Matthias Schoenaerts Biography

Matthias Schoenaerts (born 8 December 1977) is a Belgian actor, film producer and graffiti artist of Flemish origin. He made his film debut at the age of 13 in Daens (1992), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He is best known for his roles as Filip in Loft (2008), Jacky Vanmarsenille in the Oscar-nominated Bullhead (2011), Ali in Rust and Bone (2012), Eric Deeds in The Drop (2014), Bruno von Falk in Suite Franaise (2015), Gabriel Oak in Far from the Madding Crowd (2015) and Hans Axgil in The Danish Girl.

In 2013, he won the Csar Award for Most Promising Actor for Rust and Bone.

In 2015, he was named Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France.

Early life

Schoenaerts was born in Antwerp, the Flemish (Dutch-speaking) region of Belgium. He is the son of actor Julien Schoenaerts and Dominique Wiche, a costume designer, translator and French teacher. He has an older half brother, Bruno Schoenaerts (born 1953), who is a lawyer.

Schoenaerts grew up bilingual speaking Flemish/Dutch and French. He is also fluent in English, which he learned by watching American movies.

In 1987, at nine years old, he appeared on a stage production of Antoine de Saint-Exupry's The Little Prince opposite his father, who was also the director. His mother, Dominique, was the costume designer of the play.

He started producing graffiti as a teenager under the pseudonym "Zenith", even going to New York to collaborate with the Bronx group TATS CRU. It is possible to watch some videos of Schoenaerts doing graffiti in Belgium on YouTube.

Schoenaerts was close to becoming a professional soccer player and was on the books of Belgian team Beerschot AC, but gave up when he was 16 years old.

Career

Early work in Belgium and Netherlands (1992-2011)

At the age of 13, Schoenaerts made his film debut with a small role in the 1992 Belgian film Daens, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His father also starred in the film.

In 2003, Schoenaerts was named one of "Europe's Shooting Stars" by the European Film Promotion.

After completing studies at The Academy of Dramatic Arts in Antwerp, he featured in several shorts and feature films. In 2002, he starred in Dorothe Van Den Berghe's Meisje (Girl); Tom Barman's Any Way the Wind Blows in 2003; Rudolf Mestdagh's Ellektra and Roel Mondelaers & Raf Reyntjens's sci-fi short film A Message from Outer Space, which he also produced in 2004.

In 2006, Schoenaerts played Dennis in Hilde Van Mieghem's Love Belongs to Everyone, and appeared in a small role in Paul Verhoeven's Black Book.

In 2007, he starred in Ben van Lieshout's De Muze and in Erik Bruyn's Nadine.

In 2008, he played Bob in Pieter van Hees's horror film Left Bank, and most notably played the role of Filip in Erik Van Looy's Loft, which became the most successful Flemish film at the Belgian box-office, earning over $7,075,161. In the same year, Schoenaerts also starred in the mini-series The Emperor of Taste (De smaak van De Keyser), playing a Belgian soldier in World War II.

In 2009, he starred in Dorothe Van Den Berghe's My Queen Karo, in which he played the hippie Raven in 1970's Amsterdam.

In 2010, he played the lead role in Alex Stockman's Techno-thriller Pulsar and had a cameo in Franck Richard's La Meute (The Pack).

In 2011, Schoenaerts starred in the Dutch films The Gang of Oss (De Bende van Oss) and The President (De President).

Breakthrough: Bullhead and Rust and Bone (2011-2013)

In 2011, Schoenaerts played the lead role in Bullhead, directed by Michal R. Roskam, which was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. His performance in the film was well received and won him the FIPRESCI Award for best actor at Palm Springs International Film Festival in January 2012. The jury praised the actor's "superb portrayal of an innocent and sensitive man trapped in a truculent body." He also won the Magritte Award for Best Actor.

In 2012, he starred in Jacques Audiard's Rust and Bone (De rouille et d'os) alongside Marion Cotillard. The film premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and was a critical and box office hit in France. On 22 February 2013, Matthias won the Csar Award for Most Promising Actor for his role in Rust and Bone.

Schoenaerts also produced and starred in the Belgian short film Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw), directed by Tom Van Avermaet. On 10 January 2013, the short film was nominated for the 2012 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.

The New York Times described Schoenaerts as "?the most versatile beefcake actor of our time"? in 2012.

In 2013, he narrated the Flemish version of the Disneynature documentary Chimpanzee.

International career

In 2014, Schoenaerts appeared alongside Clive Owen, Billy Crudup and again Marion Cotillard in the thriller Blood Ties, in which he played Anthony Scarfo. The film premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

He also played Eric Deeds in The Drop, his second film with Michael R. Roskam, starring opposite Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace and James Gandolfini. In the same year, he was cast as Roy Cady in the film adaptation of Nic Pizzolatto's novel Galveston, directed by Janus Metz Pedersen.

Schoenaerts was the face of Louis Vuitton Menswear Spring/Summer 2014.

In 2015, the actor appeared in 7 films: The Loft, the American remake of the Belgian film Loft, in which he played the same character; in Saul Dibb's Suite Franaise, playing the German soldier Bruno von Falk opposite Michelle Williams and Kristin Scott Thomas; in Thomas Vinterberg's Far from the Madding Crowd as Gabriel Oak, one of Carey Mulligan's three love interests; in Alan Rickman's period drama A Little Chaos, as French landscape architect Andr Le Ntre, opposite Kate Winslet.

Schoenaerts also starred in Alice Winocour's French thriller Disorder (Maryland), as an ex-soldier suffering from post traumatic stress disorder; he played Paul in Luca Guadagnino's thriller A Bigger Splash, starring opposite Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes and Dakota Johnson, and also played the art-dealer Hans Axgil in Tom Hooper's The Danish Girl. A Bigger Splash and The Danish Girl made their world premieres at the 2015 Venice Film Festival, both were screened in the official competition.

Schoenaerts will play William Clark on HBO's miniseries Lewis and Clark, co-starring Casey Affleck as Meriwether Lewis. The six-hour miniseries is executive produced by Tom Hanks, Edward Norton, and Brad Pitt.

On 28 July 2015, Schoenaerts was named a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France. This distinction is awarded by the French Ministry of Culture to people "who have distinguished themselves by their creativity in the artistic or literary field or the contribution they have made to the influence of the arts and literature in France and in the world".

Directorial debut

His directorial debut, Franky, is a documentary about a one-legged childhood friend of his who became a MMA fighter, Franky van Hove. The documentary is currently in post-production.

Hakuna Casting

On 24 August 2015, it was reported that Schoenaerts became the co-owner of the Belgian casting agency Hakuna Casting, which focuses on people of ethnic origin.

The agency has collaborated on the casting of films like Black by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, and Belgica by Felix Van Groeningen.

Upcoming projects

In 2016, Schoenaerts will reteam with Michal R. Roskam in the Belgian film The Racer and the Jailbird (Le Fidle), in which he'll play a gangster named Gigi. The film will be Roskam and Schoenaerts' first film in Belgium since 2011's Bullhead.

He's also going to work again with Thomas Vinterberg in Kursk, a film about the Kursk submarine disaster that happened in 2000.

In January 2016, it was announced that Schoenaerts will play a drummer who begins to lose his hearing in Darius Marder's The Sound of Metal.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	Daens	Wannes Scholliers
2001	Flikken	Jens Goossens	TV series 1 episode
2002	De blauwe roos	Minnaar	Short
2002	Waternimf		Short
2002	Stille waters	Rechercheur	TV series 1 episode
2002	Meisje aka Girl	Oskar
2003	Zien	Man	Short
2003	Any Way the Wind Blows	Chouki
2004	Je veux quelque chose et je ne sais pas quoi	Jaap	Short
2004	A Message from Outer Space	Frits	Short
2004	Ellektra	DJ Cosmonaut X
2004	Gender		Short
2005	Another Day	Man	Short
2005	Einde van de rit aka The End of the Ride	Samuel	Short
2005	Dochter aka Daughter	Mattias	Short
2005	Exit	Anthony	Short
2005	The One Thing to Do	Edward Monskii	Short
2006	Retour	Maxime	Short
2006	Love Belongs to Everyone	Dennis
2006	Black Book	Joop
2007	De Muze aka The Muse
2007	Nadine	Cornee
2008	Left Bank	Bob
2008	Tunnelrat	John Atkins	Short
2008	Loft	Filip Willems
2008	De Smaak van De Keyser aka The Emperor of Taste	Alfred Lenaerts	TV series
2009	Afterday	Jef	Short
2009	My Queen Karo	Raven
2009	Los zand	Vincent Vandeweghe	TV series
2010	The Pack	Le Gothique en toc
2010	Pulsar	Samuel Verbist
2010	Duts		TV series
2010	Injury Time	Van Dessel	Short
2011	Bullhead	Jacky Vanmarsenille
2011	De President aka The President	Boyko
2011	De Bende van Oss aka The Gang of Oss	Ties van Heesch
2012	Rust and Bone	Ali
2012	Death of a Shadow	Nathan Rijckx	Short
2013	Chimpanzee	Narrator	Documentary
2013	Blood Ties	Anthony Scarfo
2014	The Drop	Eric Deeds
2015	The Loft	Philip Williams
2015	Suite Franaise	Bruno von Falk
2015	A Little Chaos	Andr Le Ntre
2015	Far from the Madding Crowd	Gabriel Oak
2015	Disorder	Vincent
2015	A Bigger Splash	Paul De Smedt
2015	The Danish Girl	Hans Axgil
2017	The Racer and the Jailbird aka Le Fidle	Gigi	Post-production
2017	Kursk	Captain

Awards and nominations

Csar Awards, France

Year	Group	Award	Film	Result
2013	Csar Award	Most Promising Actor	Rust and Bone

Magritte Awards, Belgium

Year	Group	Award	Film	Result
2012	Magritte Award	Best Actor	Bullhead
2013		Best Actor	Rust and Bone

Flanders Film Awards, Belgium

Year	Group	Award	Film	Result
2011	Ensor	Best Actor	Bullhead

Oostende Film Festival, Belgium

Year	Group	Award	Result
2015	Ensor	Outstanding Achievement

Lumires Awards, France

Year	Group	Award	Film	Result
2013	Lumires Award	Best Actor	Rust and Bone

Globes de Cristal Awards, France

Year	Group	Award	Film	Result
2013	Globes de Cristal Award	Best Actor	Rust and Bone

toiles d'Or Awards, France

Year	Group	Award	Film	Result
2013	toiles d'Or	Best Male Newcomer	Rust and Bone

Prix Patrick Dewaere, France

Year	Award	Result
2013	Prix Patrick Dewaere
2016

Film festivals

Year	Group	Award	Film	Result
2003	Berlin International Film Festival	EFP Shooting Star
2009	Monte-Carlo TV Festival	Golden Nymph for Outstanding Actor - Drama Series	De smaak van De Keyser
2011	AFI Fest	New Auteurs Critic's Prize For Best Actor	Bullhead
2011	Austin Fantastic Fest	Next Wave Award for Best Actor	Bullhead
2011	Les Arcs European Film Festival	Best Actor	Bullhead
2011	2-in-1 International Film Festival	Heroes Award for Best Actor	Bullhead
2011	Saint-Jean-de-Luz Young Filmmakers Festival	Best Actor	Bullhead
2012	Palm Springs International Film Festival	FIPRESCI Prize for Best Actor	Bullhead
2012	Valladolid International Film Festival	Best Actor	Rust and Bone
2015	Capri-Hollywood International Film Festival	Revelation of the Year	The Danish Girl

Critics awards

Year	Group	Award	Film	Result
2012	Dublin Film Critics' Circle	Best Actor	Rust and Bone
2013	CinEuphoria Awards	Best International Actor	Bullhead
2013	CinEuphoria Awards	Best International Actor	Rust and Bone
2013	Chlotrudis Award	Best Actor	Bullhead
2013	Chlotrudis Award	Best Actor	Rust and Bone
2013	Georgia Film Critics Association	Best Actor	Rust and Bone
2013	International Cinephile Society Awards	Best Actor	Bullhead

Other

Year	Group	Award	Result
2016	Elle Style Awards	Actor of the Year