By Lynn Barker

She first came to our attention as James Bond assassin Xenia Onatop and you might have seen her as a the hot, up-to-no-good, wife of Geoffrey Rush in House on Haunted Hill. He was Ally McBeal’s love interest and was in Disturbing Behavior with Katie Holmes and Nick Stahl. In X-2, Famke Janssen and James Marsden repeat their original X-Men roles as telepathic Jean Grey and her optic powered supercrush Cyclops. Both are part of a love triangle with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) that is more fully explored in the new film.

When we talked with the duo recently, we got an earfull of on the set madness and blooper-reel moments that made for a very funny conversation. Anything is fair game with these two. Famke brought her constant companion, a cute doggie name Licorice who eventually curled up in her lap and went to sleep.

We asked the two about their superpowers of choice: Famke: To be in multiple places at the same time or a time travel thing would be great. Travelling is such a nightmare now. James: I would forward my power to my wife. She could take Rebecca’s power (shapeshifting). Hey that would be fun. Do a little role playing. But I always picked that I wanted to fly before.

James: Yeah. He’s a little over two. He plays with my action figure which is kind of cool. I don’t know that he knows it’s me but he calls it ‘daddy doll’. He was calling it ‘daddy’ for a long time and we thought that was kind of weird. Make sure he knows it’s actually a toy.

TeenHollywood: Is your wife an actress?

James: Yeah, she is but we have our boy so the last two years she’s been kind of out of the business and been mom. We’ve been together for seven years. She’s from Nashville and I’m from Oklahoma. Not native Californians. We just stay in our house in Studio City and never leave. Not really, but we don’t get out that often. I travel enough with movies. You associate traveling with work so it’s just nice to sit in your own place and be a hermit.

TeenHollywood: How weird is it that, with Cyclops’ visor, more people recognize you with sunglasses on?

James: You’re right. Most actors would put sunglasses on to be incognito and I’m the direct opposite.

TeenHollywood: The junior X-Men actors said they all hung out while shooting. How about you guys?

Famke: We all hung out. Ian McKellan always had parties at his house in Vancouver. He was the ring leader.

At this point, James starts grinning. Should he tell?

James: Have you guys seen the gag reel? It’s hilarious. There was a photo taken at Ian’s house of Patrick [Stewart] and Ian and Bryan Cox doing this kind of follies dance step thing and it looked kind of retarded and they intercut it with when Bryan Cox comes into the President and goes ‘look at these photos’ and the President goes ‘what the hell is this?’ In the gag reel they cut to this photo of Ian and Patrick with a feather boa around their necks. It’s great. [huge laughter] It’ll probably be on the DVD. I would actually like to find out how much money we lost on the amount of film that was rolled on these ridiculous things. The gag reel is like an hour and a half long.

Famke: There was also Hugh running around naked. [whoa…do tell]

James: He was running through the corridors in this nightmare scene and he had this little flesh-colored speedo on. He was like, I don’t wanna, let’s just take it off. They had a closed set but [director] Bryan [played a joke]. He got all the women on the set and as Hugh turns this corner they lined up and he’s going rrrowwww [growling.] He’s getting in character and screaming and they’re all like yeahhhh! [Famke and James clap and cheer]. My mother was there right in the front! Hugh, he’s so great, he just went up and hugged them and turned around and stuck his butt out. I can’t believe we ever got the movie made.

TeenHollywood: How was it to come back after a few years and play these characters again?

Famke: I felt rusty in the beginning. I kind of had forgotten what she was about. I just worked my way through it.

James: All the familiarity came back once we got on set and into the costumes. [At this point an assistant carries Famke’s pooch Licorice, a cute Boston Terrier, into the room and puts him on her lap.. everybody oooohs and ahs. James continues…] Everywhere we go it’s awwwwww.

Famke: But you bring your kid all the time.

James: My kid doesn’t bite people. I can answer more questions about Licorice than I can about this movie. [Licorice starts sloppily lapping water out of a saucer on the table]. Okay, getting back into character. It was kind of easy. There were two years that passed. Once I put that costume on again..and it was modified, it was two pieces instead of one, it was like no time had passed at all. I’m in the visor and the suit and I’m comfortable again.

TeenHollywood: How weird is it to try to act without using your eyes? [Cyclops always wears the visor over his eyes].

James: There’s no way of getting around it. It was a handicap, trying to figure out acting tricks around it. On this film, I think I’ve got it down. It really comes down to believing in the dialogue and acting as if you weren’t handicaped by the glasses.

TeenHollywood: How is working with director Bryan Singer?

Famke: I think he’s very good. My favorite example of Bryan is he’s standing by the monitor and it looks like his attention is going everywhere but on the actor but at the end of the rehearsal, he’ll pick out exactly what did or didn’t work about it. You never think you have his full attention but he’s so clever at finding out what works.

TeenHollywood: What are the challenges as actors when there is so much physical action?

Famke: For us, I don’t think we’re so physical in the film. It felt like the Special Olympics towards the end but I have a lot of green screen. I’m limping around. You (looking at James) are sort of carrying me.

James: The funniest shot in the movie is us trying to get on the jet. We’re the last to get on. She’s limping. It’s sad. We’re the lame X-Men.

Famke: That part of the movie felt the longest while we were shooting it so I really felt that all I did in the whole film was limp around.

TeenHollywood: There is a love triangle in this movie; you guys and Hugh. Did you all discuss it?

James: I don’t talk to him but she does.

Famke: I discussed it privately in my room (she’s teasing).

TeenHollywood: Ooookay. Is there an audience for this film outside of the comic book fans?

Famke: I think that every age group, every generation is being represented and there’s a lot of great, strong female characters. There’s something for everybody. It’s an action, sci-fi film that’s smarter than you would generally expect for the genre. I think it has humor. Kids will get a lot out of it but adults will too on a completely different level.

James: It’s like The Simpsons…not really.

TeenHollywood: Does that green screen effects work [where you are acting against something that isn’t there] ever get easier?

Famke: I’m the Queen of the green screen. It’s one of those things that, unless you trust your director, it’s really hard to do. If you work with somebody you trust and they tell you exactly what’s going to happen, what you’re supposedly looking at, it’s much easier. I’ve done two movies with Bryan and in this case Mike Fink who is our special effects guy, is always present when you do those things and he’ll show you an animatic and you get a good sense of what it is.

James: Those animatics really help. It’s a way of animating the storyboards in computer form.

Famke: It’s very precise. The hand needs to be in a very specific place and the wind machines are blowing and they’re gigantic and you can’t hear anything and the camera is so far away and you’re standing in the cold. It’s a matter of knowing exactly what you have to do to make it work. We had no idea what it was going to finally look like.

TeenHollywood: Famke, you are in Eulogy with Kelly Preston and Zooey Deschanel. What is that about?

Famke: I just finished it about a week ago and it’s got a great cast. It’s a comedy. First time director wrote the script and the script is hilarious. It’s also got Ray Romano, Deborah Winger and Hank Azzaria. I play Kelly Preston’s gay partner and she takes me home to her father’s funeral and announces our wedding there which doesn’t go over very well. The whole family is so crazy that that’s the least of it.

TeenHollywood: James are you going to do The Preacher (based on the comic) playing Jesse?

James: It’s a little premature because it’s not ready yet. But, they have come to me with an offer. I became a huge fan of the comic once I learned about it. I would be very excited about playing that role but all the elements aren’t together just yet.

Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.