“Who wouldn’t want to work with Fedja van Huêt?” Producer Errol Nayci makes itimmediately clear that the actor is always an added value, whether in a TVseries, film or play. Multifunctional too.
Just look at Van Huêt’s recent work: apparently effortlessly he switches fromthe adventurous entrepreneur Anthony Fokker into Flying Dutchmen via thenerdy plane spotter Mat Herben in The Year of Fortuyn to a horror father in_Speak No Evil_. In the latter film, he and his wife Karina Smulders play avery sinister couple.
“You can go either way with him,” says Nayci. “When you look at him, somethingalways happens. He can play both powerful and vulnerable. You don’t see thatoften.”
During the previous edition of the Netherlands Film Festival, Van Huêt (TheHague, 1973) took the stage with a Golden Calf for his leading role in TheCondemnation. In that film about the Deventer murder case, he portrayed thetenacious journalist Bas Haan. This year the film will be on the NFF_narcosis_ premiered, a family drama about mourning in which Van Huêt plays afather who disappears after a dive. His wife, played by Thekla Reuten, has todeal with the loss together with her young children. The film is the Dutchentry for the Oscars.
Character
if narcosis is nominated for an Oscar, it comes full circle: when Van Huêtwas still at drama school in Maastricht, he already played the leading role in_Character_ a father-son drama by director Mike van Diem that won an Oscar in1998.
Van Huêt flourished as an actor with Hollandia, a theater group that for along time played alone on location: in market gardeners, car scrap yards andfactories. Such an avant-garde approach makes actors more than usual part ofthe creative process. You learn to adjust the space to your liking, somethingthat comes in handy on a film set. At Hollandia he showed all his versatility.As an evil stranger in The bittersweet virtuoso switching between manydouble roles The Fall of the Gods. After he joined Ivo van Hoves ToneelgroepAmsterdam, he shone as a macho seller of castles in the air in Glengarry GlenRoss. In the last ten years he has mainly focused on series and films. Thefact that he can disappear into roles there too will partly have to do withthe great theater experience. Experience that not every famous head has.
The fact that Van Huêt can ‘disappear’ despite his status as a celebrity wasalso nice for director Martijn de Jong. narcosis is his debut film andactually he wasn’t looking for familiar faces. However, Van Huêt’s qualitieswere very suitable for the role. “He only has a few scenes and has to put downan unforgettable father,” says De Jong. “He understands all cinematic means.In a complicated scene we looked for a natural way for Fedja to enter theshot. Suddenly he came with a perfect movement. He went with the cameraman’scadence and understood exactly what was needed at that moment.” ____Nayci: „Heis very generous in his game, actually also an ideal declarant. He can enjoyit when someone else does something nice with a scene. Fedja will neversmile.”
With a pretty face you can also easily be typecast, but he manages to avoidthat. For example, the recent Herben role was a strong piece of counter-casting. Whether he plays villain, hero or sucker, a cash is a slightly painedexpression, as if he finds life hard.
De Jong: „He has a warm appearance, but there is something mysterious aboutit. You can’t really put your finger on it.” A certain reserve. Reuten alsosays that in the press folder narcosis : “He always carries a lot of secretwith him, in and behind his eyes.” Van Huêt calls himself in a recentinterview with The New York Times about Speak No Evil one of the ‘usualsuspects’ in the Netherlands who is ‘blessed with a lot of work’. It is notsurprising that he continues to think internationally, also to preventoverkill in his own country. He will play a villain in a still mysteriousseries by the American tech giant Amazon.