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It seems, Derek de Lint now is seized with heaviness. After the canceling of 'Poltergeist' he wanted immediate to begin to work again. But when Julio Iglesias received a role, which Derek very much wanted (for an actor that is like you are replaced by Donald Duck), he thought: 'Why you make a fuss, you have all that you want. Money in the bank, a fine career, fantastic children, a dear wife. Love what you have.'

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      We have met with Derek de Lint (49) about 10 o'clock in solemn hall of Amstelhotel. He has the short cut hair, which is a distinguished gray, he wears a casual learn jacket over the coat of the dark grey suit, the Nehru collar of his very dark shirt is open.
       Derek the Lint is still the well dressed actor from the Netherlands, with the difference that he is not more quite from The Netherlands, but at present he lives with his family in Canada.
       When young he first wanted to become a cabaret artist, but "I was not able really to write very witty texts." He tried the scene and made his debut in 'Thuis' of Hugo Claus. The severe critic Jan Spierdijk writes: 'De Lint is "a pispaal"  ("laughing matter", somebody who is always the victim of jokes - note of René van Dam), there was nothing I could do about that.' De Lint laughs now about it , cheerfully and openly. "I read again those sentences sometimes in the hope that I might find something positive there, above all is in that 'there was nothing he could do about that'".
       Maybe the shooting of 'Kort Amerikaans' was still a sin of youth, but after that, the most significant film was, of course, the movie 'Soldaat van Oranje', with his unforgettable tango with Rutger Hauer. This movie gave an opportunity to three people to begin to work in foreign countries. Rutger Hauer, Jeroen Krabbe and the lovely boy, Derek de Lint.
       Other movies such as 'The unbearable lightness of being', 'Mascara' with Charlotte Rampling, 'De aanslag', 'Rituelen' with Thom Hoffman become the important visiting cards of De Lint.
       The Dutch- American SBS6 channel has for a long time aired a strange TV series "Poltergeist: the Legacy". But the viewers, who watch it, should pay attention, that the lead role here stars Derek de Lint.
       Derek de Lint looks meanwhile magnificent at the steel-blue comfortable sofa in the lounge of the Amstel. How do he it? He sits under a giant bouquet of lily and the roses, his learn jacket is carelessly discarded in the corner of the sofa, the light brown eyes radiate confidentiality.
       Without that series the question of moving to Canada would not have arisen. Four year of the work in TV series (Poltergeist was filmed in Canada), so it would have been very sad without the wife and children. "I first moved into a vacant small flat, with a splendid with view over English Bay in Vancouver. That is something terrific, to go on a empty house. The first thing I purchased was a chair. An Eames chair, from 50 years ago. Mister Chair was not an original made under license, likewise a magnificence document. * That chair and a computer really was the beginning of my new life. In the first half-year I was a complete Internet junky. You need something to pass the nights when you are alone. When it was found out, that the shootings of this TV show were going to continue and I'm going to be in Canada for some time, then we decided to move all the family here."
       "A man, what is a happiness. The new life began so, there was nobody, who could help. There was no trauma's, no tedious things, nothing, only an idea to move. As if all of us naked have got on an island and to put all in proper trim. We began a new adventure. And it is succeeded. The children (he has three sons - note of editor.) are still at school or they are through with school yet. Terrific, they now correct my English. Now it is nice that my oldest son lives in The Netherlands again, in our old house and I can visit him. Well, it's not all, we have here, of course, our own "pied-a-terre" (a nice play to get together in a romantic way - note of René van Dam). Yesterday I went to look at the small place, where it was earlier. It was only a partial of a pleasure. My lower school in the Hague was demolished. Replaced by untilled land."
       "How does Amsterdam lives now? What do all the people come from? Have I imagined it that in the Netherlands over the last years buyers from everywhere have moved in and taken all the space? What you animate to stand from the Wetehngplantsoen in the file toward the Beehive? All magnificent new auto but all stand quiet and everybody looks moody. All wether-heads with a credit card. Early Sunday morning it is still my Amsterdam - shine, silent, eternal beautiful, but within eleven hour it all begin again. Hordes of shoppers rush into the city. You cannot more turn around. Really, those Sunday's opening, They should all the same think. Heh, I'm sorry, I begin to sound a bit as "CDA-er" (too conservative for his own believes) **. No, this is dreams of past, that will not come back."
       "Theoretical I know it always. When it happened, I suffered for a few months. After 'Poltergeist' I wanted immediate as a crazy to begin to work again and to do as many screen-tests in Los Angeles as possible. But I did't get the roles, that I want and I get those roles, that I do not want. It angers me a little. But when Julio Iglesias received a role which I really wanted (for an actor that is like you are replaced by Donald Duck), I realised that: 'Why you make a fuss, you have all that you want. Money in the bank, a fine career, fantastic children, a dear wife. Love what you have.' One day I go to the hairdresser and then took the plane to The Netherlands. I wanted to enjoy, after to ponder a few and then to enjoy it even more."
       "The top of the enjoyment for me is the sushi-bar in Vancouver. Because finally I have lived for a longer time on one place and at last I have a stamcafé, a little sushi- bar. There they know exactly what I want. A glass of sake and uni, that is sea- hedgehog. You do not know, what you taste. Nothing can equal this. In the Netherlands I have never seen the menu. The purity of that taste is beyond compare. Well, yes, oyster, perhaps, of the Zeeuwse…"
      "But now I am here, in Amsterdam, I think again. Sushi is nothing, we have the best raw fish for world. Herring, each day a herring with a bit sour. You miss that in the foreign country. And peanut butter. You can buy peanutbutter, but not of the brand that I like most, but I will not mention the name (Derek de Lint almost became the face of Calvé, but that project failed - note of editor), because I don't want to help them in a way.
      "Poltergeist is about a group that investigates those difficult – explicable things, like apparitions from spirits and demons. At the moment it is very much in vogue on the television. X-files, Charmed, Angel, Buffie the Vampireslayer, all TV series are about a supernatural. You should be in the vogue everyday. We see still Bonanza and Rawhide. Clint Eastwood, oh, it's fantastic. But most of all I would love to play in western. It's terrific to consider now I could play in that." With a heavy instigated Dutch accent: "'Hai, I am cowboy Henkie from Holland and I can shoot well. Piewww Pieww!" He attracts the looks in the solemn Amstel. "Of course, everyone asks anything supernatural happened on shootings of Poltergeist. No, unfortunately, like in every production there is almost-misfortune, where you think after the end: how have we now again survive in that?"
      "But I do believe in a supernatural, or the inspiration." How all occurs actually, we do not know. It would not like to repeat, but young Derek was predicted precisely the ending of his career. "You do not think usual more about such prophecy, until suddenly one day you see that all comes true. You are afraid of such moments." "I am not a believer. At least I do not belong to any type of religious organization. But I do sometimes feel the existence of divinity. Above all when I hear music. Then I feel myself intensely connected with the Universe. My tastes whilst young are still my tastes now. Dylan, Van Morrison and Neil Young. At the time Dylan says 'in God', I have all kinds of stories considered to defend him from my cynical friends. But what are you to do with it in the end, it remains magnificent music."
      " It is terrific to be almost fifty years old. I can see things better than before. At last you understand that you are the one who makes your own restrictions. Of course, youth is magnificnet with all of that energy. Last time I sit quiet in a cafe to drink. A team of young people comes in here. 'He, pa, what you do here,' my son is here. Because I can enjoy so, or I sit to talk now twaddle well? No, it is usual so: older become make mild."
      "Have you seen my website? It's museum of De Lint. I could not believe what I saw. Without being asked, someone had claimed my name and there was everything that could be found about me on the web place. When first I saw it, I was offended. So directly to ask my lawyer whether I should something about it. The lawyers began to talk at once about lawsuits. 'They are making money from your efforts.' Fortunately, I kept my head and I have delayed to search for it. It has appeared one Helen Belova, a women from a Moscow suburb. Who didn't earn a cent from it and although she asks for a couple rubles for costs of postage for video tapes with a copy of Poltergeist, what does that matter? I have sent her just a pair of e-mails. In the beginning she was angry, she did not think that it was really me but someone else. Now I have agreed that as I'll be in Moscow one day, I'm going to drink with her a cup of coffee near the Red Square.
      Afterwards I was so overjoyed that I did not agree to do what the lawyer wanted; I myself would have ashamed eternally of it. It's crazy, what she has received all of it. There is even a photo of rehearsal of 'Thuis' from August 1975, how do she manage it? This interview would probably end up with a place there too. It is even dearer, because she should have translated it on the English, but there are it."
      "In Vancouver someone has opened a restaurant. A fan of Robert de Niro, my big idol as well. They have named this thing as DeNiro's. As usual lawyers have attached it and the name and said is should not have been done. I myself do not know if he knew anything about it. I am glad, that I am not such institution, in which the lawyers are ordered."
      "A harpy of the first American castingbureau where I entered as a young man of twenty years, hissed: 'Get a greencard, get rid of your accent and fix your teeth.' I am happy that I have not done all of it. I can not belive, that I hear, that I got this TV series. First you are allowed to make the pilot, the first extra long episode, that is quite step. Then it was decided to make about seven episodes. It is at that moment that it became serious. I was flown by first class and left the plane to join a gathering where all of those financiers sit. Then you was confronted by a man of twenty five years, who look at you with a glance to decide 'do we run the venture with our millions?' I have even done the direction of an episode. That was a rich-important lesson. Direction is a magnificent job and I would with the greatest pleasure do it again, but I would prefer to have more of a grip on the work, have a share in the script and more artistic freedom. And it's whole difficult for TV, almost impossible. Everything is completely set and then you'll have to be glad with second picks, because that will definately be the case if you are shooting scenes on the final day with the producers looking on you constantly. On a day like that there is no time for a second take."
      "I want again to think of producing that is one of the reasons also why I am. Just idea scare up. It would be completely wonderful again to stand at the scene. In Vancouver I have assured, that it was the most perfect time of my life. There was a free production in the Netherlands. Together with all set off in the bus to Doetinchem. Cosy together dinner, after the end of the show a drink still, and we laughed. Of course, thus does not happen in reality. The bus was late, everybody is peevish, we eat a quick unpleasant meal because the restaurant was still not open and after the end sleep in the bus, happily, you forget a such things quickly."
       And so, Derek de Lint again has returned to a food. I have spared you of it, but about those sushi's he begins to say again three time, and I should hold my tongue. "Mister de Lint, what you think about it, oysters by Jan Hendriks in the Old Doelenstraat?" We leave get on the road like a speeding arrow. We are almost running through the city and Derek starts talking about his Solex, his old Deux Chevaux (original name for that French car), and his old Jaguar, which he can not get rid of, because it smells so good. In the back, by Hendriks, sounds that are almost orgasmic 'Achhhh, now that is well.'
       The folder 'Derek de Lint' hangs from my bag. He wants to look at it for a moment. And he sticks on a clipping from an interview of 1979 with Henk van der Meyden. We see on the photo a young Derek de Lint, perfect like always, with long dark curls, lean jacket, lean neck-tie and beside him his Dorith. "Heh, Dorithtje, look at this, Dorithtje, when we have travelled a long way, heh," he say looking at the photo, he is saying that in a way that causes tears in my eyes.

DE TELEGRAAF, number 18, 29-30 April 2000
Translation by Helen Belova

* This chair was made not by the most original company, and other company, which has bought the rights from first company to make such things. Back

** Note of Rene van Dam:
CDA is one of the 4 major political parties in the Netherlands. CDA stands for christian values and if he mentions it like in this sentence it is meant that he is sounding a bit too conservative for his own believes. So he knows that what he is saying is not really what he wants to say, kind of an apology. Back