The Netherlands has – from now on on Videoland – another tough action andcrime series: sleepers. Why are ‘we’ suddenly so good at making productionslike the new title mentioned and earlier too Macro Mafia , Under cover and_The Golden Hour_? Subway said creator, creative producer and protagonistRobert de Hoog and his friend and opponent Teun Kuilboer.
Tuesday, late afternoon. In the darkness of the Lab111 building in Amsterdam-West, the words pathological anatomical laboratory can still be read above thedoor. Lab111 is now a vibrant creative and cultural center, but onceapparently a place where a lot of corpses have been cut. A bit lurid, butappropriate for the interview setting of the six-part series sleepers.Inside it is much more pleasant. For example, actor Robert de Hoog and PR ladyfrom RTL and Videoland Eileen are watching the Morocco – Spain World Cupmatch. Like De Hoog at Subway slides in, the tablet with the live footballremains upright on the table.
Sleepers: underworld agents and informers
Not that Robert de Hoog ‘isn’t there’, on the contrary. sleepers is histhing as creator and creative boss of the Videoland production, with the helpof a large number of well-known actors and also co-screenwriter Simon de Waal.The latter works for the police in Amsterdam, but above all a big name when itcomes to writing crime. Just think about it Baantjer and The Golden Hour.
De Hoog could make good use of that. sleepers tells the tough story of thecorrupt cop Martin Oudkerk (Robert de Hoog himself), who maneuvers between theunderworld of Utrecht and the upper world of the criminal investigationdepartment. His surrogate father (Hans Kesting) is one of the last remainingcriminals of ‘the old penoze’. The man who is immediately killed by ‘the newguard’ in the series has sent people to the police academy since the beginningof this century to pass on information to his criminal organization. Martin isone of them.
While his best friend Willem (Teun Kuilboer) and newcomer Dwight (JulmarSimons, aka rapper Adje) increasingly draw Martin to the underworld, Martinhas to keep a mask on his wife Noura (Maryam Hassouni). Noura, mother ofMartin’s son, is herself a skilled detective in internal affairs of theUtrecht police. She therefore investigates culpable behavior of her ownpeople… In sleepers we also see, among others, Hans Dagelet, Nazmiye Oral,Gijs Scholten van Aschat, Rifka Lodeizen and Dilan Yurdakul.
Robert de Hoog has been working with Sleepers for four years
„ sleepers has become a series that I am proud of”, says Robert de Hoogstraight to the point. “I realized today that I started it exactly four yearsago. And now it all comes true. I am very happy that the world can finally seeit.” De Hoog (34) has a resume to say to you (of the series Macro Mafia ,Red Light and Soof: a new beginning to the movies Homies and Bantam theBeginning ). The actor who is known throughout the Netherlands as theunkillable Tatta (“I’m a kind of cockroach in that, yes”), was inventing_sleepers_ just on Macro Mafia started and also worked permanently atTheater Amsterdam.
Flat caps
“I thought ‘I’m fine every day in the theater, but to create someone else’sideas and creations’. I decided to see what fascinates and intrigues me. Myfather used to work for the police and he always told exciting stories. TheHolleeder trial with the betrayal of his sisters was going on at the time andI kept reading something about flat caps. That triggered me. Apparently therewas corruption within the police. I decided to dive into that, because I hadnever seen a series about it.”
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sleepers
The term sleepers comes from the world of the secret services: people who arestationed in a certain country and are ‘woken up’ after a signal to startspying. Co-screenwriter Simon de Waal translated this to the police world withRobert de Hoog. De Waal: “In the Netherlands there are only rumors about this.Ever since the eighties, when criminal Klaas Bruinsma might have sleepers. Butno, we don’t know whether they really exist in our police world. However, itcould just be in the newspaper tomorrow and that makes the series realistic.”
Special cast, including Teun Kuilboer
“I have been acting for a long time and therefore know many actors that I wasable to ask,” says De Hoog, who appeared in 2008 for the telefilm Skin hasalready been rewarded with a Golden Calf. “For example, I played with HansKesting at Theater Amsterdam for years. Very nice that all those amazingactors, but also a top crew, wanted to do this. I enjoyed experiencing it notonly as an actor, but also from my new creative position.”
One of those actors is Teun Kuilboer. The 40-year-old born in Haarlem has gonefrom poster hunk in twenty years Good times Bad Times has grown into agifted actor who is careful with the roles he chooses. He has been in theseries in recent years, among other things La Family and Commands and themovies Bon Bini Holland and The Heineken Kidnapping to see. He got to knowRobert de Hoog during their time in the aforementioned Skin. Had De Hoog afriendly thank you for that sleepers accepted from his friend? The maker:”Then I would have laughed at him very loudly and said ‘see you tomorrowmorning’.”
Of course yes
Teun Kuilboer naturally said ‘yes’: „Since Skin , in which I played a Naziyouth and Robert a Jewish boy who joined the Nazis, we’re good friends. Ofcourse wax sleepers therefore a ‘go’ for me. He had been working on it for along time and we talked about it many times. I think it’s great that he workedvery purposefully and that he succeeded.”
In sleepers is Teun Kuilboer Willem, friend of agent Martin and grew up> with the same stepfather. You could call him a type of cap, butt, expensive> watch, big mouth, but still sympathetic. The kind of person you would love> to have a beer with, but after one time think: let’s stick to that one time.> Kuilboer: “Drinking a beer with Willem in a charming way is fine, but maybe> the lives should not become intertwined. Willem is in a difficult corner. I> wouldn’t be so quick to commit my life to him. My character slowly but> surely drags Martin into the depths. But I can betray that she was fifteen> years before you got in sleepers steps, together even though they have> entered the depths. It is not entirely Willem’s responsibility and he also> wants to put things right.”
The bar was high for Sleepers
From the time that Robert de Hoog started his project sleepers started, oneafter the other own top series was delivered for Videoland, Netflix and alsothe NPO. The bar was immediately set very high in that respect. “I got itmyself Macro Mafia of Achmed Akkabi, one of my best friends, of course. Heis also an actor and maker and has paved the way for others. The bar wasindeed high, but that only inspired me. I don’t like boxes like ‘a journalistshouldn’t write books and an actor shouldn’t direct’. So it is possible andnow also in the Netherlands. In America they are no different. I am gratefulthat Videoland believes in me very much.” The trust between the streamingservice and Robert de Hoog is so great that a second series sleepers alreadyordered and in the pen. There may be more than six episodes.
Sleepers or sleepers?
Teun Kuilboer, who admits sportingly that he has sometimes gloated about thefact that he, for example, is not in Macro Mafia Sat: “It is very nice tonotice that there is more room for the creatives when it comes to makingseries, in this case Robert. Broadcasters see that it produces better qualityand that you achieve results. Robert has worked a lot as an actor and knowsevery facet of how it works and how you might be able to do things moreeasily. What I like so far sleepers I have longed for that for a long timethat we could do something like this in the Netherlands.” Kuilboer sometimesaccidentally says the title of the series in Dutch. He himself can laugh aboutit being pointed out to him – especially by Robert de Hoog – that it really is_sleepers_ is.
Beloved characters die
What is striking in series of recent years is that beloved characters can justdie in one of the first episodes. So also back in sleepers, although wewon’t reveal any names of course. Robert de Hoog: „It is the ultimatesurprise, I just like that. In the underworld, no one is sure of his life. Soyou can make it in front of the viewer, because that’s how it really goes andthe world is put together.” Teun Kuilboer: „ Game of Thrones had it too. Ithink it’s a nice development. It keeps you on the edge of your seat andanything can happen. The good guy doesn’t always make it to the end.”
The cast of Sleepers. Photo: Jasper Suyk
sleepers is not only beautiful to look at ( Subway already looked ahead,tip!), but of course also has a serious side: the emergence of a new ‘load’ ofmostly young criminals in our country. Does that worry the actors? TeunKuilboer: “The world of today worries me, yes. The uprooting has beensignificant over the past twenty years, the uprooting of boys and girls whogrow up not feeling that they belong to society. They don’t get manyopportunities and therefore choose a different path.” Robert de Hoog: “Youlook up sleepers to a fictional story, but I wouldn’t be surprised if itturns out to be true tomorrow. The underworld is capable of it and there hasbeen talk in court cases about possible corruption among police officers foryears. It is an interesting theme that everyone is actually a bit afraid of.”
Six episodes available immediately
sleepers can now be seen in its entirety on Videoland. Or actually sincelast night, when the series suddenly appeared on the streaming service as asurprise. Robert de Hoog, before looking back at – now extension – Spain –Morocco: “You can look at it in one go. Or maybe it’s a good tip forChristmas, binge watching. I love that myself and especially that you candetermine the moment of viewing. Sometimes not, then I think it’s good to haveto wait a whole week for a new episode. The man behind sleepers considersthat before the penalties at the World Cup in Qatar start, he still hassomething to say: „The term Golden Calf came up earlier. Just write that thejury can give it to Teun Kuilboer this time.”
The first two episodes can also be seen on RTL 4 from 8.31 pm tonight. Thenext four episodes are only exclusively on Videoland.