Maartje de Jager
Maartje de Jager | |
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| Born | 6 April 1964 Rotterdam, Crestone, Shalum |
| Alma mater | Anca Déuréy University |
| Occupation |
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| Years active | 1984–present |
Maartje de Jager (Gylic transcription: Marcie Deiagyr; born 6 March 1964) is a Shalumite–Gylian actress, voice actress, director, screenwriter, and former model. She is famed for her "wicked" villainous roles in Gylian cinema; Gylias Review described her as "the woman Gylians love to hate on screen".
Early life
Maartje was born on 6 March 1964 in Rotterdam. She has two sisters, Antoinette (b. 1962) and Marjolein (b. 1966), both of whom also work in film as a director and actress, respectively. Their parents divorced when they were young.
Maartje initially attended university in Shalum, studying economics. She transferred to Anca Déuréy University in her second year, then changed her degree to literature, graduating in 1986.
Modeling
She began modeling while in university, and became successful at it. She was in demand because of her "old-fashioned" looks, which were compared to the Alscian film star Hedy Kiesler.
She appeared on the covers of various Gylian and international fashion magazines.
She retired from modeling in the early 1990s to concentrate on acting.
Acting
Maartje began acting with guest roles on several television series. Her first film role was in 1992.
Breakthrough
Maartje's breakthrough role was in the 1994 short film The Art of Murder, directed by Keses Saréy. She played a charismatic and sharp-dressed hitwoman who botches a murder and has to hastily cover her tracks to escape suspicion.
Upon release, Maartje won critical acclaim for her performance. She repeatedly collaborated with Keses on further shorts, turning The Art of Murder into a series. Subsequent shorts intensified the black comedy, and coalesced into a style of extremely violent slapstick, with Maartje's character shown killing her victims in ironic ways.
Although the Art of Murder shorts gained infamy for their gore, Keses pointed out that most of the violence is not shown on screen, both for comedic reasons and to save money on special effects.
Maartje and Keses ended up making 25 Art of Murder shorts in total, the last one being released in 2014. Maartje assumed a greater behind-the-scenes role in later ones, contributing to the screenwriting, directing, and devising violent visual gags. She later said of Keses, "I owe that man my film career. He found something warped inside of me, dragged it to the surface, and taught me how to get laughs from it."
Later roles
Maartje's Art of Murder role ended up defining her subsequent film career. She has a reputation as one of Gylias' premier "wicked" actresses, and is highly in demand for villain roles.
Surface wrote in 2010, "It's not much of an exaggeration to say that Maartje was the first sought out for nearly every villain role in a Gylian film." Besides her acting technique, she possessed several traits that kept her highly sought-after for such roles, such as her long black hair, deep voice, and her 1,80 m height. Some of her live action roles exaggerated the latter by having her wear platform shoes or stand on boxes to appear even taller.
Her extensive experience playing fictional "wicked" characters also led to roles in biographical films, in which she portrayed famous criminals like Kaþi Mofat and Valeria Maneva (opposite Æþurian actress May Kalberg as Maria Vaseva), and political figures like Emilia Malandrino and Maria Elena Durante.
She has also worked as a voice actor, such as playing antagonists in the Dreamwave Productions series Le recueil des faits improbables de Ryōko Yakushiji, Les Enfants Terrificques, and Monster Squad.
Reputation
Maartje is famous for specialising in "wicked" characters, and has won critical acclaim for her acting, characterised by joie de vivre, bombastic screen presence, a facility for verbal comedy, and expert use of sex appeal and glamorous wardrobes.
She has cited rezy, Carla Miló, and Brynhild Svendsen as influences on her acting, and credits Art of Murder director Keses Saréy with refining her on-screen presence.
All of her roles are comedic, and she refuses to take any dramatic roles.
She was interviewed for Rasa Ḑeşéy's 2017 documentary Beloved Rascals, in which she discussed extensively the importance of the wicked–evil distinction to her career:
"To draw a nuance like that is genius, and I think because of that there's greater respect in Gylias for the craft, the sheer effort it takes to hit such a specific note, perfectly, and over and over again. I've played bad people in some form or another for my whole career, but they're bad people that, deep down, you feel kind of attracted by and want to cheer when their plans go off without a hitch, and you feel sad when they fail."
"Look at Art of Murder, for instance — the foundation of my career. I've killed and dismembered others in those films, spilled blood and so on, but the brilliant thing is I've still kept the audience on my side. My character's charming and talks right at the audience, winks at them like Carla or Sima would, so the audience wants me to get away scot-free, like Brynhild did in Livsforsikring. Since it's not shown in detail and I'm having such a jolly good time, viewers think up excuses to rationalise liking the films, y'know? Anything from my victims must've deserved it to at least I gave them a quick death, which is very noble of me!" [laughs]
"Essentially, I'm in the business of wish fulfilment. Everybody's had some frustration in life, some moment they felt the world was out to get 'em. At that moment, they'll say, 'I wish I could do this like Maartje', right? Since my characters make murder fun, break the law, get away with it all, and still have audiences cheering because they're these irresistibly charming rascals."
Much of Maartje's career has been focused on Gylias because of what she called "Gylians' belief that comedy is the highest form of art". She has had difficulties with foreign productions due to the cultural barrier caused by the wicked–evil distinction.
She commented in one interview, "The best co-stars I've had are the ones who understood that our roles are technically reversed. I'm playing the villain, but I'm the one the audience can't get enough of. You're the hero, so if they don't resent you for getting in my way, you're doing it wrong!"
Other pursuits
Maartje is also a screenwriter and director, making her directorial debut in 2011. Her directorial efforts eschew the villainous roles of her main career, and she has notably appeared in some of her films in positive roles.
She frequently collaborates with her sisters Antoinette and Marjolein.
She wrote an autobiography, Blood, Guts, and Laughs, which was published in 2014. It is notable for exclusively focusing on her screen career, beginning directly with her first film role in 1992, and extensively discussing her acting techniques and influences with no mention of her private life.
Private life
Maartje is divorced and has stated she doesn't want to have children.
She is a very private person, and includes a clause in her contracts that she won't be required to make promotional appearances. She made no mention of her private life in Blood, Guts, and Laughs, including all references to her marriage and divorce.
Bssides her native Dutch, she speaks English, French, German, and Italian.
She wrote in Blood, Guts, and Laughs that she always invokes Hacak before a performance, and she listens to glam metal while preparing her characters, claiming "it's unexpectedly helpful to keeping the character and tone right."
She owns a firearm license, and has also trained and worked as a weapons specialist on other productions.