ACTOR
Matthias Schoenaerts
- Known for
- Supergirl (2026), The Loft (2014), Far from the Madding Crowd (2015), The Old Guard 2 (2025)
78 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
Matthias Schoenaerts is an actor best known for Supergirl, The Loft and Far from the Madding Crowd.
All facts (78)
- #001
Matthias Schoenaerts was offered the role of Christian Grey in Fifty Shades of Grey (2015). He said that he fell asleep while reading the script and that his manager told him to stay out of the project.
- #002
Schoenaerts speaks Dutch, French, English and German, and has appeared in Belgian, Dutch, French, American, British and Italian films.
- #003
Marion Cotillard stated that her scenes with Matthias in Rust and Bone (2012) were the first and only time she enjoyed shooting sex scenes.
- #004
He is a graffiti artist under the pseudonym "Zenith".
- #005
He played piano as a child, so he had some foundation for his role in Suite Française (2014), but he wanted to genuinely learn to play piano for the film. Schoenaerts also learned to speak German for the role of the German soldier Bruno von Falk.
- #006
He is a fan of Daniel Day-Lewis, Simone Signoret, Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix.
- #007
On 28 July he was named a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France. The award is given by the French Ministry of Culture to people who have distinguished themselves "by their creativity in the artistic or literary field or by the contribution they have made to the influence of the arts and literature in France and throughout the world".
- #008
He first played the same character in the Belgian film Loft (2008) and years later in the American remake The Loft (2014), performing the role in two different languages (Flemish and English); it was also his first English-speaking role.
- #009
He turned down the role of Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). In a February 2016 interview on the Dutch series "24 uur met", Schoenaerts said he felt he was too young to play Batman in his mid-forties. Schoenaerts was 35 when the role was offered to him.
- #010
After seeing him in Rust and Bone (2012), Carey Mulligan recommended him for the role of Gabriel Oak in Far from the Madding Crowd (2015).
- #011
As of 2015, he had appeared in three films nominated for an Oscar: Daens (1992) (Best Foreign Language Film), Bullhead (2011) (Best Foreign Language Film) and Death of a Shadow (2012) (Best Live Action Short Film).
- #012
After they appeared together in Rust and Bone (2012), Marion Cotillard recommended him for a role in Blood Ties (2013), her boyfriend Guillaume Canet's first directorial effort in Hollywood. Canet said he cast Schoenaerts after hearing Cotillard praise him repeatedly.
- #013
He spent a year at film school but was expelled because of his absenteeism.
- #014
He is the son of actor Julien Schoenaerts and costume designer, translator and French teacher Dominique Wiche.
- #015
He enjoys painting, playing football and boxing, and he is also a fan of architecture.
- #016
He is a co-owner of Hakuna Casting, a Belgian casting agency that advocates diversity, fights the underrepresentation of non-white and foreign-origin people on screen, and seeks to bring diversity to commercials, music videos and films. The agency has collaborated on the casting of films such as Black (2015) and Belgica (2016).
- #017
While shooting Disorder (2015) he slept only two hours a night and eventually ended up in hospital.
- #018
He has an older half-brother, Bruno Schoenaerts (born 1953), a lawyer, and two half-sisters who have died: Helga Schoenaerts (1961-1982, suicide) and Sarah Schoenaerts (1955-2014, cancer).
- #019
He wants to work with directors David Lynch, Darren Aronofsky, Michael Mann, Paul Thomas Anderson, Derek Cianfrance, Gus Van Sant and Fatih Akın.
- #020
Matthias Schoenaerts is a fan of Breaking Bad (2008), The Wire (2002) and The A-Team (1983).
- #021
Matthias Schoenaerts is the face of Louis Vuitton's Men's Spring/Summer campaign.
- #022
In 2013, Matthias Schoenaerts shot four films: A Little Chaos (2014), The Drop (2014), Suite Française (2014) and Far from the Madding Crowd (2015).
- #023
During a Q&A at the Tribeca Film Festival, Jodie Foster expressed her desire to work with Schoenaerts.
- #024
Matthias Schoenaerts came very close to becoming a professional footballer and was on the books of the Antwerp club Beerschot AC, but he gave up at the age of 16. In the documentary Antwerp - The City Game (2014), he played football with children in Antwerpen-Zuid, where he had played as a child.
- #025
Matthias Schoenaerts was initially cast as Leo Woeste in Waste Land (2014) but dropped out. Jérémie Renier was cast in his place.
- #026
Matthias Schoenaerts shares an agent, Hylda Queally, with his former co-stars Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet and Noomi Rapace.
- #027
Matthias Schoenaerts is the uncle of Ellen Schoenaerts.
- #028
Matthias Schoenaerts held talks to play the male lead in Tulip Fever (2017) but turned the offer down, and Dane DeHaan was brought in instead.
- #029
Matthias Schoenaerts has said that if he could be anything other than what he is, he would be an architect.
- #030
Matthias Schoenaerts was named one of European Film Promotion's Shooting Stars of European cinema.
- #031
To immerse himself in the role of Jacky Vanmarsenille in Bullhead (2011), Matthias Schoenaerts had to gain 27 kilograms of muscle; he prepared for the role for two years on a diet of 3,000 tins of tuna, several hundred chickens, plenty of oats, rice and pasta, along with an extensive weightlifting regimen. In addition, he worked on the Limburgish dialect to make sure his performance was authentic and would not offend locals. He also wore a prosthetic nose.
- #032
Matthias Schoenaerts graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in Antwerp.
- #033
Matthias Schoenaerts dubbed most of his English-language roles into French.
- #034
Matthias Schoenaerts spent much of his childhood at boarding school. He was first sent to boarding school at the age of five.
- #035
A fire broke out in Matthias Schoenaerts's apartment shortly after 5 p.m. local time on 28 September. Schoenaerts was at home at the time and managed to get out unharmed, although the apartment was severely damaged. The apartment was declared uninhabitable. A firefighter and one other resident of the building were slightly injured.
- #036
Matthias Schoenaerts is the first Belgian male actor to win a César Award and one of five Belgian actors overall to have won the award. The others are Natacha Régnier, Cécile de France, Yolande Moreau and Déborah François.
- #037
For his performance in Rust and Bone (2012), Matthias Schoenaerts was included in W Magazine's 2012 Best Performances portfolio.
- #038
A Bigger Splash (2015) marked the first time Matthias Schoenaerts played a Belgian character in a production that was neither Belgian nor French. Before that film, he had last played a Belgian character in Rust and Bone (2012). In between, he played American, British, German, French and Danish characters.
- #039
Matthias Schoenaerts was director Jan Verheyen's first choice for the role of Dieter in Alias (2002), but his drama school refused to let him take part in the film, so the role went to second choice Geert Hunaerts.
- #040
After gaining and losing 27 kilos over two years to play Jacky in Bullhead (2011), Matthias Schoenaerts had to gain weight again to play Ali in Rust and Bone (2012). He spent two months boxing, training MMA every day and lifting weights while eating junk food such as hamburgers, ice cream and pizza to put on weight and a bit of a belly, because Jacques Audiard wanted Ali to look strong but out of shape: the character was poor and slightly unhealthy, so he had no real means of feeding himself properly.
- #041
Matthias Schoenaerts appeared in four period pieces that premiered in 2015: Suite Française (2014), A Little Chaos (2014), Far from the Madding Crowd (2015) and The Danish Girl (2015).
- #042
Matthias Schoenaerts was initially cast as the male lead in Alive Alone but dropped out, and Idris Elba was brought in to replace him. He gave the script to Noomi Rapace during the shoot of The Drop (2014).
- #043
Matthias Schoenaerts had two films in the official competition of the 2015 Venice Film Festival: A Bigger Splash (2015) and The Danish Girl (2015).
- #044
Matthias Schoenaerts is a childhood friend of Belgian footballer Radja Nainggolan. They played football together at youth level at Beerschot AC.
- #045
Matthias Schoenaerts has a triangle tattoo on the inside of his left arm. The tattoo can be seen in A Bigger Splash (2015).
- #046
Matthias Schoenaerts appeared on the cover of the first issue of the French magazine Elle Man.
- #047
Matthias Schoenaerts appeared in the 12-minute pilot episode of "Theresa Immaculata", directed by Ramón Gieling. It dealt with an incestuous relationship between a brother and sister, with Sylvia Hoeks (his co-star in The Gang of Oss (2011)) playing the sister Theresa and Schoenaerts playing the brother Thomas. The film was never made, but a seven-minute video of the pilot can be found on YouTube.
- #048
Matthias Schoenaerts appeared in two films with Els Dottermans. In Girl (2002) he played her boyfriend, and years later, in Dennis van Rita (2006), he played her son.
- #049
Matthias Schoenaerts auditioned for a role in David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method (2011). The audition went well and the casting team wanted to call him back, but he had already committed to Bullhead (2011) and had to let the opportunity pass.
- #050
Matthias Schoenaerts appeared twice with his friend Jeroen Perceval: in Injury Time (2010) and Bullhead (2011).
- #051
Matthias Schoenaerts has played a soldier five times: in The Emperor of Taste (2008) (a Belgian soldier in World War II), Tunnelrat (2008) (an Allied soldier in World War I), Death of a Shadow (2012) (a Belgian soldier in World War I), Suite Française (2014) (a German soldier in World War II) and Disorder (2015) (a French soldier in Afghanistan).
- #052
Matthias Schoenaerts grew up loving and playing football, and also painting, especially graffiti. He even travelled to New York for a brief collaboration with the Bronx group known as Tats Cru.
- #053
Matthias Schoenaerts's first attempt at directing is Franky (?), a documentary about his one-legged childhood friend Franky van Hove, an MMA fighter.
- #054
Jacques Audiard emailed Matthias Schoenaerts and persuaded him to read the script for Disorder (2015), which Audiard's friend Alice Winocour had written for him. Audiard had directed Schoenaerts in Rust and Bone (2012), and the two had become friends.
- #055
Matthias Schoenaerts was considered by director José Padilha for the lead role in RoboCop (2014), but he withdrew from the film because he felt he was not yet ready for a production that big. The role went to Joel Kinnaman. In Rust and Bone (2012) there is a scene in which Schoenaerts's character gives Marion Cotillard's character the nickname "RoboCop". Schoenaerts also worked with Paul Verhoeven, director of the original RoboCop, on Black Book (2006).
- #056
Matthias Schoenaerts appeared in two films with Laura Verlinden: Loft (2008) and Death of a Shadow (2012). Although they did not share any scenes, they also both appeared in the mini-series The Emperor of Taste (2008).
- #057
Matthias Schoenaerts was the coach of his childhood friend Carlos Schram for the last boxing match of his career, held in the Belgian city of Antwerp.
- #058
Matthias Schoenaerts appeared in two films directed by Dorothée Van Den Berghe: Girl (2002) and My Queen Karo (2009).
- #059
Schoenaerts's performance as Jacky Vanmarsenille in Bullhead (2011) and Tom Hardy's performance in Bronson (2008) were inspirations for Steven Ogg's role as Trevor Phillips in Grand Theft Auto V (2013). Ogg revealed his inspirations at New York Comic Con in October 2013. Schoenaerts and Hardy also appeared together in The Drop (2014), directed by Michaël R. Roskam, who also directed Bullhead.
- #060
Two of his films were selected for the 40th Toronto Film Festival: Disorder (2015) and The Danish Girl (2015).
- #061
He took part in the Zoute Grand Prix in Belgium with a 1937 BMW 328 Mille Miglia.
- #062
He was named InStyle magazine's Style Man.
- #063
He appeared in two films that had their world premieres at the 39th Toronto Film Festival: The Drop (2014) and A Little Chaos (2014); the latter was also the festival's closing night film.
- #064
Six of his films were selected for the Toronto Film Festival four years in a row: Rust and Bone (2012) in 2012, Blood Ties (2013) in 2013, The Drop (2014) and A Little Chaos (2014) in 2014, and Disorder (2015) and The Danish Girl (2015) in 2015.
- #065
Between 2012 and 2015 he shot eight films: Blood Ties (2013), A Little Chaos (2014), The Drop (2014), Suite Française (2014), Far from the Madding Crowd (2015), A Bigger Splash (2015), Disorder (2015) and The Danish Girl (2015).
- #066
His name is pronounced "Ma-tee-us Scone-arts."
- #067
Two films in which he played the lead received Oscar nominations in two consecutive years: Bullhead (2011) was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012, and Death of a Shadow (2012) was nominated for Best Live Action Short Film in 2013.
- #068
He was set to star in The Ardennes (2015) but withdrew from the film and was replaced by Kevin Janssens.
- #069
He appeared in the Belgian miniseries The Emperor of Taste (2008), about the Nazi occupation of Belgium. In the miniseries, Schoenaerts plays a Belgian soldier who goes off to war and has to leave his girlfriend behind. Years later, he played a German officer who falls in love with a French girl in Suite Française (2014), about the Nazi occupation of France. He also appeared in Black Book (2006) as a member of the Dutch Resistance during World War II.
- #070
He had decided to play the criminal anarchist Jules Bonnot in Florent-Emilio Siri's unproduced film 'La bande à Bonnot', but the project was shelved when the distributor Pathé withdrew due to budget reasons. His co-star was to be the actress Bérénice Bejo.
- #071
He is a fan of the Belgian football club FCO Beerschot Wilrijk and the Spanish club FC Barcelona.
- #072
He was offered the lead role in François Ozon's The New Girlfriend (2014) but turned it down due to scheduling conflicts with Far from the Madding Crowd (2015). Romain Duris was cast in his place and was nominated for a César Award.
- #073
He appeared in seven films released in 2015: The Loft (2014), Suite Française (2014), A Little Chaos (2014), Far from the Madding Crowd (2015), Disorder (2015), The Danish Girl (2015) and A Bigger Splash (2015).
- #074
He attended the London premiere of The Danish Girl (2015) on his 38th birthday.
- #075
He was cast in the lead role of Belgica (2016) but left due to scheduling conflicts.
- #076
He played two characters with large scars on their bodies: Bob in Linkeroever (2008) and Paul in A Bigger Splash (2015).
- #077
In 2016, he was preparing to reunite with his charming A Bigger Splash (2015) co-star Dakota Johnson for Sound of Metal (2019), but both actors left due to scheduling conflicts and the roles were recast with Riz Ahmed and Olivia Cooke. Johnson was disappointed, as she had wanted to work with Schoenaerts again because she "adored him" and referred to him as a "sweetheart." In 2018, Armie Hammer fondly recalled how he would watch Schoenaerts nap between takes on A Bigger Splash (2015). On Pinterest.com there is a fun photo of him carrying her on his back.
- #078
Matthias Schoenaerts's portrayal of the character Krem in Supergirl (2026) marks the character's first live-action appearance.
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