European Shooting Stars: Jonas Smulders

Jonas Smulders - The Netherlands - European Shooting Stars 2018 

Interview / editing: Martin I. Petrov 

Have you been to Berlin before, how is your experience before your country’s shooting

star? 

I was here once before with a short film and once as a visitor at the festival, it is a great

experience to meet all these people. Also, I have great support from my country and the

Dutch Film institute, really feel empowered and it’s nice to be surrounded by other young

actors. 

Brothers is a great coming of age film but is equally a story for everyone feeling

challenged and experiencing a great change in their life and finally have this sense of

liberation. How was this journey for you? 

It’s about a brother who wants to step out of his sibling’s shadow but didn’t foresee the

complications that life could bring and he wasn’t really prepared to experience loss. We

did a lot of work in advance and I felt well prepared before we started to shoot. 

It is also an emotional film, did you feel that shifting from the film and your character to

your personal life, did it affect you or inspire you? 

It certainly made me more experienced and I got to feel things I’d never felt before. 

What is your dream for the future, something you would really want to do? 

It’s funny but I really want to play a woman, a female character. I am studying at the film

academy in Holland, so eventually I would like to try directing my own film but I don’t think

I would ever give up acting, just love it too much. 

What would you tell to the next generation of shooting stars? 

Talking to this great team of people here in Berlin, I really feel inspired to hear their stories

and be part of this adventure together. My advice is not to try and sell yourself, but just

show your personality and who you are.