Boy Kills World’s Famke Janssen & Brett Gelman On Their “Shakespearean” Villains & Female Bond Hopes

Famke Janssen and Brett Gelman are a villainous family in Boy Kills World. After finding international success with her role as Bond Girl Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye, Janssen has become well-known for her turns as Jean Grey in Fox’s X-Men franchise, as well as in the Liam Neeson-led Taken trilogy and Netflix’s Hemlock Grove. Gelman, meanwhile, is better known for his work in the comedic field, having starred in everything from Adult Swim’s Eagleheart to the BBC/Prime Video’s Fleabag, as well as the past three seasons of Netflix’s Stranger Things.

In Boy Kills World, Janssen stars as Hilda Van Der Koy, the head of the affluent family who runs the city the movie is set in and hosts the brutal annual event of The Culling, in which people are rounded up for a televised execution. Gelman stars as Hilda’s brother, Gideon, who largely uses his position of power to add theatricality to the family’s bloodshed as he strives to be a writer. The two are targeted by Bill Skarsgård’s Boy for revenge after Hilda killed his mother and sister in front of him and left him deaf and mute.

Alongside Janssen, Gelman, and Skarsgård, the ensemble Boy Kills World cast includes Andrew Koji, Isaiah Mustafa, Michelle Dockery, Jessica Rothe, Sharlto Copley, Yayan Ruhian and Archer‘s H. Jon Benjamin as Boy’s inner voice. Expertly blending stylish and bloody action set pieces with a self-aware comedic voice, the movie is a tone-shifting blast for fans of the action genre.

Ahead of the movie’s release, Screen Rant interviewed Famke Janssen and Brett Gelman to discuss Boy Kills World, their villain’s motivations and “Shakespearean” vibes despite the movie’s “video game“-like aesthetic, and Janssen’s hopes for a female Bond.

Janssen & Gelman Connected To The Deep Layers Of Their Boy Kills World Villains

While both have experience playing villainous characters, Janssen and Gelman ultimately found the deeper layers of their Boy Kills World villains to be a major selling point for them, with the two humorously acknowledging the “Shakespearean drama” parallels for them, despite the movie feeling like a “video game“:

Famke Janssen: To me, Hilda was just this beautiful lost soul that couldn’t face her own reality anymore. She literally ended up in a cave by herself, facing our own demons and getting further and further lost in that, you know, beautiful schizophrenic mindset of herself. So that was an interesting journey to explore for sure.

Brett Gelman: Yeah, for me, I thought it was a really hilarious detail to him that he was actually a misunderstood writer. That was his real calling, not being a homicidal dictator, but I thought that there was a lot of pathos to him too. A lot of pain of just this incredibly complex character who is facing this moment of having guilt and regret for how he’s lived his life, and that he has a dream that he may or may not achieve, and he’s sort of caught in this family. It’s sort of a prison to him, in the situation that he has. So, all of that pain, and then all of that humor, was really exciting to play.

Famke Janssen: And before anyone gets confused because of our answers, we’re not in a Shakespearean drama. [Laughs] We’re in a video game.

Brett Gelman: I know, I’m always like, “Should I make these answers, ‘I really like when he cracks the jokes and shoots the gun.’?” [Laughs] No, I mean, my answers are always way more pretentious than what they should be. I’m a pretentious guy. What can I say? If you have a phone conversation with me, there’s not one single person who doesn’t want to get off the phone eventually. I keep everybody on the phone.

Janssen’s Ready For A Female Bond & Loved Her Hemlock Grove Reunion With Skarsgård

As the James Bond franchise looks for its next leading star after Daniel Craig’s ending in No Time to Die, various theories and fan casts have been shared by those once involved in the franchise. For Janssen, however, there’s one clear choice for who should next take up the mantle:

Famke Janssen: Female Bond, come on! I’m available. Time for a female. Time for a female. How about me?

Brett Gelman: Would I be a good Bond?

Famke Janssen: You can be my sidekick. [Chuckles]

Brett Gelman: I’ll be Bond after the female Bond, and I stay the same age that I am after she’s retired. [Chuckles]

Amidst the villainous fun and chaotic action in the movie, Janssen enjoys a reunion with her Hemlock Grove co-star Bill Skarsgård as they find themselves on opposite sides. The former relished the opportunity to get to act with Skarsgård yet again, feeling that their shared history was useful “ammunition” for the characters’ relationship:

Famke Janssen: Hemlock Grove, we had a whole history, yes. I actually really enjoyed the fact that we had this history of working together 10 years ago on Hemlock Grove. By the time we came to set, all of that was there, our common history of work that we did for three years, and then just playing with the layers of what that reunion was for us and for the characters. So, I used it as ammunition and just added layers and layers to this madwoman.

About Boy Kills World

Skarsgård stars as “Boy” who vows revenge after his family is murdered by Hilda Van Der Koy (Janssen), the deranged matriarch of a corrupt post-apocalyptic dynasty that left the boy orphaned, deaf and voiceless. Driven by his inner voice, one which he co-opted from his favorite childhood video game, Boy trains with a mysterious shaman (Ruhian) to become an instrument of death and is set loose on the eve of the annual culling of dissidents. Bedlam ensues as Boy commits bloody martial arts mayhem, inciting a wrath of carnage and blood-letting. As he tries to get his bearings in this delirious realm, Boy soon falls in with a desperate resistance group, all the while bickering with the apparent ghost of his rebellious little sister.

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Source: Screen Rant Plus

Boy Kills World

Boy Kills World is an action thriller film by director Moritz Mohr, released in 2024. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, a young man simply known as “Boy” lives through terrible trauma after his family is killed by a woman named Hilda Van Der Koy, who currently rules the land. Now older and more bloodthirsty than ever, Boy heads into the fray to claim revenge while liberating the world from her tyrannical grasp.

Director

Moritz Mohr

Release Date

April 26, 2024

Studio(s)

Nthibah Pictures , Hammerstone Studios , Ventaro Film

Distributor(s)

Capstone Global

Writers

Tyler Burton Smith , Arend Remmers , Moritz Mohr

Cast

Bill Skarsgard , Famke Janssen , Jessica Rothe , Michelle Dockery , Brett Gelman , Isaiah Mustafa , Yayan Ruhian , Nicholas Crovetti

Runtime

115 Minutes