Biography for
Carice van Houten More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

5 September 1976, Leiderdorp, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands

Birth Name

Carice Anouk van Houten

Height

5' 6½" (1.69 m)

Mini Biography

Carice (Anouk) van Houten was born in Leiderdorp (near Leiden) on 5 September 1976. Her parents are Margje Stasse (on the board of Dutch educational TV) and writer and broadcaster Theodore van Houten. She is the elder sister of actress and designer Jelka van Houten. When she was five her father took her to a screening of Abel Gance's epic Napoleon which fascinated her. She has demonstrated great interest in cinema since. Carice convincingly demonstrated her acting talents at the Bonifatius Lyceum high school, Utrecht, in the early 90s. One of her first parts was the title role in Hugo Claus's play Tijl Uilenspiegehel. She also developed a skill in clarinet playing. In 1995 she was rather uniquely accepted by both the Maastricht and Amsterdam drama academies, and started her TV career (Labyrint, VPRO TV 1997) as a student of the Kleinkunst Academie Amsterdam. There she was awarded the 1999 Pisuisse Prize, and the 2000 Top Naeff Prize for her theatre work. A day before the Top Naeff Prize she was awarded the 'Gouden Kalf' as best TV actress in Martin Koolhoven's Suzy Q. In 2001 she starred in Amnesia by the same director. In September 2000 she joined the Noord-Nederlands Toneel starring as a both singing and acting Polly in a contemporary staging of the Threepenny Opera to fabulously stunning reviews. Her great talent for dark comedy was demonstrated in a parody on City Lights' blind girl in the Amsterdam Kleine Komedie. Carice is a great admirer of American silent comedies - particularly Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy - although she can display an equally dramatic talent. In 2001 she made Minoes, in the title role of the cat-woman after Annie M.G. Schmidt. In the 2001-02 season she won the main role in a theatre production of Schmidt's musical Foxtrot.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Tiedel@newbabylon.demon.nl

Trivia

Often plays in films of director Martin Koolhoven, for whom she played the part that made her famous (Suzy Q (1999) (TV) ).

Is fluent in Dutch, English, German and French.

Sister of actress Jelka van Houten.

Met boyfriend Sebastian Koch on the set of Zwartboek (2006).

Singin' in the Rain (1952) is her personal favorite movie of all time.

Went to St. Bonifatiuscollege in Utrecht.

Born to Margje Stasse, who is on board of the Dutch educational TV, and Theodore van Houten, a writer and broadcaster.

Played the character of Gretchen Ferris in Ridley Scott's Body of Lies (2008), but all her scenes were deleted in the final cut.

Personal Quotes

I don't do method acting. If I play a farmer I'm not gonna spend 3 weeks on a chicken farm. That's a bit too much for me. For Minoes (in which she played a cat in a woman's body) I didn't spend 3 weeks in a cat pound.

In The Netherlands you know who the good and the bad are if I have to say it so black and white. You can orientate yourself better in your own country. Here everything is overwhelming. It is very difficult to know who to trust here.

To me, that's not the most difficult thing. To transform. I don't really see it happen. I don't have the feeling I am transforming, really. I don't believe you can get into somebody's character but more that somebody comes in you. You just use yourself. In everything I play, I feel like it is me. I just say different things on different times and look different.

If you are not in America fast enough, it must have failed. When there is another thing like, maybe I don't want to go to America. I mean, it's not SO great there anyway...

On what foreign press wants to know: I think they're all waiting for a crazy story about Paul (Verhoeven), that he exploded once or something, but I keep telling them he's a sweet man so I keep letting them down. And what it's like to be naked on a set. They all think that's very exciting. I just answer that in Holland, it's weird not to be naked on a set so we're all used to it.

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