Jeroen Lindeman has been acting for 20 years, starting in his native Netherlands and continuing here in Montreal.

Q: How did you get into acting?

Jeroen: I used to be very shy in my teens and early twenties. Then I decided to do something about it. I found theatre sports and improv so I started doing that.

I was a monster unleashed.

Shortly after, I got noticed by a director and I did a project with him which sold out thirty shows. And then I did a prison project, where we had actors from the outside and prisoners from the inside work together to do a play about being prisoners. It was super interesting, quite something. Very different from Pillowman though, because the criminals in those prisoners are in for stupid stuff, minor offenses, as opposed to the people in Pillowman who are just nuts.

Q: The last play you did here was Theatre of Cruelty piece Spurt of Blood, for which you got some pretty awed reviews. Is being typecast a concern, going from such a work to Pillowman?

Jeroen: I always had a bit of a dark side I’m pretty comfortable with it. It’s very easy to get into, to release it. I really found that in Spurt of Blood and just decided to release it. I like that kind of work.

Q: What do you bring to the part of Tupolsky?

Jeroen: I’m a very intuitive kind of actor. I don’t have much formal education in theatre. I just use my gut feeling and I really dive into the characters’ pasts and there is some really grim stuff there. They speak of childhood and how they go through life. I had my own troubles as a kid and you can use that to implement the character.

Q: How would you qualify the difference between Tupolsky and his counterpart Ariel?

Jeroen: It’s not very clear what Tupolsky’s history is and what motivates him, while for the other characters it’s made very clear. When I was looking at the sides for the audition, my girlfriend asked me, “Which character do you like most?” I said, “I don’t know”. Because they all have something dark to them and they all have something to root for…except for Tupolsky, which makes him a very interesting person. I found that very freeing too. I got to go play with it and use my intuition, try to find out who he is.