Why Famke Janssen Turned Down The Role Of Jadzia Dax In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
"Star Trek" is notoriously good to its actors. If a hard-working performer gets a small gig in one episode of "Star Trek," it becomes incredibly likely they'll be invited back for another. Armin Shimerman, for instance, played a talking treasure chest and a random Ferengi character on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" years before he was offered the main role of Quark on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." Likewise, Tim Russ played a terrorist on the "Next Generation" episode "Starship Mine" (March 29, 1993) before he became Tuvok on "Star Trek: Voyager." There are dozens of other examples. Once you're in the "Star Trek" family, you'll be a part of it for life.
According to the book "Star Trek: The Next Generation 365," by Paula M. Block and Terry J. Erdmann, actress Famke Janssen was offered a venerated spot in the Trek family ... that she turned down. Janssen appeared in the episode "The Perfect Mate" (April 27, 1992) as Kamala, a woman specially trained and genetically equipped to be irresistible to men. Her character was betrothed to a diplomat, a gift meant to ensure peace between two warring alien worlds. Kamala was to "imprint" on her eventual groom, becoming his perfect mate, but a complex set of circumstances had her imprinting on Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) instead. She left the episode marrying a man she could never love.
Around the same time "The Perfect Mate" was filming, Paramount began pre-production on "Deep Space Nine." Show creators Rick Berman and Michael Piller had already invented a character named Jadzia Dax, a young woman implanted with a long-lived symbiont that carried multiple lifetimes of memories from its previous hosts. Janssen was offered the role of Dax, but she refused, wanting to work on her film career instead.
Changing one's spots
It's worth noting that the character of Dax, eventually played by actress Terry Farrell, sported a trail of spots that extended from her forehead, and down the sides of her neck. The spots were a last-minute change to Dax after a prosthetic forehead didn't work out so well. The spots, by the admission of "Trek" makeup artist Michael Westmore, were modeled directly on Janssen's character in "The Perfect Mate."
Berman and Piller were, according to the "365" book, having trouble casting Jadzia Dax, and Famke Janssen just happened to be near the offices on the right day. They liked Janssen and asked her to read for Dax. The idea of starring in a long-running TV series, however, was not what the actress wanted to do at that time. She said:
"I wanted some kind of guarantee that I could do feature films on the side. [...] And while I felt ['Deep Space Nine'] was a great opportunity, I felt I would get lazy as an actor if I didn't keep challenging myself with different parts."
Farrell got the role instead, and Janssen moved to movies. It seems she made the right decision, as 1995 saw her playing Xenia Onatopp, a vicious, lascivious assassin in the James Bond movie "GoldenEye." That same year, she worked with Clive Barker in the unusual horror outing "Lord of Illusions." She would also work with Ted Demme in "Monument Ave.," with Robert Altman in "The Gingerbread Man," with Woody Allen in "Celebrity," and with Robert Rodriguez in "The Faculty." She has also appeared in the three "Taken" movies, and in three "X-Men" movies.
"Deep Space Nine" might have been fun, but her film career seems to have thrived without it.