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Jean Grey actress Famke Janssen didn’t know who the X-Men were when she was cast, so she had to ask her local comic shop
Jean Grey actress Famke Janssen once walked into a comic book shop and asked if anybody knew who the X-Men were
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The X-Men are easily one of the most recognizable comic book teams ever published. In 1991 X-Men #1 sold over 8 million copies, making it the best-selling single issue of a comic book ever published. The X-Men franchise made over $85 million in merchandise sales in 1994 alone.
Despite all this, Famke Janssen had never heard of the group when she was cast as Jean Grey in Bryan Singer’s 2000 X-Men film. To be fair, Janssen grew up in the Netherlands, where she managed to avoid the X-Men craze.
“That’s the hilarious part, I literally had never heard of the X-Men,” Famke Janssen confessed during a panel at Spacecon 2026. “And I was filming that little film I mentioned before with Jon Favreau, Love & Sex, and because I was the lead in it, I was filming ever single day. My agent kept calling going, ‘They want to see you for X-Men. They want you to audition for X-Men.’ I was like, ‘What’s X-Men?’ And it wasn’t until I heard who the director was, and what he had done before, Bryan Singer, and I was like, oh wait, this sounds really interesting.”
So, what to do? Janssen had a plan to research the project. “On my day off I went to a comic book store,” she explained. “I said, ‘Have you heard of something called X-Men?’ And they looked at me like, ‘Where have you been?’ And then all of a sudden, whoa, this is big, this is massive. And then I started reading them and doing the research and realizing this is an incredible universe.”
I wish that moment had been caught on film, because I really want to see the reactions she got. I wonder if those comic shop owners realized they were educating Jean Grey herself? Does that technically make them Charles Xavier?
To me, my X-Men fans. Want more about Marvel's mutants? You don't need Cerebro to find what you should read next... we made a list!
- The best X-Men comics
- Every Omega-Level X-Men mutant ranked by power
- How to read the Marvel Comics' X-Men in order following the Krakoa era
- Why the Krakoan Age of X-Men was ended by Marvel
- How to watch the X-Men movies in order
About Spacecon
SPACECON is America’s newest comic con created by PMX Events. Attendees will see celebrity guests from the likes of Star Wars, Star Trek, Guardians of the Galaxy and other intergalactic movies and TV shows. Con goers will discover an immersive show experience to get up-close and personal with their favorite celebrities, voice artists, and comic artists with hundreds of exhibitors and special attractions to exhilarate any fandom.
Dates
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San Antonio, Texas
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