Derek de Lint: ‘In the meantime, I think The attack is a pretty dated and slow film’

Cleopatra or Shakespeare?

‘Obviously, as an actor, I choose Shakespeare. But I’m going for Cleopatra, the last pharaoh. I always wanted to go to Egypt so badly and now I was allowed to, for the program in the flesh†

‘I try to get to know six historical figures and find out what they looked like. For Shakespeare I went to England, for Joan of Arc to France, for Saint Nicholas to Bari in Italy and eastern Turkey, for Marco Polo to Venice and Genoa, for Maria to Israel and for Cleopatra to Cairo and Alexandria, to Egypt .

‘When I opened the curtains of my hotel there in the morning, I saw the Sphinx and the pyramids. Well, then you do get the Tintin feeling. I spoke to archaeologists and a former minister of antiquities who had written a book about Cleopatra. In the meantime I kept in touch with Saskia Noot, a historian who helped me with the research from the Netherlands.

“Based on our findings, Mao-Lin Liao, one of the best 3D artists in the world, created a face that is indistinguishable from the real thing. At the end of the episode, the three of us were sitting in a cinema in Amsterdam and we saw her turn towards us with closed eyes. When she turned her head, she blinked and we saw Cleopatra.

‘I’m for in the flesh approached by the producer, Marc Pos, whom I got to know while collaborating as a narrator on the program Historical evidence† Of course I had to get used to presenting, for the first time I worked without a script. I already said: if I don’t remember, I’ll just play myself.’

Oscar for best foreign film or for best male lead?

‘When we met The attack (De Lint played the leading role, Anton Steenwijk, red.) were nominated for the Oscar for best foreign film, I sat in the room next to director Fons Rademakers. We had a lot of competition, but we won. Then we were allowed to join the Governors Ball, a kind of supper, at a table next to Steven Spielberg’s.

My wife was pregnant at the time. When I called her, I yelled to her, “If it’s a boy, we’ll call him Oscar!” It became a boy.

‘That we won was of course fantastic, but it was also due to two Israeli producers, Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, who had just taken over the Dutch cinemas. They made sure that The attack – I think it’s a bit slow and dated now, by the way – ran for six weeks in a Beverly Hills cinema. Every day stood in the Los Angeles Times an advertisement for The Assault† All members of the Academy had seen the film because of that. So smart marketing.

‘I’m going for the Oscar for Best Actor in a Lead Role. Let’s face it: if you ask passersby in Los Angeles who won an Oscar, they can name three: best picture and best male and female lead.

‘But American casting agencies knew of course. I could say I had this Oscar on my resume.”

Pretty or ugly?

‘After I was voted the most beautiful man in the Netherlands 35 years ago, the press pretended I had won a gold medal at the Olympics. As if a jury had let all Dutch men pass by and reached some kind of scientific conclusion that I was the most handsome.

‘In reality, it was three editors of a women’s magazine who had phoned ten subscribers that evening with a glass of wine in hand. Having just been featured in a series, I beat Rutger Hauer, who came in second.

‘Just being pretty is like that bore† And if an “ugly” person is erudite and has a tremendous sense of humor and good manners, that person becomes attractive. If I have to choose between Doutzen Kroes or Brigitte Kaandorp on a desert island, I choose Brigitte 100 percent. I’d have a lot more fun with that.’

Deep Impact (1998) or The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)†

‘Do you have Deep Impact seen? If you go to the bathroom, you missed me, didn’t you. I knew the director of it, Mimi Leder, from the series China Beach† When she read in the script that there was a Dutch astronomer who said that a comet was on its way, she said: ‘Derek has to play it.’

“The one day I was on set, I didn’t realize it was going to be such a huge hit.

‘I choose The Unbearable Lightness of Being† Getting the role of the woman’s lover was pure luck. In 1984 Bastille, directed by Rudolf van den Berg, came out. I have never received such good international reviews as I did then. The Chicago Tribune called me ‘a young Gregory Peck’. Bastille’s US distributor worked across from director Philip Kaufman’s office and arranged for him to Bastille got to see. I went for the lead role, but if you have to choose between Daniel Day-Lewis and Derek de Lint as a producer, I don’t blame you if you go for the former.

‘What The attack for my career in the Netherlands, this film has meant internationally to me. After the film, I was also allowed to join the American Screen Actors Guild, by far the best union for actors. As a result, I now not only have an old age pension, but a fantastic pension.

‘I’m 71, but I want to keep acting. I am now playing a Russian admiral in the third season of Jack Ryan, an American series on Amazon about a CIA agent who has to prevent an attack. It will be on display around April.’

The Hague or Amsterdam?

‘Amsterdam. My wife and I have had a house in the center for 45 years. That has an enormous emotional charge. One of our children was born there. We kept it even when we were abroad for work.

‘I lived in The Hague for the first 20 years of my life. I was 16 in 1966, when it was the music capital of the Netherlands. I washed cars so I could go out with my Solex at the weekend. In the old casino, next to the Kurhaus, I saw band members of The Who beat up their equipment.’

Poltergeist: The Legacy or Gooische Women†

‘Poltergeist† It was a joy to play a leading role in an American science fiction series for four years, between 1996 and 1999. Producer was MGM, the budget for one episode was about 1 million dollars, in the Netherlands it is usually about a quarter.

“I played the head of a secret society investigating paranormal phenomena on an island in San Francisco Bay. I now know what a succubus is: an evil spirit in the form of an attractive woman. Then there was a stunning actress who tried to seduce me and now and then stuck out a retractable tongue (makes hissing sound). Fun to play.

“And life in Vancouver, where we lived before shooting, was fantastic. Our three sons were the cool kids from Amsterdam† I finally had the car I wanted. Years before, I said to my children when we drove past the Jaguar dealer on the Stadhouderskade in Amsterdam: ‘Look guys, I’ll have it one day.’ In Canada I could afford it: a black Jaguar XJS with wire wheels and a twelve-cylinder engine. Ridiculous car actually.

†Gooische Women was also a gift from heaven. When I said ‘yes’ to the role of Doctor Rossi I had nothing else and I didn’t realize that Gooische Women would grow into five seasons and two movies.

‘I was recently waiting for a taxi when a medical student approached me. Did I know that Dr Rossi is a household name in Dutch psychology? It seems to represent a bad psychiatrist who keeps his mouth shut and, if he doesn’t fall asleep, only says, ‘What do you think of it?’

‘In the Netherlands it is my most popular role. That that’s not the one in The attack or Soldier of Orange I don’t mind. Fame in the movie world is fleeting. The attack can’t even be streamed legally. The director of the Film Academy once said that the freshmen no longer knew who Paul Verhoeven was. Then I’ll be happy for a long time if someone calls out ‘Doctor Rossi’ every now and then.’

The six-part series In Levenden Lijve starts Friday 11/2 at 10.15 pm on NPO 2.