According to Esko Roinee, the continuity of Roinee’s acting family is threatened, but that doesn’t bother her.
Esko Roine photographed at the Viikinsaari summer theater’s media event in the Aleksanteri theater. Pete Anikari
Iltalehti met actor Esko Roine, 81, at the Viikinsaaari summer theater media event at the beginning of May.
– I have all the diseases of a person of this age, but let’s wait for new ones to come, Roine answers the question of how he is doing, Roine says at the Viikinsaaari summer theater media conference.
Roine, who has been acting since the 1960s, is still hitting the stage, even though he has already reduced his work a lot.
– Little by little, you have to set the conditions so to speak. In other words, the intention is to gradually reduce these theater jobs and become a pensioner, Roine laughs and says that as an actor, you certainly can’t completely get rid of projects and jobs.
– They’re starting to push the national pension even if you don’t want it, actor Aimo Räsänen, who participated in the media event, sighs from the other side of the table.
Roine tells the story of the late actor About Leif Wagnerwho performed monologues in the Tampere theater during his retirement days. One day Roine had met Wagner in the dressing room and greeted him.
– He was absolutely horrified and asked if he could do this and if he could do this without asking anything. I asked what had happened. He said that he had received a letter in the mail this morning saying that he had been granted an old-age pension, Roine laughs.
Esko Roine is preparing for retirement. Pete Anikari
The acting family is dying out
A biography of Esko Roinee will be published in September Starring Esko Roinewhich is written by Antti Heikkinen.
– He said there that if you stop now, the 90-year-old theater family of Roinee will die from Tampere.
With his statement, Heikkinen meant that the grandchildren have not expressed a desire to go on stage – at least not yet. Roinee’s daughter has twins in their twenties, the son has children under school age.
However, Roine is not upset if the family does not find successors to the stage.
– This is such a brutal job, Roine describes acting.
– Especially now, when this world has changed an awful lot and the employment of young people is very questionable. I know a large number of young graduates, even those who have completed their master’s degrees, who are thinking about changing fields even though they haven’t acted a day yet, Roine laments the situation of actors.
Roine’s sister Eila Roine died in December of last year when she was 94 years old. The actress siblings, i.e. Eila, Liisa and Esko, were in close contact with each other until the end. Roine says that she visited her sister once a week or once every two weeks, before her death.
The longing is strong. Roine sighs quietly that this is how life goes.