Jean Grey Actress Famke Janssen Talks Sexism & Ageism in 'X-Men' Movies

Famke Janssen has played mutant Jean Grey in multiple X-Men movies, but this year the role will be played for the first time by a much younger actress: Sophie Turner, best known for playing Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones. As it turns out, the outspoken Dutch actress has a lot to say about the recasting decision -- and she says it's a symptom of Hollywood's sexism and ageism.

Entertainment Weekly recently approached Janssen about Fox's decision to recast her superhero role, and it seems she's not too pleased. Though sharing she doesn't have a problem with Turner (she even told the British actress that she was "perfect" and now she "can't wait to see the movie" to catch her performance), Janssen believes the decision to have younger actresses in the X-Men franchise is a sign of Hollywood's ageism.

"In the X-Men series, they've been doing this for years," Janssen told the outlet about the studio recasting roles played by younger actresses. "Although women, it's interesting because they're replaced, and the older versions -- or more mature, whatever the politically correct version of that is -- are never to be seen again. Whereas the men are allowed to be both ages. Sexism. I think that I should be back along with my younger version and the way that we've seen it with Magneto [Ian McKellen] and Professor X [Patrick Stewart]."

via GIPHY

To be fair, though, when the two X-Men timeframes met up on 2014's Days of Future Past, a few of the original female cast members appeared, including Halle Berry as Storm and Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde. Janssen's character had in fact died a long time before the events of the film even took place (during X-Men: The Last Stand), so it wouldn't have made a lot of sense if she appeared -- still, Janssen did appear near the end of the film.

Yahoo! Movies reports that Janssen still wishes her character's alter ego, Dark Phoenix, had been better treated in the films, saying the story could have easily been a stand-alone movie. Still, she hopes there are plans to make the story in the future, though if the project goes forward, it's unclear whether it'd be her or Turner taking the role.

Turner will début as Jean Grey on this summer's X-Men: Apocalypse.

via GIPHY