I fancied myself as a stage director. A new theatre school, Institut des Arts de Diffusion, was just starting in Brussels: that was my big chance. My mother did not object too much, as it was... a catholic school. One got a diploma! And i got even a grant, so...

The would-be directors had also to take acting classes. At least during the first year. I enjoyed them a lot. At the end of the year I asked my teacher, Claude Etienne, why might it not be a good idea to switch courses, and only take acting classes the next year? He looked at me and said quite honestly that with my appearance  I would always be typecast to play butlers, lawyers, and other secondary characters in plays.

Of course this was at times when the (French) theatre was still very traditional...and the film industry did not existed yet in Belgium.

However a few years ago the filmmaker and artist Ulrike Ottinger asked me for playing a quite important role in her next  film Die Blutgräfin (a script by Elfriede Jelinek). The main characters being played by Isabelle Huppert and Tilda Swinton. As it is supposed to be a quite expensive production, the film is still in pre-production... Who knows, sooner or later, as it goes with filmmaking, Die Blutgräfin will be made... or not.

Meanwhile the filmmaker Vincent Bal asked me to play  the character of Uncle Sjmoel in his Nono, het Zigzag Kind. Only three days of shooting, but I enjoyed it more than I expected. Above all the fact that for once, I had not the burden to direct myself.

And then unexpected the well-known Belgian comic book artist François Schuiten asked me if he could use my recognisable figure in his album Le Grain de Sable. I never imagined myself as an hero of a famous comic strip!

Of course, before that, and nearly for ten years, I presented - most of the time live - my television show De Andere Film on television. Emile Poppe directed. And teaching and giving lectures is also a kind of acting, no?

So when I was working on the script of My life as an Actor, I wondered why not play the role of dr.Schönberger, the psycho-analist yourself? Emile Poppe could direct me as he did before.