The bestRebecca Romijnmovies and TV shows feature an impressive list of genre films that make her one of the most recognizable faces in entertainment. Romijn got her start as a fashion model in Paris and the United States, which led to her earning the role of Mystique in the firstX-Menmovie. She was impressive with this debut major film role, which allowed her to start picking up more work in both movies and television shows as she quickly became a star.
Since then, she has appeared in thecast of threeX-Menmoviesbefore moving on to thrillers and horror movies and later voice roles in the DCAU. Romijn also found her way to television, picking up her first main role in the short-lived comedyPepper Dennisbeforegetting her biggest break in the comedy-dramaUgly Betty. She has since become a perennial favorite, thanks to roles inThe LibrariansandStar Trek: Strange New Worlds, and she continues to find fan-favorite roles over two decades since her debut.
X-Men: The Last Stand
Cast
X-Men: The Last Stand is the third film in the X-Men series, featuring the conflict between mutants over a newly discovered cure for mutations. The film showcases the X-Men, led by Professor Charles Xavier, opposing the Brotherhood, led by Magneto, as tensions escalate within the mutant community.
The thirdX-MenmovieX-Men: The Last Standis widely consideredone of the worst movies in the franchise’s history. The biggest complaints were that the movie was trying to do too much, bringing in both the mutant cure and theDark Phoenixstoryline and trying to do it all in one film. However, with all the complaints and bad reviews,there were some things that worked well in the movie, with Rebecca Romijn’s role as Mystique a prime example.
The look on Romijn’s face sold it all and made it one of the best moments for the character.
Romijn had starred as Mystique since the firstX-Men, and she was easily the right-hand of Magneto in all three movies. That made the moment where she was shot with a dart that had the mutant cure in it so tragic for the character. The second she lost her mutant powers and reverted into a human, Magneto rejected her despite all she had done for him. The look on Romijn’s face sold it all and made it one of the best moments for the character in any of the original trilogy of movies.
Satanic Panic
Satanic Panic is a 2019 horror-comedy film directed by Chelsea Stardust. The story follows a pizza delivery girl who finds herself the target of a group of satanic worshipers when she delivers an order to a wealthy neighborhood. Starring Hayley Griffith, Ruby Modine, and Rebecca Romijn, the film combines elements of horror with dark humor, portraying an unexpected night of terror and supernatural events.
In 2019, Rebecca Romijn signed on for the horror movieSatanic Panic. Novelist Grady Hendrix wrote the script based on his own story, and Fangoria produced the horror film.Satanic Panicwas a VOD release that saw Hayley Griffith star as Samantha ‘Sam’ Craft, a sexually inexperienced young woman who works as a pizza delivery driver who is kidnapped by a cult that wants to use her womb to summon the Knights Templar deity Baphomet. However, some would-be-rapists have other ideas.
The movie has a slightly positive rating onRotten Tomatoes, sitting at 63%. Rebecca Romijn stars as Danica Ross and is one of the most recognizable names in the cast, alongside Jerry O’Connell and Jordan Ladd. Unlike many major stars who pop up in VOD horror movies,Romijn has a big role in this movie as the leader of the satanic coven. According toDaily Beastcritic Nick Schager, “Romijn elevates much of this ludicrous material through sheer force of personality.”
Femme Fatale
Femme Fatale, directed by Brian De Palma, follows Laure Ash, a woman entangled in a $10-million diamond heist who assumes a new identity. Her past resurfaces when a photograph taken by a tabloid photographer in Paris threatens to unravel her life and attract dangerous foes.
After breaking out in the firstX-Menmovie, Rebecca Romijn got a chance to take her own lead in a thriller. The film was Brian De Palma’sFemme Fatale,andRomijn starred as a thief named Laure Ash, who is part of a team planning a diamond heistat the Cannes Film Festival. However, the heist ends with Laure betraying her partners and escaping Paris with the diamond. When a woman named Lily dies by suicide, Laure takes her identity and leaves for the United States.
Seven years later, she returns to Paris with her new husband, an American ambassador, and when a paparazzo named Nicolas Bardo takes her photo, the people she betrayed recognize her and come after her. Romijn co-stars with Antonio Banderas as Bardo, whom Lily/Laure uses to try to find a way out of trouble once again.Femme Fatalereceived poor reviews from critics thanks to the ridiculed twist ending, althoughit has since become a cult classic for many thriller fans.
Most of Rebecca Romijn’s best roles have come on television, including the one-season run of the fantasy comedy-dramaEastwick. As the title suggests, the TV show is based on the classic horror movieThe Witches of Eastwick. This version seesthe three witches played by Jaime Ray Newman, Lindsay Price, and Rebecca Romijn, while Paul Gross takes on the role of the devil himself, Darryl Van Horne. The story is the same, with three women wishing for something new, leading Van Horne into their lives.
Romijn plays Roxanne Torcoletti, the free-spirited sculptor and widowed mother of one. She is also an outcast to the people of Eastwick, who feel she is responsible for her husband’s death. She can also hear and see dead people, hear people’s thoughts, and see the future. Her character is the equivalent of the one that Cher played in the 1987 film adaptation. The series lasted for one season before ABC canceled it. Despite its cancelation, it earned a People’s Choice Award nomination for Favorite New TV Drama.
The Punisher
The Punisher (2004) is an action film directed by Jonathan Hensleigh, starring Thomas Jane as Frank Castle, an ex-FBI agent who becomes a vigilante after his family is murdered by criminals. John Travolta plays Howard Saint, the menacing underworld boss responsible for Castle’s tragedy. The film follows Castle’s transformation into The Punisher, a relentless anti-hero seeking justice through merciless retribution.
X-Menwasn’t the only superhero franchise that Rebecca Romijn starred in over her career. In 2004, she was also part of the cast for Thomas Jane’sThe Punisher. The film followed twoPunisherMarvel storylines,The Punisher Year OneandWelcome Back, Frank, both by seminalPunishercomic book author Garth Ennis (Preacher). Those comics had the Punisher gaining revenge for his family’s deaths while making new connections in the apartment building in which he lived.
The Punisher: All 3 Movies Ranked, Worst To Best
The Punisher has had 3 movies that are considered low points in the superhero movie genre but here’s which of Frank Castle’s movies is the best one.
These fellow outcasts include Joan (Romijn), Bumpo (John Pinette), and Spacker Dave (Ben Foster). These three end up as allies to Frank Castle (he doesn’t become the Punisher until the film’s ending). Romijn was fantastic in her role as Joan, a quiet woman who escaped from an abusive relationship. Despite her lack of powers and skills,she stands up to fight to protect Frank andproves to be a loyal ally inThe Punisher, which remains highly underrated to this day as a comic book movie.
In 2014, Rebecca Romijn joined the cast ofThe Librarians, a spin-off television series based onThe Librarianfilm franchise. Noah Wyle was back from the movies as Flynn Carsen, who served as Librarian for the last ten years. While he is not a main cast member here, he does help organize a new team of Librarians to continue his work. The team’s job, just as with Flybnb, was to protect the world from a magical and fantasy-like hidden secret reality.
This new team included characters played by Rebecca Romijn, John Harlan Kim, Cassandra Cillian, and Jacob Stone. Romijn plays Colonel Eve Baird, a member of the NATO Anti-Terrorist Unit who is supposed to be the next Guardian while also protecting Flynn. She alsobecomes a romantic interest for Flynn, but the show ensures that she is much more than that, and she carries her own along with the rest of the cast. The series lasted for four seasons and 42 episodes.
X-Men
X-Men, released in 2000, introduces Wolverine and Rogue as they join Professor Xavier’s private academy for mutants. The resident superhero team, the X-Men, led by Xavier, confronts a terrorist organization of mutants with similar abilities, highlighting the ongoing conflict between humans and mutants.
Rebecca Romijn’s first-ever major movie role came in the 2000 Fox Marvel movie,X-Men. While the MCU ended up becoming the more respected comic book movie franchise among fans, the originalX-Menfilms were the big reason that the superhero craze started, with the first two entries in the franchise considered the best superhero movies Marvel had ever made to that point. ForRebecca Romijn, she was one of the main villains in the first movie, as well as the original trilogy.
Romijn earned a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the Saturn Awards for her performance.
Romijn starred as Mystique, who later became a major hero in the later prequel movies. However, in this first trilogy, she was a villain in the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants led by Magneto. She was a mutant who could change her form to look like anyone, but as herself, she was a blue-skinned woman who often played psychological games as much as physical ones. Romijn earned a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the Saturn Awards for her performance.
ugly betty
ABC’s Ugly Betty is the American adaptation of Fernando Gaitan’s world-famous Colombian soap opera Yo Soy Betty, La Fea. Starring America Ferrera as Betty Suarez, the comedy series follows a young woman who lands a job as an editor assistant at Mode, a fashion magazine. Despite her poor sense of fashion, Betty’s can-do attitude and work ethic allows her to thrive in the industry.
Rebecca Romijn’s first major television role came when she joined the cast ofUgly Bettyin 2006. While she was only on the show for the first two seasons in a main role and the third as recurring, she was one of the most important characters on the show and one that broke ground on network television at the time. That is because Romijn played Alexis, a transgender woman in the series. While this is ultimately an example ofhowUgly Bettyhas aged poorly, since the show cast Romijn, a cis actress, instead of a transgender actor, the storylines were well done.
There were a lot of deadnaming and transphobic moments toward Alexis, but they were made by characters who were not always the best of people and were demeaning to everyone. However, Betty made it a point to educate herself on what being a transwoman meant, and she was able to help understand her better. This took the problematic casting and made it not only a positive experience but also an important one for television at the time.Romijn was great in the role and played the character with great nuance.
While the FoxX-Menfranchise was very important in the realm of superhero genre films, it was not the biggest franchise that Rebecca Romijn ever appeared in. Instead,it was her role inStar Trek: Strange New Worldsthat trumped that earlier franchise. Not only did Romijn take on a role in this modern-eraStar Trekseries, but she also helped elevate it into what might be the best series in the franchise sinceStar Trek: The Next Generationdecades earlier.
The series stars Anson Mount as Christopher Pike (the Enterprise captain before Kirk), Ethan Peck as Spock, and Rebecca Romijn as Number One. They were all characters who appeared inThe Original Series, and all three actors redefined the characters masterfully. This series follows the crew of the Enterprise as they explore worlds a decade beforeThe Original Series. Romijn received great reviews for her role, which helped the new series become a critical and fan-beloved addition to the franchise.
X2: X-Men United
X2 is the second installment in the X-Men film series, where Professor Charles Xavier’s team faces growing anti-mutant forces led by Col. William Stryker. In response, mutants Storm, Wolverine, and Jean Grey form an uneasy alliance with adversaries Magneto and Mystique to counter Stryker’s plans to eradicate mutants.
WhileRebecca Romijn might have delivered her best role as Mystique in the thirdX-Menmovie,and the first one made her a star, the second entry remains the best of the original trilogy in almost every way. This film sees a paramilitary unit led by a man named William Stryker attack Professor Xavier’s mansion andabduct several young mutants to experiment on and torture. It is up to the X-Men to save the children and discover what Wolverine has to do with their attackers.
While the main battle was against Stryker and his military forces, the X-Men still had to deal with Mystique and Magneto again.Rebecca Romijnseems to have found her groove as the villain in this movie, as she has one of the better scenes when she approaches Wolverine to toy with him after the initial attack. This also allows Mystique to have her first heroic moments as she helps the X-Men stop Stryker and free the mutants.X2received a Hugo Award nomination.
