#Matthias Schoenaerts imagine

[lazaefair]

"Shots" by Imagine Dragons

Directed by @astrabear, produced by me

[etoile-gracieuse]

apparently i completely rewrote my own memories to have ryan gosling playing booker in the old guard. imagine my shock when i googled booker and saw matthias schoenaerts in his place

[matthiasschoenaertsdaily]

Épitaphe

Matthias Schoenaerts, actor and director

Belgian actor and director of Flemish origin, Matthias Schoenaerts has seen his popularity soar in a few years, landing coveted roles in Europe and the United States. For this ultimate meeting with Fate, Schoenaerts gave him an appointment in the cemetery where his father is buried… Just imagine the type of conversation!

[homemadechickfilasauce]

Movies I could rewatch every week in no particular order

1. The Loft (2014)

For five men (Karl Urban, James Marsden, Wentworth Miller, Eric Stonestreet, Matthias Schoenaerts), the opportunity to share a penthouse in the city -- in which to carry on extramarital affairs -- is a dream come true, until the dead body of an unknown woman turns up. Realizing that her killer must be one of their group, the men are gripped by paranoia as each one suspects another. Friendships are tested, loyalties are questioned, and marriages crumble while fear and suspicion run rampant.

2. Donnie Darko (2001)

After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.

3. The Boy (2016)

A young American named Greta (Lauren Cohan) takes a job as a nanny for an 8-year-old boy in a remote English village. To her surprise, Greta learns that the child of her new employers is a life-size doll. They care for the doll as if it was human, which helps the couple to cope with the death of their own son 20 years earlier. When Greta violates a list of strict rules, a series of disturbing and inexplicable events bring her worst fears to life, leading her to believe that the doll is alive.

4. The Lovely Bones (2009)

After being brutally murdered, 14-year-old Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) watches from heaven over her grief-stricken family (Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz) -- and her killer (Stanley Tucci). As she observes their daily lives, she must balance her thirst for revenge with her desire for her family to heal.

5. The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018)

Mike and his wife Cindy take their son and daughter on a road trip that becomes their worst nightmare. The family members soon find themselves in a desperate fight for survival when they arrive at a secluded mobile home park that's mysteriously deserted -- until three masked psychopaths show up to satisfy their thirst for blood.

6. Me Before You (2016)

Young and quirky Louisa "Lou" Clark (Emilia Clarke) moves from one job to the next to help her family make ends meet. Her cheerful attitude is put to the test when she becomes a caregiver for Will Traynor (Sam Claflin), a wealthy young banker left paralyzed from an accident two years earlier. Will's cynical outlook starts to change when Louisa shows him that life is worth living. As their bond deepens, their lives and hearts change in ways neither one could have imagined.

7. Monster House (2006)

No adults believe three youths' (Mitchel Musso, Spencer Locke, Sam Lerner) assertion that a neighboring residence is a living creature that means them harm. With Halloween approaching, the trio must find a way to destroy the structure before innocent trick-or-treaters meet ghastly ends.

8. What Happened To Monday (2017)

In a world where families are allowed only one child due to overpopulation, resourceful identical septuplets must avoid governmental execution and dangerous infighting while investigating the disappearance of one of their own.

8. Father Of The Year (2018)

When a drunken debate between two college graduates about whose father would win in a fight is taken seriously by their dads, jobs are lost, relationships ruined, and best friends come of age as they come to grips with the identity of their fathers.

9. The Last Song (2010)

Unruly New York teen Ronnie Miller is angered to learn that she and younger brother Jonah are being sent to stay with their father for the summer. The talented young pianist is already grappling with her mother over her refusal to attend the prestigious Juilliard music school, and is in no mood to spend the holidays away from her friends in a small Southern beach town.

[flotsam-gazette]

Malena

Swimming Pool

French Kiss

Purple Noon (Plein Soleil)

Only You

A Bigger Splash

Captain Corelli's Mandoiin

A Room with a View

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

And God Created Woman

Stealing Beauty

Il Postino

A Good Year =-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1. Malena

Set in war time Sicily, a 13 year old boy is infatuated with the beautiful young war widow, Malena, who was the obsession of every man and the envy of every woman in their small Italian village. Because of her, Renato will come to learn all of life’s lessons and find himself in places he never could have imagined. Visually, it’s one long Dolce & Gabbana ad.

2. Swimming Pool

British crime novelist, played by the wonderful Charlotte Rampling, travels to her publisher’s summer house in Southern France to seek solitude in order to work on her next book. But the arrival of Julie, who claims to be the publisher’s daughter, induces complications and a subsequent murder… 

3. French Kiss

Meg Ryan at her best in this semi-screwball romantic with Kevin Kline doing his best French accent. From Paris to vineyards in Provence to the French Riviera, this French Kiss is utterly charming and cheerful. 

4. Purple Noon

Plein Soleil (a.k.a. Purple Noon), the original film adaption of Talented Mr. Ripley, starring French sixties heartthrob, Alain Delon in his first major role. Have you ever watched a film and felt as if every single frame was worthy of a postcard? This is one of those films. From the sun-bleached Italian scenery and style to the bronzed and beautiful actors.

5. Only You

Robert Downey Junior and Marisa Tomei make a magical (and hilarious) combination. The wardrobe in this film is to die for, as is their Italian travel itinerary. From Venice to Positano, it’s impossible not to fall in love with this movie.

6. A Bigger Splash

A modern ode to Sicily, starring the excellent Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, Dakota Johnson and Matthias Schoenaerts. Sex, murder and Italy– what else do you need in a movie?

7. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

8. A Room with a View

Starring a baby-faced Helene Bonham Carter as well as Maggie Smith, Daniel Day Lewis and Judi Dench, A Room with a View takes you to Florence during the Belle Epoque for an eminently entertaining comedy with an intellectual approach to love.

9. Vicky Cristina Barcelona

A spicy Spanish feast for the eyes, arguably one of Woody Allen’s best works.

10. And God Created Woman

The movie that turned Brigitte Bardot into an international star. Bardot stars as Juliette, an 18-year-old orphan whose unbridled appetite for pleasure shakes up all of St. Tropez. 

11. Stealing Beauty

The coming-of-age 90s movie for American girls that dreamed of falling in love in Europe. Starring Liv Tyler and Jeremy Irons.

12. Il Postino

” beauty of the film is in its quietness”, said Roger Ebert. A most essential Italian film that captures the simplicity of Italy so well. 

13. A Good Year

A guilty pleasure, a slightly over-romanticised version of Provence, but A Good Year hits the spot, starring Russell Crow and Marion Cotillard. Watch with a glass of wine in hand.

[cinebration]

Written in DNA (Booker x Reader) [Part 11]

Booker and the immortals implement your plan to capture Quynh.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Epilogue

Tagged: @lucy-sky​, @city-of-weird​, @all-the-right-regrets, @alannister-always-pays-her-debts​, @fleetwoodsmacabitch​

Warnings: none

Gif Source: boydswan

Booker thrummed with tension as he drove back to the airfield. Waves of pain pounded in his skull, his neck and upper back a riot of knots. He glanced up in the rearview mirror, his hands clutching the steering wheel.

You and Andy sat in the backseat. Andy brooded, her face haunted. You sat unnaturally still, scanning the surrounding the area with just your eyes as Booker approached the tarmac.

It should work, the plan. Booker told himself as much, but he didn’t truly believe it. Maybe it was the migraine or the brutal streak of bad luck he was accustomed to, but he didn’t feel right, like an axe hung over his head, waiting to drop. He recalled the sound of the guillotines, the swish-thunk of the blade and the softer thud of a head falling off a body.

Focus, he snarled at himself, guiding the car down the stretch that led to the FBO hanger.

Early morning light had begun to crest the horizon, but the dark still reigned over the airfield. Booker slipped the car between pools of light cast by runway lights and eased to a stop in front of the hanger.

You were already out, dragging Andy along beside you, before he took his hands off the steering wheel. He scrambled out after you, struggling a moment with his seatbelt.

“I’ve brought her,” you shouted into the dark, your voice echoing in the hanger. “Now what?”

Quynh materialized out of a shadow in the hanger, striding forward with a hungry look on her face, eyes sharp even in the semi-dark. Booker stopped a few feet to your left, the gun in his waistband pressing hard against his lower back.

“Quynh,” Andy breathed. The surprise in her voice was genuine, the grief in it heart-wrenching.

“Andromache,” Quynh purred. “How nice to see you again in the flesh.”

Andy pulled against you, but you held her firmly in place. Her hands were bound loosely behind her back, giving her enough slack to slip the knot when the time came.

“How did you get out? Who found you?” Andy’s voice cracked.

“My saviors are not important. What matters is that you are here.”

“I tried finding you. I spent years—”

“No.” Quynh’s voice snapped in the early morning air. “I do not want to hear your lies. You left me.”

“I couldn’t find you—”

Quynh stepped forward and cracked Andy across the face. The slap reverberated through the air. You held Andy up, keeping her from pitching forward. The immortal raised her head. Licking at the blood welling from a split in her lip, she tried to meet Quynh’s gaze.

“Why are you not healing?” Quynh asked. She stepped forward, jerked Andy’s chin higher. “What is this?”

“Andy has lost it,” Booker mumbled.

Fury spasmed Quynh’s face. She shoved Andy away, staggered back a few steps. “No! Why!?”

Booker glanced behind her at the shadows in the hanger. They had begun to move, detaching themselves from the far walls. Joe and Nicky moved forward on soft feet, angling toward Quynh. Somewhere behind the hanger, Nile waited with their getaway vehicle.

“Fate would,” Quynh snarled to herself. “I wanted you to experience my pain, but now you cannot. Not without dying.” The rage in her face died, replaced with something cold, dead. “I can still find a way to make you suffer.”

Andy slipped the knot. She lunged forward as Joe and Nicky closed in behind her. Quynh snarled as the three immortals converged on her. She landed an elbow in Joe’s throat, a kick to Nicky’s thigh. Her hands raked at Andy’s face.

Then she was sobbing, thrashing against Andy’s chest as the woman held her tight, whispering, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Quynh’s anguished wails rang through the hanger, drowning out Andy’s voice.

Booker turned away, unable to stomach it. The grief drove daggers through his heart, reminding him of the rage of his distraught son.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. Glancing up, he met your kind gaze. “What now?” you asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Your favorite words,” you laughed.

He risked a glance in the other immortals’ direction. They had gathered around Quynh, trying to soothe her while restraining her.

Reunited.

Chest constricting, he exhaled shakily only to frown. Nile hurried toward them, her gun drawn at her side. “What is it?”

“There’s a convoy setting up a perimeter,” she announced.

“What?”

“General Howzer,” you whispered.

“I called him,” Quynh muttered. “I only wanted to borrow you.”

Your expression didn’t change, but Booker felt the anger in you.

“Who?” Nile asked.

“You need to get out. All of you. Cut across the field and jack a car before the perimeter closes.”

Booker recognized the edge in your voice. He stepped up to you, dropping his own. “What about you?”

“I told you.” You met his gaze. “He’ll just keep sending them.”

Something dislodged within Booker. “No, you can’t give yourself up.”

“It will buy you time. You can’t let him get his hands on any of you.”

Andy and the others were already moving across the tarmac, heading for the field lining the landing strip. Booker could hear the cars slowing to a stop, boots hitting the ground. In the distance, a chopper approached.

“Go,” you hissed, shoving him away.

“But—”

“Don’t make me make you.”

A hand closed around Booker’s elbow. Nile appeared beside him, tugging on him. “Come on.”

Booker glanced back at you, but you were already across the airstrip, firing your gun into the air. He followed Nile into the unkempt grass, trying to keep his eyes on you.

The chopper’s searchlight clicked on, bathing you in white. Men poured in from around the trees, screaming at you to put the gun down. You went down to your knees.

“Come on,” Nile insisted, yanking on Booker.

“We have to do something,” he said. “She can’t go back. She can’t.”

Nicky seized Booker by the waistband and yanked him across the field. A gunshot cracked the air.

Booker jerked back to see you collapse.

[fire-gift]

I think about the kiss scene from far from the madding crowd at least once a week...

[theworldofimagines]

Imagine Matthias talking about you honeymoon

Request: my own 😜

[bode-leone]

imagining matthias schoenaerts saying "mon dieu......you have caught me" in his wack pseudo french accent and cracking the fuck up

[scorchedhearth]

Every day I'm haunted by the thought of matthias schoenaerts as batman. Imagine if he cried as Bruce wayne??? Id lose it right there

[eternallovers65]

Look people go watch the old guard on Netflix, it's really good:

-directed by a black female woman,

-the females kick ass and aren't sexualized,

-a interracial gay couple (a muslim and a italian, talk about real enemies to lovers fanfic)

- one of the female leading actress is a black woman

-matthias schoenaerts being so hot and cute with those blue eyes

- CHARLIZE THERON BEING A WHOLE LESBIAN WARRIOR

I NEED A FUCKING SEQUEL

Just imagine if in the sequel we have Keanu Reeves (the real life immortal) as some kind of villain or old friend, seriously

IMAGINE THE FIGHTING SCENES BETWEEN HIM AND CHARLIZE

I need a sequel or a tv series

ASAP

[captain-grammar]

i am fighting the urge to change my pfp to one of the pics from matthias schoenaerts' "red"/moustachioed photoshoot because in more than one he's got the same expression on his face i'd imagine he makes when he's getting blown and it makes me Feel Things

[naorg]

The Old Guard (2020) 

In other words: the best film of the year. I’m so overwhelmed by this movie that I don’t know what to start with – I can’t even sleep at night after watching it because I’m too excited – but here are why I loved this groundbreaking masterpiece.  *spoler alert*

- Luca Marinelli: OK I’m  starting with him, because he was the first reason for me to watch this movie. I’ve been stannning him since Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot (his acting is just INTENSE in this italian superhero movie, where he plays the villain, please try it if you haven’t), and I have never missed a chance to catch up with his new works ever since, so there was no way I would’t watch The Old Guard on the first day of streaming. Oh thank you Luca for leading me to do this. Grazie mille.

- And the whole cast: Charlize Theron from Mad Max 4: Fury Road, Kiki Layne from If Beale Street Could Talk, Marwan Kenzari from Aladdin, Matthias Schoenaerts from De rouille et d'os,  Chiwetel Ejiofor from The Martian, Ngô Thanh Vân aka Veronica Ngo from Furie… gosh every single one of them is my absolute favorite! There is no greater joy for movie fans than getting a good movie with their dream cast. It’s a gift.

- Queer romance (in an action film!): I’m a great fan of big-budget action films, as well as I love LGBTQ+ films; but somehow I’d never even imagined watching a big-budget action LGBTQ+ film. I guess it was a result of watching tons of hyper-heteronormative big franchise movies such as — well, I won’t start the list because there are too many, maybe almost all pieces in the genre. However, thanks to The Old Guard it is recognised that we do not have to stand those dull heterosexual moments anymore to enjoy brilliant action scenes (yeah, this masterpiece does not show any heterosexual love on screen). We are saved.

*Written above are my personal reasons – as many critics and audiences have already pointed out, The Old Guard is the first blockbuster movie to depict gay romance at the center of it. Refer to: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jul/10/the-old-guard-charlize-theron-gay-romance

- Female-to-female mentorship and more: In action films it’s very common that a young hero gets trained by a skilled, experienced elder – just as padawans are guided by Jedi masters – while the elder also gets inspired by the younger; but according to my observation this kind of relationship rarely happens between female charcters (exceptionally Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu in The Hustlers were a bit like this, but you know it was not an big-budget action movie). That’s exactly what happened between Andy, the eldest, and Nile, the newcomer – and I absolutely loved it. And of course I was fascinated by the strong bond between Andy and Quynh (two of the world’s most powerful female action stars together as partners; who could imagine this??), and the short but very touching conversation Andy has with a drugstore employee (played by Olivia Ross) who takes care of her in the most helpless moment. So we have learned what happens when a female director makes a blockbuster action film: we do not have to stand displays of misogyny, such as unnecessary conflicts between female characters or sexual objectification of female bodies. Make sure this will be the new standard of the genre hereafter.

*I’d love to also mention the marvelous fighting sequences (Charlize Theron with an ancient axe, yes) and the cool music in the movie, but I won’t go further because I do not have sufficient knowledge to talk about it. So, go see it yourself and please tell me what you think.

And the question is: will there be a sequel? The answer must be YES, sooner the better, and I wouldn’t say one sequel is enough. (Of course prequels are welcome,  too!) I already feel terrible pain and excitement thinking about the villain of The Old Guard 2… but anyway, I’m ready.

[takiki16]

Book of Nile: Getting Together Post-Canon Thoughts

OKAY so I maxed out my tag space on this post talking about the logistics of #book of nile, and then @themoonwheniamlost​ confirmed this as at least 50% of a good idea, so HERE IT IS, copy-pasted and with all the hashtags cleaned out and EXPANDED UPON because screw tag limits!

The thing about #book of nile is that it is very easy to talk about Booker falling in love with Nile - who wouldn’t?  But I need to block out how Nile falls in love with Booker without (1) centering Booker bc that is the OPPOSITE of why i ship this, and (2) without making this about Nile 'fixing' Booker because fixing Booker is BOOKER'S job. 

MORE UNDER THE CUT ABOUT BOOK OF NILE ORIGIN STORIES

SO. HEADING THE FIRST - SAD FRENCH JUDAS adn the very very easy matter of Booker falling in love with Nile.

I kind of like to think that it wasn't QUITE 'love at first sight' for Booker but it was a darn near thing? Because their connection was so close from that very 1st dream where Booker puts a hand to his throat and says 'i felt her die' to that moment they shared in the cave when they realized they were the only two immortals who had comparatively recent memories of their mortal families.  I mean Booker was sort of preoccupied for the whole movie with being Sad French Rat Judas with Copley, but I FIRMLY HEADCANON that he started doing Soulmate Math very soon after meeting Nile and soaking her presence in that first time.  If Andy had Quynh and Joe has Nicky, maybe...maybe after 200 years...Nile is the one Destined for Me?  And then AFTER canon in the secret Youngest Immortals Chat that Booker and Nile Definitely have there is Definite Pining on Booker’s end - think “I love a Noble Princess but am a sad undeserving man with issues so I’ll just hold this here torch from afar.”  AND THAT TAKES CARE OF BOOKER.

Now. HEADING THE SECOND.  NILE. NILE FREEMAN. AND HOW AND WHY SHE MIGHT CHOOSE TO FALL IN LOVE WITH SAD FRENCH RAT JUDAS OVER HERE

...gawd you guys. this is totally the fault of that Matthias Schoenaerts gifset where he goes under someone's skirt, but i am SO TEMPTED to just go whole hog romcom on this?

It was some kind of Bad Anniversary for Nile at some point during the 100 years  (listen, I’m increasingly fond of the 100-year exile as Free Real Estate to focus exclusively on Book of Nile) and Nile is lonely and sad and feeling like crap and ends up secretly visting Booker and getting sloppy drunk at his place because sometimes misery really does love company.  And Booker is an Absolute Gentleman and Practiced Drunk Shoulder to Cry on, and he takes the chair while she crashes in the bed because that’s what you do for the person you’ve been pining for. 

And then the next morning Nile wakes up feeling numb and empty and embarrassed, and when Booker brings her a cup of coffee she leans over and kisses him because she needs to feel something, some kind of connection to the living world. 

And Booker is just !!!!!! OH!!!!!!  I am a Sad Undeserving Man, but Nile Freeman is kissing me and if this is what she wants from me then I can 100000% do this for her even if it is only this once in our whole entire crappy immortal lives.  And THEN NILE QUITE SIMPLY GETS THE BEST LAY OF HER LIFE, because I cannot stretch my imagination to Booker having anything healthy emotionally to offer so soon after canon, but I CAN and WILL BELIEVE that he knows EXACTLY what to do with his mouth and his tongue and his hands and...you know.  Other titty-ban forbidden things. 

And afterwords, when her legs work again and Nile is getting dressed - Feeling Different - she turns around and looks over her shoulder.  And Booker is lying on the rumpled bed with the afternoon sunlight falling just so all disheveled, and he smiles at her and says mon cher, with a LITTLE BIT of sad pining showing through because despite his best efforts to keep his feelings to himself and Not Drag Nile Down With Him he is having Emotions.

Oh, Nile thinks.  Oh.  Maybe...?

And then she goes back to her place and has a SECOND CRISIS, because WTF???  This is SO MUCH of a Whole Bad Idea, she KNOWS what Booker did and what he is, which is Sad French Rat Judas, but she DID have um. A really. REALLY. good time?  And is there anyone else even available for her to date?  And how much does she reeeeallly want to get into this?  And maybe it was just a trick of the light or something?  How much is she willing to bank on how well she knows Booker?  Who, after all, had a wife and kids that he is VISIBLY not coping well with losing even 200 years later?  But also Nile starts running Soulmate Math and thinking...what if...destiny?

So Nile freaks out and doesn’t text Booker for a whole month, and the next time they meet for coffee she can’t stop blushing because whenever she looks at his face she remembers Exactly where his mouth has been and what it LOOKS like in...citrus situations and she’s more nervous and uncomfortable with him than she’s ever been before.

And BOOKER meanwhile is Working On Himself but also thinking FUQ I ruined everything I Took Advantage in an emotional moment and now she hates me and doesn’t want anything more to do with me and is just waiting for a moment to let me down kindly because Nile is So Good.  And she is absolutely right to do so but darned if I say anything before SHE says anything because at this point I absolutely cannot put this torch I’ve been carrying down before she explicitly extinguishes it.

so it’s GREAT (ㆆ ᴗㆆ) 

AND NOT TO START EVERY SINGLE PARAGRAPH OF THIS THING WITH ‘AND,’ but there is DEFINITELY a breaking point after like...a couple MONTHS of awkward stiff meetups whereas before it felt natural - the two youngest immortals sneaking around together and sharing a coping space.  Nile can’t take it anymore and just says LISTEN do you actually like...LIKE LIKE me or do you NOT like me because that was a STUPENDOUS morning and early afternoon and you gave me this Really Intense Significant Look, but also you’ve literally said nothing about it to me since then and I’m cracking under the strain because I won’t do casual relationships when there’s literally only 5 of us in the pool and you’re the only other single one and i have NO IDEA what i”m doing and also dating you would be a TERRIBLE idea due to so many reasons??????

And Booker is like YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT dating me would be a terrible idea but...of COURSE I like-like you???  I just wasn’t sure if I wanted to dump this whole garbage fire of Sad Drunk Judas on your beautiful new immortal life?  I have no idea what I’m doing either but I’m kind of in love with you and in love with the idea that We Could Be Together and maybe eternity Wouldn’t Suck but I didn’t want to say anything because you could do SO much better and I don’t want to stand in the way of that?

Which is SUCH A BEAUTIFUL image to have, because even though at this point Nile can see a century coming on and Booker is 200+ years old, there is a strong flavor of “We, the two youngest in this classroom, are Figuring Out some things?”

I DON’T KNOW HOW TO RESOLVE THIS, but at some point there is a dramatic pause and a removal to a more romantic setting preferrably by the water, and Booker kisses Nile’s hand. In the silence after words.  Very old fashioned and chaste and good - he bows instead of lifting it to his lips - and you all can take things from there.  

[cinebration]

Written in DNA (Booker x Reader) [Part 10]

Booker’s “reunion” with the immortals.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Epilogue

Tagged: @lucy-sky​, @city-of-weird​, @all-the-right-regrets, @alannister-always-pays-her-debts​

Warnings: none

Gif Source: thompsonconnors

You yanked the knife out of Nicky’s chest and shifted back a few paces, keeping your gun pointed in the general direction of the others. Booker immediately shoved his into his pants, presenting his empty hands to his fellow immortals. You lowered your gun, appearing relaxed. But that feline grace clung to your movements, letting Booker know you were still in attack mode.

“I can explain,” Booker said, then hesitated. Could he?

“First you sell us to Merrick, and now you are trying to kill us again?” Joe cried.

“No, I’m not—”

“Who is your friend?” Nicky wheezed as the wound in his chest closed.

Their voices pounded against Booker’s skull. Raking a hand through his hair, he tried to find the words, tried not to shout back.

“Book.” Andy’s voice rose above the clamor. “Why are you here?”

He passed another hand through his hair again, feeling sick. His palm came away slick with sweat and grease, a tremor rolling through his hand. He wiped it on his pants, clenched it into a fist to hide the shaking.

“Booker?” Nile prompted.

Clearing his throat, his gaze directed at the floor, Booker managed to say, “I didn’t know it was you. I wasn’t told I was being sent for you.”

Joe snorted, shaking his head incredulously. “You didn’t know?”

“I didn’t! She didn’t tell me.”

Their collective gazes turned on you. You didn’t waver beneath them, one eyebrow arching. “I wasn’t made aware that you were his family.”

“Who is this?” Andy asked.

“This is…she is my friend.” The words were utterly sincere to Booker’s ears, surprising him. He met your eyes for a split second before turning back to the others. “She was doing me a favor.”

“By trying to kill us? She could have killed Andy!” Joe stormed toward Booker.

Suddenly you were there, interposed between them. Joe look at you in surprise, startled. Booker glanced at the others, saw the confusion in their faces. You had crossed the entire room in a split second without seeming to run.

“I didn’t know!” The words were old and tired, but true. “Quynh didn’t tell me.”

Tension snapped tight in the room.

“Quynh?” Andy asked, her voice tight, guarded.

“She got out,” he said. “I don’t know how. She just did. She showed up at my apartment—”

Joe snorted. “Why should we believe you?”

Booker looked past him to Nile. “Do you dream of her drowning?”

She hesitated, realization dawning on her face. “Not in a while now.”

Andy’s attention snapped to Nile. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I didn’t really think about it. I was just…relieved.”

“She’s out,” Booker repeated. “And she sent us here…to hurt you.”

~~

The immortals watched you warily as you leaned against the far wall, hands held loosely at your sides in your least intimidating posture. They had gathered around the dinner table, seated as they digested the devastating news Booker had brought. Andy took it the worst, her face drawn and pale, a mild tremor rolling through her now and again.

Booker felt awful, his guts roiling, his chest constricting. He didn’t know what else to say, so he sat in the silence, afraid to look anyone in the face. Joe’s anger had diminished, though Nicky’s remained, a quiet undertow that Booker could sense despite Nicky’s placid face. Only Nile didn’t seem to mind Booker’s presence, though her aura of pity sickened him just as much.

The urge to drink was so strong he was itching in his own skin, on the verge of clawing it off with his own fingernails. He felt your eyes boring into the back of his neck, willing him to work through it.

“Why would she send you?” Nile asked, looking past Booker’s shoulder.

“I’m assuming she thought I could withstand all of you,” you answered quietly.

The looks that passed between the immortals told Booker all he needed to know. You had put each of them down except for Andy. If Booker hadn’t burst in, you would have been on Andy before the others could recover.

“What are you?”                        

“A weapon,” you answered thickly. “Designed to kill.”

“That’s what we do,” Joe pointed out. “You’re different.”

“Can you break a man’s sternum with one hand?”

“She broke both my wrists,” Booker added, “the first time we met. We hit a tree and she got back up.”

“An immortal?” Nile asked.

“No, a super soldier. Think Captain America,” you clarified. “Quynh asked Booker to break me out, and she wanted me to pursue you. Specifically Andy.”

Andy shoved herself away from the table, paced away. The others looked at her with sympathy, though all Booker could feel was heart-wrenching guilt. He was doomed to bring nothing but misery to everyone he knew.

“I shouldn’t have stopped looking for her,” Andy whispered, burying her face in one hand. “It’s all my fault.”

“No, it isn’t,” Nicky assured her. “You didn’t know how to find her. You tried for so long and found nothing. It isn’t your fault.”

“Yes, it is. And she wants me to suffer for it.”

“Is there any way we can talk to her?” Nile asked. “Booker, you know where she is. Couldn’t you take us there?”

“She’s probably moved by now,” you said. “She knows what she’s doing. I’d wager she is actually nearby, waiting.”

“You don’t have a rendezvous point?”

“We were to go to the airport. I doubt we’d take off, though. She would probably pick us up in a car and lead us elsewhere.”

“And you’re such an expert?”

You met Joe’s hard gaze. “Yes.”

Booker stared at his hands, numb.

You pushed off the wall and stood beside Booker’s chair. “I have a plan, if you’d like to hear it.”

[matthiasschoenaertsdaily]

Matthias Schoenaerts full interview for De Morgen Magazine (original in Flemish, translated into English by @matthiasschoenaertsdaily​)

Interview by Els Maes, published on November 28, 2020

Even a global pandemic will not destroy the optimism of actor Matthias Schoenaerts (42). Because he knows from his own experience how much beauty can emerge from the most hopeless situations. "I've had my back against the wall often enough, I'll always find a way out."

A bleak autumn day on a concrete square. There is lukewarm coffee, lukewarm Chimay and rolling tobacco. At dusk we see the silhouettes of fat rats that shoot past our ankles. And yet Matthias Schoenaerts will tell us in a glowing argument that this, here and now, is the very best place to be. That there is so much beauty to discover, he says. Le paradis c'est ici. As long as we want to see it.

"It's strange to say in this unpleasant period, but I've enjoyed the past few months enormously. It's the first time in ten years, since Runskop actually, that I'll be home for a long period of time. This is so beneficial: I am photographing, painting, writing. I can devote time and attention to the very simple things we'd otherwise race past."

"Seriously, look at that," he says, picking a leaf off the ground. "Those colors, that pattern. I can spend hours looking at the pure beauty of the things that surround us."

Above us a pigeon is wreaking havoc between the thinned out foliage. "While you are singing about the wonderful beauty of nature, that animal is going to shit on our heads," I say. "And that too will be a s-p-l-e-n-d-i-d moment," Schoenaerts answers.

Matthias Schoenaerts is Belgium's most successful international film star. But here and now, on a bench in his hometown, he is a technically unemployed actor, an all-round searching artist, but above all: fighter of cynicism. "I refuse to go along with all negativity and fear. The true battle today is cynicism versus courage. And I always choose the latter."

We're on the Oudevaartplaats, the square that everyone knows as the Antwerp Bird Market, and where Schoenaerts' childhood memories are waiting to be picked up. It comes into the conversation just like that: Brando, the cute chow chow that little Matthias got from his mom on this square, when here on the bird market puppies were still sold. "My dogs were my great loves. The home situation was often difficult, and with my dogs I found security. We had three chow chows, those fluffy lion dogs with a blue tongue. Brando was the first, I loved that animal."

"We lived in a small apartment with three dogs, anything but ideal. One day we let them go, to people with a large estate. That was heartbreaking."

There is a beautiful lesson in that, about love and letting go. It would have been selfish to keep your dogs if you could give them a nicer life elsewhere, wouldn't it?

"Absolutely, but I obviously didn't process that departure properly. Brando still appears in my dreams, after all these years. Then he returns home unexpectedly, and am I mad with joy.

"I often dream about my parents too: that reunion is so intensely beautiful and warm. Oh, there you are, finally! Those dreams are true to life, and the awakening is rock-hard."

Is that one of the reasons why you like being here in Antwerp, because here you feel more connected to the people that you loved?

"This is my home, my zero, I can't imagine a place in the world where I would rather live. When my mom was alive, and especially when she got sick, in between filming I tried to be with her as much as possible here in Antwerp. In the meantime I have an apartment here, my first permanent place of my own, but I've hardly been there in recent years. Now I can finally enjoy my home, I find peace, tranquility and inspiration there. I have seen fantastic sunsets on my roof terrace in recent months. So much beauty, and you can just admire it there, every day, for free. As long as you take the time to enjoy it.

"Normally I would have started filming again in April, and left for a hectic ride of at least two years, with projects that would follow each other quickly. I was at my limits, sooner or later I was going to bang my head against the wall. I feel how beneficial it is to slow down for a moment. David Lynch said that: 'Just slow things down and it becomes more beautiful'.

"As an actor you have to work in a big machine, according to a tight schedule. I have now discovered the pleasure of creating things for myself very spontaneously in my own cadence."

Is that work something you ever want to go public with?

"I want to do something with my photography someday, but I'm in no hurry. I'm also writing a film script, I've had an idea for a trilogy for a long time. It's a very personal project, and it takes time for it to crystallize into something very pure and proper. Maybe those films will come within ten years, maybe never.

"The most important thing is to keep busy. You have to look for something, anything, on which you can focus your passion, love and attention. Of course I would like to return to set, and those projects will come back later. But if I can't change anything about a situation, why worry about it?

"From a very young age I learned that there are not many certainties in life, I adapt easily to unexpected circumstances. There is one thing I can't stand, and that is feeling powerless. I never want to be the victim of a situation, I will always think: what can I do myself? Which way can I go? I have often enough stood with my back against the wall, I will always find a way out and take matters into my own hands."

So Schoenaerts decided to use this period to put Zenith - his artist name as a street artist - to hard work. Since the lockdown he has already created nine impressive murals, including one in the courtyard of the Oudenaarde prison, and one at the beginning of this month in the Antwerp Begijnenstraat, on the bare walls that form their furthest horizon for the prisoners. A moving event, he says. Not only by the touching conversations with inmates, and the forty-minute applause with which the prisoners welcomed him. "The mural contains a poem by my father. While I am there painting those beautiful words of my dad on the wall, I suddenly remember that my mom used to give meditation lessons to the prisoners there in the Begijnenstraat. I had completely forgotten about that until I stood there. How beautiful that is. Suddenly I felt my parents very tangible, very close to me."

It's a bit funny: a long time ago you were arrested for graffiti, now they invite you to prison to make a mural.

"I used to tag a lot, but I really don't like the vandalism that sometimes comes with graffiti. Defacing a facade, that's just ridiculous. But trains, bridges, tunnels.... frankly I think that's the max. Soon I'm going to do another oldskool graffiti wall, with some friends, back to the roots. But with permission, yes."

Scary dudes

The problems of the Belgian detention system are well known: outdated infrastructure, overcrowding and a system of pre-trial detention which means that some people are innocently stuck for years. Schoenaerts: "These are human lives that are destroyed by the Belgian state, isn't that scandalous?"

Schoenaerts' engagement started years ago, after meeting Hans Claus, prison director in Oudenaarde, who contacted him when he wanted to organize a screening of Le Fidèle, the film by Michaël R. Roskam starring Schoenaerts. Claus has been fighting for many years for a reform of our detention system, among others with the non-profit organization De Huizen, small-scale centers that are more focused on rehabilitation and reintegration of the detainee. How does Schoenaerts see his role? "Those murals are a kind of lubricant for me, to get attention for this problem. I am not the expert and I am certainly not a politician. This injustice touches me as a human being, and my message is clear: please listen to the people who have been working hard for decades to reform the system from the inside."

In The Mustang, your last feature film to be seen here before the lockdown, you take on the role of a prisoner who learns to tame wild horses and his demons. Has that role changed your vision?

"That rehabilitation program with mustangs really exists, and the chance of recidivism is almost zero percent. I had a conversation in the Begijnenstraat with the minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open Vld, ed.), and he told me that the chance of relapse here is 40 to 50 percent. Isn't that madness?

"That's what fascinates me most of all: what do we do with those detainees while they're stuck? How can we help to break the destructive patterns that put them in prison? Imprisonment is a punishment in itself, but someday we'll send those people back into society, so let's mainly support them in their self-development.

"In preparation for The Mustang, I visited prisons in the U.S., and talked to men who had been detained for 20, 30 years. Heavy guys: Aryan Brotherhood (powerful crime syndicate of neo-Nazis in American prisons, ed.), Mexican gang leaders... real scary dudes. You know what those say to me? That they live in fear every day, but they must not show weakness. Psychological counseling and things like that have their value, but that's often very cerebral. I especially believe in the healing power of art. Imagine that inmates can express all those fucked up emotions through art: I think that there is an enormous potential in this."

I heard you're playing with the idea of giving acting lessons to inmates?

"That's not a concrete plan yet, but I would love it if people from the creative sector would commit themselves to this: musicians, sculptors, dancers. Or writers who help prisoners put their own story into words.

"The cultural sector needs to start sticking its neck out. The sector is lying flat, and that's terrible. But we have to keep moving. We can all do something for the community, without being paid for it. Planting small seeds, doing something good for your fellow man, something beautiful always comes out of it."

Had you been to a prison before The Mustang?

"To visit friends, yes. In Merksplas, Hoogstraten, Hasselt, Dendermonde... We shouldn't talk about that any further. A prison is deep tristesse. Who dares to call that 'a hotel', shame on you."

This summer you painted an impressive mural in Paris in honor of George Floyd, murdered by American officers. And in Ostend last week a new mural was unveiled, with a 'decapitated' Leopold II. Is activism an important part of your street art?

"Graffiti used to be more of a style exercise for me, you want to create things that get noticed within the scene. But gradually I felt like communicating with a wider audience. I like to incorporate a lot of symbolism in my paintings, such as the cracks I photograph all over the world and then magnify them in another place. And the praying hands, a universal image of hope and faith in yourself. Art has the power to speak to our deepest emotions, and that is what binds us to the other. Connectedness, empathy, harmony, solidarity, that's the essence for me."

The corona crisis is one big exercise in empathy and solidarity. Sometimes we seem to lack that.

"I refuse to surrender to cynicism, and I surround myself with positive people who do beautiful things for others. This period would lead us to insights: how do we deal with each other? Do we help each other, or is it every man for himself? A human is such a wonderful creature, but we mess it up so much for ourselves.

"Yeah, I know. Some people who read this will think: this guy is smoking too many joints. (laughs) I don't smoke joints, and I'm not an unworldly idealist. But I will always focus my attention on the good, in spite of everything."

If you always want to see the good in people, are you sometimes disappointed?

"Yes, of course. I'm not a naive brat, I've learned to guard my boundaries. I can't please everyone all the time, and I don't let anyone rush me. I react badly when people put pressure on me because they want things from me. The perception of me that others have of me, I can't control. I don't let myself put out of balance easily anymore."

I saw that on your Instagram Stories you warned about fake profiles on social media, of people pretending to be you. That made you visibly angry.

"Really, that makes me angry. Every day I receive screenshots from people who have been tricked by crooks who approach innocent victims with my name and my pictures. There are stories of fans who have paid thousands of euros because they were promised a meet-and-greet with me. How disgusting is that? One person has transferred 14,000 euros to someone who pretended to be my manager.

"Of course, that raises questions about how gullible some people can be. But I've seen those chat conversations for myself: those criminals are terribly sneaky. They know how to play on the vulnerabilities of their victims in a very cunning way. This is manipulation and swindle of the filthiest kind.

"Really, I get physically unwell when I think about it. How can someone be so mean? If I ever catch these guys, I'm gonna bash their skulls in, I'm not kidding. Sorry."

Or: those crooks get a jail sentence, where you're going to give them acting lessons.

(laughs) "Okay, let it be clear that I think everyone should be punished for their crimes. My commitment to the prison system is not a plea for impunity, and I certainly don't want to romanticize crime.

"But when someone abuses innocent people's trust in such a cunning way, the question is: how did you derail so morally? And above all: how can we initiate a transformation in that person? Surely you can't lock someone up and expect that person to suddenly make better choices years later? First such a person has to take responsibility for his own actions."

Do you have something criminal on your conscience?

"No." (Thinks for a second) "No. Thank God. I couldn't live with that.

"I've probably hurt people in my life, like everybody else. Sometimes we just hurt people because of who we are, or because we can't fulfill what others want from us. But I have never harmed anyone consciously or criminally, no."

As a teenager you sometimes came into contact with the juvenile court, for vandalism. Do you think you could have ended up on the other side of the bars?

"Probably, a life can take strange turns sometimes."

What made you sit here today, and not get on the 'wrong' path?

"Wait... that's a good question. There's the one terrible dramatic event that caused a total turnaround in my life: when my dad went into a coma after a psychosis, and I was told he only had 24 hours left to live.

"I was 21 then, thrown out of school for the umpteenth time. I was doing graffiti and wanted to find my way creatively. But I was messing around, going with friends who... Anyway, there was latent danger, it threatened to go a little bit the wrong way.

"And then I got that phone call: come and say goodbye. Bam. The relationship with my father had been sour for years, we hardly saw each other. Until I stood there at his deathbed in intensive care... I only felt love, a wave of emotions that I had pushed down very deeply. That realization was rock-hard: this was it. My father and I will never get the chance to figure shit out, I thought.

"Long story, the rest is known: after 72 hours my father woke up from a coma against all odds. Like a plant: he could not speak, reacted to nothing or nobody. According to the chief psychiatrist, we had to accept that his condition would never improve. That was without the fighting spirit of my mother and me.

"It's because of that unlikely event that I've changed my whole lifestyle. For eight months, my mother and I went to visit my father every day. We talked to him, but he seemed to look straight through us. For hours we sat with him at the psychiatry department of Stuivenberg, how desperate those first months were also. We continued to fight, taught him to talk, to eat, to walk. A miracle, the doctors called it. Bullshit of course. It was love, dedication and stubbornness. Especially thanks to my mother, the lioness who kept fighting for him. And see how much beauty came out of it. My life then received an entirely different impulse.

"I suddenly think of an anecdote I've never told before. After a while we were allowed to take my father to the cafeteria once in a while, or to the garden. But he was absolutely not allowed to leave the hospital. Fuck it. I hid a bag of clothes for him, secretly dressed him in the toilet and took my father to the city. By bus, because I didn't have a driver's license. I wanted to stimulate his senses, test if any memories would come back. He was fond of Our Lady's Cathedral, so that's where I wanted to take him."

Matthiaske, why am I crying?

He plays it out. The written version here is only a dead script compared to the lived-through performance, right there on that dark square, just around the corner of the Arenbergschouwburg, where Matthias made his stage debut as a 9-year-old boy next to father Julien, as The Little Prince.

Matthias shows how he supported his frail dad, and how they shuffled in small, careful steps towards the cathedral. Dad looking at the ground to be sure not to fall. "I say, 'Dad, look up'. He looks up, and I see the tears rolling down his cheeks. I had never seen my father cry. 'Matthiaske,' he says, 'can you tell me why I'm crying?'

"I had already decided then that I would take my father into my house. Overconfident, yes, at that age, but they have become the most beautiful years of my life. Mom came by every day to help. Suddenly we were a bit of a family again, something we had only been for a short time when I was young."

It was at that time that you decided to become an actor. Why did you decide to become an actor?

"I had always resisted following in my father's footsteps. In my youth I mainly wanted to break away from my father, and seek my own path. I didn't want to have anything to do with him and all those loudmouths around him in the theater world. But most of all I was terrified that compared to the great Julien Schoenaerts I would never be good enough.

"Only now do I understand why I then decided to go to the conservatory. Not to become an actor, but to understand my father. We had so many years together, and now that we had been given a second chance, I wanted to get to know him as well as possible. By acting, maybe I could get closer to him." (pauses)

Sentimental fuss

He banishes the tears. It's one of the many things he has in common with his father, he says: they're both very emotional, but they hate sentimental fuss. "Come on, Matthias: breathe," he commands himself.

"Voilà, see how much beauty can come out of misery. What a chain of beautiful things came out of the fight my mother and I put up in the most hopeless situation. Who knows how differently my life would have turned out?"

"There are so many lessons in that. If we just talked about the rehabilitation of detainees, for example. It takes commitment. Not a workshop of two hours. You have to persevere, even in the event of a setback, with no guarantee of a happy ending. That's why I think it's so important to keep telling that story about my dad. Those are the values I believe in: dedication, stamina, attention, love. You can apply that to everything in life. Love is the fuel."

You often talk about your parents as if you want to keep them alive with your words.

"Because my mom and dad are the people I've loved most. With them I shared the most important moments, built the most beautiful memories. That loss is enormous. Life has been really fucking tough since they've been gone.

"That's what grabs me so much in this period. How many people have died of corona in Belgium?"

According to Google, today, on the day of the interview, the counter stands at almost 14,000 deaths.

"Fourteen thousand! Imagine how many people that has an impact on? How many people have suddenly lost their mother, father, brother, sister, best friend or neighbor? Behind those figures lie tens of thousands of poignant stories, of people who see a loved one torn from their lives. That is a mountain of unresolved grief, and far too little attention is paid to it."

Earlier during our conversation a guy had walked past coughing and maskless. It pissed Schoenaerts off: "And whining about masks or strict measures. Grow some fucking balls. Having to say goodbye to a loved one, that's the worst thing."

"Isn't that what this period teaches us? That our time here is limited? And what really counts in life: sharing moments of beauty with the people you hold most dear. All the rest is wallpaper. Having success, making movies, that's all fun. But the day you lie on your deathbed, you really don't think about the professional successes on your resume. No way."