Interview Michiel Huisman (Unmade Beds)

Amsterdam, Cinéart headquarters, Wednesday July 22, 2009

Although the number of successful international film actors from the Netherlands can be counted on one hand, this number is steadily increasing. Rutger Hauer and Jeroen Krabbé were of course always the Dutch pride in Hollywood, but over the years several names have been added: Famke Janssen and Yorick van Wageningen have already done well abroad. Nowadays, Carice van Houten in particular is in the spotlight due to her breakthrough with ‘Zwartboek’, which landed her in the Tom Cruise vehicle ‘Valkyrie’, but there is more movement in our little country. Michiel Huisman, who was in ‘Zwartboek’ together with Carice and had major roles in ‘Phileine Says Sorry’, ‘Floris’ and ‘Johan’, has suddenly left. In costume drama ‘The Young Victoria’, by ‘CRAZY’ director Jean-Marc Vallée, Huisman shared the screen with big names such as Paul Bettany, Miranda Richardson and Jim Broadbent, and in the English production ‘Margot’, which has just completed filming, he plays the legendary ballet dancer Rudi Nureyev. With the drama ‘Unmade Beds’, released in the Netherlands on August 13, by Argentinian filmmaker Alexis Dos Santos, Huisman – unlike most of his globetrotting compatriots – finds himself in the middle of the cinema corner. This was much to the delight of the actor himself, as revealed in a very pleasant conversation with Movie2movie. Huisman – unlike most of his globetrotting compatriots – finds himself in the middle of the cinema corner. This was much to the delight of the actor himself, as revealed in a very pleasant conversation with Movie2movie. Huisman – unlike most of his globetrotting compatriots – finds himself in the middle of the cinema corner. This was much to the delight of the actor himself, as revealed in a very pleasant conversation with Movie2movie.

“It’s great that there is so much enthusiasm for a film that is really on the arthouse circuit,” Huisman says at the start of the conversation. “That is also the container in which I select my films. It was also, when I was asked to audition for this film, one of the first things I realized. I first watched Alexis’ previous film, ‘Glue’, which is beautiful, but also a true arthouse film. Then I read the script of ‘Unmade Beds’ and then I really thought “wow!”. This is one of those movies I would rent myself. Or buy. And would like to watch it in the cinema. And then it’s really cool that you can participate in that yourself.”

Working on an arthouse film may have been a bit of a dream for Michiel Huisman, but in the case of the loose, shot with a small crew ‘Unmade Beds’, this also meant a lot of improvisation and relatively little guidance. Could the actor handle that? “With Unmade Beds, the script was just the starting point for the scenes and everything was actually created on set. So there was a backbone – which was nice, otherwise I might panic a bit – but there was room to go much further,” says the actor, who naturally knows what to do with such freedom. “Even when there isn’t much space, I always have the urge to surprise a little. I believe it really helps to be ‘in the moment’. It may be a bit of a common statement from actors, but it is one of the most important and difficult things. That you really experience it all, as it were, when you shoot a scene.”

“If things happen spontaneously at that moment, then you should actually try to open yourself up to those influences. That really encouraged Alexis,” Huisman continues. “He just let us play a scene without shouting ‘stop’. It’s strange at first, but at a certain point you know what’s coming, and then you just keep going. Sometimes something happens. Then something goes wrong and I knock something over, causing my opponent to laugh. And then suddenly I start again with the scene we did three minutes earlier in the same take. Then I spontaneously say something like: ‘Oh, by the way, I haven’t told you yet that…’ You can imagine that something like that is a treat for me as an actor.”

Of course, the ‘Unmade Beds’ party didn’t just happen to Huisman. This was preceded by a fruitful career, in which his role in Verhoeven’s ‘Zwartboek’ was probably directly important: “I think the casting director had seen me in ‘Zwartboek’ and therefore invited me to audition,” the director suggests. actor. “She had made a list of actors and I was on it. And the director then started Googling those actors individually. When he googled me he found a photo of Tara (Elders, his wife; BR) and me at some party showing us both with mustaches – I had a regular mustache and Tara had drawn one – and in ‘ Unmade Beds’ also has such a moment. He thought it was a cool photo, but above all such a good omen that he thought: ‘Okay, I want to meet him’. And that’s how it happened.”

It’s a beautiful story. It remains fascinating how important developments can depend on small coincidences. This also applies to (the beginning of) Huisman’s film career in general. He did not attend acting school or film school, but was invited by chance to participate in a film school graduation film project when he was about ten years old, and since then he has played small roles, some of which at one point moment grew into something bigger. “The best things from that time were actually ‘Suzy Q’, when I was sixteen, and ‘Excluded’, two Telefilms,” says Huisman. “About the same period I got a regular supporting role in the series “Spangen”, in which I played Monique van de Ven’s son for five or six years. That’s actually how it went a bit. From somewhat commercial to, when I got a bit older, more interesting things in terms of content. So my training was just practice, really.”

You would immediately recommend it to everyone to gain knowledge in practice, if that practice is as attractive as it was and has become for Huisman. The actor has already made beautiful things and worked with all kinds of interesting and great filmmakers. What has actually been his biggest or most beautiful challenge so far? “It of course depends on what you are offered,” Huisman answers after a moment of reflection, “but I try to find a challenge every time in the roles I choose. That is the only way you can ensure that you continue to grow as a person and as an actor.”

“In fact, a new role is often the biggest challenge,” the actor continues. “’Phileine Says Sorry’ was a really big challenge for me when I did it, and that film did a lot for me as an actor. I really exposed myself literally and figuratively. And that shaped me as an actor. But then I had other big challenges. Like ‘Unmade Beds’. And ‘Margot’, which I just finished.” Huisman always sees his roles as challenges in a positive sense. He never dwells on the idea that a film or role would be too overwhelming. “The set of ‘The Young Victoria’ was actually the most logical place to think ‘Wow, I can’t handle it.’ But that feeling only lasts for fifteen minutes or so, and then I relax. Then I think, ‘I’m an actor, and I’m just standing in some outfit right now, and I have text. It’ll actually be fine. I can just do this.”

The main reasons that ‘The Young Victoria’ was extra exciting for Huisman were the language and the tight stylization of that film: “It was the first film I had to do in English, and unlike ‘Unmade Beds’, where you have many nationalities and the accents do not matter, it was very important for that role that the accent was very good. British with a German accent.” All those accents will undoubtedly be difficult, but in ‘Unmade Beds’ the actor seems to be able to act in English without any problems. Yet he finds acting in English much more difficult. “It’s just not your native language. So that’s really difficult. I especially notice it when I come back and have to film here again. Then I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s so relaxed, in your own language! How easy that is!’ It’s just an extra barrier.

“What was also difficult with ‘The Young Victoria’,” says Huisman, “was that the stylization was very precise. So I wasn’t free to think for a moment during a take: ‘I actually like it if I take a sip of water now.’ No, then there was complete panic. ‘What do you mean, a sip of water? We hadn’t agreed on that, had we?’ That’s difficult. At first it was intimidating, but it is also educational, because you get to a point where you just do that. At a certain point I could agree with that too. What is clear is that it was a completely different vibe than ‘Unmade Beds’. That film is, in everything respects, at the opposite end of the spectrum from ‘The Young Victoria’.”

Director Alexis Dos Santos compares his film with, among other things, ‘In the Mood For Love’, a film that is personally very special for Huisman, as it is the first film he watched with his wife. It must be special to be in a film with a similar atmosphere. And the actor actually sees parallels in ‘Unmade Beds’ with that beautiful romantic drama by Wong Kar-Wai: “At least in the way in which people are together on the one hand but always just pass each other on the other. In that house, that squat, that happens very literally: he comes out of the shower and she leaves her jacket behind, and then he finds it again. There are a lot of little elements in the film that you may not even notice during the first viewing, but later you think: ‘Hey, wait a minute…” That’s almost “In the Mood For Love”-ian. But other than that, I actually want to stay away from comparisons and use it more as a source of inspiration. Just like Daniel Johnston is a great source of inspiration for him, which you really hear in the music of the film. And other artists.”

The music is indeed a prominent and important aspect of ‘Unmade Beds’ and very atmospheric, in a similar way to Air’s soundtrack to ‘The Virgin Suicides’. Huisman himself also contributed to the soundtrack of ‘Unmade Beds’. Not surprising, of course, when you consider that he is also a musician himself. Huisman is very pleased with Dos Santos’ overall choice of music for the film: “Before we started filming, I received a CD from the director, with the information that it would be the soundtrack of the film. And I thought it was crazy! One brilliant, very obscure, but awesome song after another. Then you will quickly win me over,” says the actor enthusiastically, who finds the interplay between music and images very successful: “When I look back at the film, I first find the visual aspect striking. It looks like the ultimate music video. If you’re a cool British band, I’d ask Alexis to make your video because it looks really cool. And on the other hand you have that beautiful, weird soundtrack. I think those are two prominent features of this film.”

In addition to acting, Huisman also sings in the film and plays the guitar: an ideal combination of his different artistic abilities. He also wrote the song all by himself. “In the script, my character was already a musician, and there was already a song at the end, but it kind of depended on whether the actor who was going to play this character made music. Alexis knew I was doing this, so when we started talking about it, we decided right away that I was going to do it live anyway, just like all the other bands you see playing in the movie, which I think is really cool by the way. . Then we looked for the right song for a while. He had a suggestion for that, but it was very Daniel Johnston-esque. It was written by a friend of his and recorded on a cassette recorder, played and sung very poorly, but it was all vibe. It really went straight to your heart, really good, but almost impossible to reproduce. There was little room for me to make it my own or take it to a higher level. I did try, but we both concluded that while it was an option, something better could take its place. And then I wrote the song myself that ultimately ended up in the film.”

Huisman has already released several CDs with Dutch music, but in ‘Unmade Beds’ he sings in English. Does he perhaps have the ambition or plan to also release English-language albums? “I have been working in both English and Dutch for a while now, but no one knows that. I just do that at home. But I don’t know yet whether I also want to release English-language material. I definitely want to start making music again, but I no longer have the plan to make that tour of the radio. I’m just having so much fun with film now that I want to keep the absolute freedom in my music to create whatever I want. I don’t have much time at the moment, but when I write it is often in English.”

It may not matter in which language he sings: the language of music is universal. Just like another language: that of the body, or love. ‘Unmade Beds’ contains some tastefully filmed sex scenes, which must often be difficult and awkward to act. And this will always remain the case, even though Huisman has of course already gained a lot of experience in this area: “’Phileine’ was of course a very good baptism by fire. After that film I actually didn’t think it was that bad or exciting anymore. It’s just a bit weird and uncomfortable sometimes. But I don’t mind it anymore. I’ve done it so many times, and most of the stuff I’m in – TV shows, movies – it’s there, so it’s okay.” That’s not too bad, then. Just like the fact that his wife doesn’t get jealous when he behaves in an amorous way with another woman in a movie: “My wife is such a cool chick. He even practices with me the night before. Feel free to put that in,” laughs Huisman. Of course, it also helps a lot that his wife, Tara Elders, is also an actress. They both know the ins and outs and can strengthen each other in a broad sense, both relationally and professionally: “She is definitely my greatest source of inspiration. We share the same ideas and she nourishes me enormously. I am convinced that I have grown as an actor since we have been together. Enormous. Because she is just such a rich person,” says the visibly proud Huisman. ” laughs Huisman. Of course, it also helps a lot that his wife, Tara Elders, is also an actress. They both know the ins and outs and can strengthen each other in a broad sense, both relationally and professionally: “She is definitely my greatest source of inspiration. We share the same ideas and she nourishes me enormously. I am convinced that I have grown as an actor since we have been together. Enormous. Because she is just such a rich person,” says the visibly proud Huisman. ” laughs Huisman. Of course, it also helps a lot that his wife, Tara Elders, is also an actress. They both know the ins and outs and can strengthen each other in a broad sense, both relationally and professionally: “She is definitely my greatest source of inspiration. We share the same ideas and she nourishes me enormously. I am convinced that I have grown as an actor since we have been together. Enormous. Because she is just such a rich person,” says the visibly proud Huisman. I am convinced that I have grown as an actor since we have been together. Enormous. Because she is just such a rich person,” says the visibly proud Huisman. I am convinced that I have grown as an actor since we have been together. Enormous. Because she is just such a rich person,” says the visibly proud Huisman.

In Huisman’s latest film, ‘Margot’, the actor plays the famous ballet dancer Nureyev, a role that offered whole new challenges. Specific steps were impossible to do, but certain postures and movements were feasible: “The dance things you see me do in the film are mainly mime scenes from well-known ballet performances. Or, for example, a beautiful scene from Swan Lake where he takes her wings and rocks her. We were just able to sell that after three weeks of intense training. But especially the upper body. And then of course we had the dancers from the National Ballet, who we shot with a lot of flair and backlight and who you can see in full detail.” What particularly attracted Huisman to the film was the combination of the exuberant dance scenes and the dramatic, conventional acting. “The theatricality of the dance was crazy. Really cool, also because it’s not the only thing in the film. The dance is, I hope, interwoven with the development of the story in a very nice, dramatic way. So I get the chance to do that whole dramatic ballet – I really had to break through a barrier to be able to do that – and to portray the character of Rudolf Nureyev himself. In the locker room. Or at home. Or hanging on the couch. That is very nice to be able to play next to each other in a film.” to be able to do that – and to be able to portray the character of Rudolf Nureyev himself. In the locker room. Or at home. Or hanging on the couch. That is very nice to be able to play next to each other in a film.” to be able to do that – and to be able to portray the character of Rudolf Nureyev himself. In the locker room. Or at home. Or hanging on the couch. That is very nice to be able to play next to each other in a film.”