Katja Schuurman after 25 years of seeing in GTST: ‘I didn’t think I would ever do it’

A mysterious woman ranges at the flat, Julian opens but sees no one in the gallery. Then the camera swings to the right and there Katja Schuurman is hidden behind a wall!

It has been buzzing around for a while, but on Tuesday evening actress Katja Schuurman will really return to Good times bad times (GTST). On Tuesday evening she only comes to pull a bell, on Wednesday she orders a bottle of wine (a Pinot Noir from Vigne de Clos Monmartre) and Thursday will finally see again with her old beloved Julian Verduyn (Cas Jansen). She comes to tell him a “nice big secret” and will then leave again.

Katja Schuurman (Bunnik, 1975) suddenly became world famous in the Netherlands in 1994 when she became a fixture in the daily soap of RTL. She is still the most famous actress in the series, although she has now played many other roles, including in Costa!Theo van Gogh film Interviewand the thriller New neighbors. She played in GTST the role of the Condigent Jessica Harmsen. In 1999 she found it enough, her character drove out the series, on the back of Julian’s engine, with a lilac scarf waving from her red backpack. They went on a world trip together to never return.

Julian returned to the series at the end of 2019. He recently said in the series that Jessica had left him in Paris for a Frenchman. And now, 25 years later, he is reunited with Jessica. Schuurman explains: “I have been asked more often, and I didn’t think I would ever do it. It was so far behind me. But I am organizing a dance party full of humor and surprises with Babette van Veen, the great breathless discobal, November 8 in AFAS Live. When I looked back photos from that time, everything came to the surface again. “

Linda, Roos and Jessica

Together with two other GTST actresses, Schuurman formed the singing trio Linda, Roos and Jessica in the 1990s, which scored six hits, with the greatest ‘breathlessness’. One of the three, Guusje Nederhorst, died young. But with Van Veen, Schuurman will sing the hits of the past at the great breathless Discobal. “” Breathless “has a longer breath than I thought. It is in the top-4 of most requested songs in karaoke bars. I also regularly see the song returning to the socials, for example in a fanfare version, a rap version, or with an accordion. ”

How does Schuurman look back on her time in GTST? “The sudden celebrity was overwhelming. I was so young, nineteen, I come from a VPRO family so my father said: “If you are going to do that, you won’t come to the house anymore.” I promised him to do GTST for one year and then pick up my studies again. “

The actress was particularly difficult for the change from ‘normal Katja from Bunnik’ to the celebrity Katja Schuurman whose everyone found something. “And that in a time when I still had to find out who I actually was. Many people were extremely positive – so I thought: “Well, that’s exaggerated again” – and others thought: “Young girl, looks sexy, will have no content.” I then tried to put that right – “Ho Ho, wait a minute, I’ll explain” – which of course didn’t work. “

Schuurman returns in a lot of paved Meerdijk than the village she left 25 years ago. In the nineties she was locked up in Ludo’s horse stable for days and had to undergo a heart surgery after a scorpion bite, after which she got the donor heart from her ex-boyfriend who happened to have just been killed. Her beloved Julian was an incest child who accidentally slept with his half -sister, made a suicide attempt, and wanted to marry a Romanian sex worker to help her with a residence permit, but she was shot by her pimp at the wedding.

Now the series contains more everyday problems, recognizable for viewers. GTST is still an important fixed value for channel RTL4, but the ratings have been gradually declining for years. According to viewing figure researcher NMO, an average of 1.7 million people still watched in 2002, last year there were 877,000. The paying viewers of Videoland are not included in this. This season the viewing figures are on the rise again, towards one million. Everydayness is an important core value.

Jessica’s old VLAM Julian is the embodiment of this. The hunk From the past, a grandfather on a flat, recovering from his first heart attack, and grumbling over the garbage bags in the gallery. Schuurman: “Is he already a grandfather? I didn’t know that. I recently participated in a GTST quiz but I scored moderately. I also forgot that I had had a new heart. “

GTSTMonday to Thursday RTL4, 8 p.m. And Videoland.

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