: I don't even think about it, but it wasn't until I finished.
- 19:07[SPEAKER_03]: Shooting Amsterdam Empire, and I took a good look at that picture for the first time when I realized I am still dressing the way that that child, the rest, and that I, you know, it wasn't until I played Betty that I really got to, you know, where those socks with, you know, pot and leather shoes, all these kinds of things of like mini dresses, and
- 19:28[SPEAKER_03]: It's like whatever I remember all day was at the time five, six, I don't know.
- 19:34[SPEAKER_03]: I'm still dressing like that and it wasn't until it's like baby that I really got to have a good look at some of my own, you know.
- 19:42[SPEAKER_03]: things like that.
- 19:42[SPEAKER_03]: So it's fun.
- 19:43[SPEAKER_03]: I love that about acting so much that sometimes I learn through a character or something about myself or sometimes I bring my experience of what I've learned to a character.
- 19:52[SPEAKER_03]: But either way, it's sort of this most given take situation of, you know, yeah, it reveals.
- 19:58[SPEAKER_01]: That's great.
- 19:59[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
- 20:00[SPEAKER_01]: And it's so fun watching you in this too.
- 20:01[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, just seeing you tap into those sometimes insane moments, you know, that are in here and just
- 20:08[SPEAKER_01]: owning it.
- 20:09[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I think there's lots of times in here that there's a lot of actors that couldn't go there, you know, just to whatever's going on.
- 20:15[SPEAKER_01]: So again, I get I got nothing but compliments for what you brought to the character and how this whole series looks.
- 20:22[SPEAKER_01]: I love the cinematic.
- 20:24[SPEAKER_01]: feel of it and throwbacks sometimes, I guess, you know, like the whole thing.
- 20:29[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, I've only seen about half the series, I think.
- 20:32[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm excited to see where the story is.
- 20:34[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, there's more it to come.
- 20:36[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
- 20:37[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
- 20:37[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's such a pleasure to talk to you about it.
- 20:39[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much for taking the time.
- 20:41[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you for taking this time.
- 20:42[SPEAKER_03]: I hope you have a great rest of your day.
- 20:44[SPEAKER_01]: My thanks to Pham Key Amsterdam Empire, out on Netflix, and thanks to you for checking on the episode, hit that subscribe button before you get out of here, so you can keep up with all the interviews that we put out every single week, Spotify, Apple podcast, NPR, WFPK.org, consequence, YouTube for the video versions, or anywhere you get your podcast from, you can subscribe to Kyle, Meredith with, and please give this series a rating and leave a review while you're at it.
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- 21:59[SPEAKER_01]: And that does it for another edition.
- 22:01[SPEAKER_01]: I'm Kyle Meredith.
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