Michiel Huisman Counts on THE AGE OF ADALINE

THE AGE OF ADALINE is a bit of a departure for Michiel Huisman, known for troubled and/or troubling characters on NASHVILLE, TREME, and GAME OF THRONES. So when I talked with him on April 13, 2015, the first question I asked was if that was part of the reason he chose a role that allowed him to be the perfect romantic lead to a century-old woman who stopped aging at 29. We went on to talk about his approach to the character of a self-made philanthropist, the pleasures and perils of developing characters in both a series and a film, and what it was like for this rock musician from The Netherlands to finally come home to his musical roots in New Orleans.

Despite being a sex symbol to millions with his turn on THRONES, Huisman comes across a being just as down to earth as his character in ADALINE, and just as charming, funny and self-deprecating, the which he demonstrates with a hearty laugh at himself when he recalls performing in front of Dr. John, one of his musical idols. 

THE AGE OF ADALINE is a story about the difference between living and being alive. Blake Lively stars as the eponymous Adaline, a woman who stopped aging at 29, and whose subsequent life has been a century of saying goodbye by changing identities every 10 years rather than becoming a medical curiosity. That ends when she meets Ellis, played by Huisman, a philanthropist whose determined wooing makes Adaline consider changing the rules she has set for herself. The film co-stars Harrison Ford, Ellen Burstyn, Amanda Crew, and Kathy Baker. It was directed by Lee Toland Kriger from a script by J. Mills Goodloe and Salvador Paskowitz. Huisman’s previous work includes WILD, THE YOUNG VICTORIA, as well as playing a drug-addicted musician on HBO’s treME, a conniving music producer on ABC’s NASHVILLE, fathering a child on ORPHAN BLACK and singing in the band FONTANE. He can currently be seen as part of the ensemble cast in that small, intimate character-driven story, GAME OF THRONES, also on HBO.