Carice van Houten: TV Stress & Finding Comfort in Acting

Dutch actress Carice van Houten has revealed she relied on beta-blockers to manage anxiety during appearances on the popular Dutch talk show De Wereld Draait Door (DWDD). Van Houten described the experience as “terrible,” stating, “I only got through an episode of De Wereld Draait Door if I had taken a beta-blocker beforehand. I still find that kind of performance dreadful.”

The actress, known internationally for her roles in Game of Thrones and Valkyrie, recounted that her nervousness predates her current projects, recalling similar anxiety during earlier television appearances on Barend & Van Dorp. She described consuming an entire bowl of nuts, “probably three years old,” due to the stress of those earlier live broadcasts.

Van Houten has found acting itself to be a more comfortable environment, explaining, “When I play a role, I can somehow still hide behind a character.” However, she has recently taken on presenting duties with her own program, A Beautiful Mess, which presents its own set of challenges. She described experiencing emotional distress when contestants were eliminated from the show, stating she “had to cry” the first time someone was sent home.

DWDD, which concluded its run on March 27, 2020, after 15 seasons, was a prominent fixture on Dutch television, broadcast by BNNVARA. The show featured interviews with politicians, celebrities, and artists, hosted primarily by Matthijs van Nieuwkerk. A YouTube channel dedicated to the show continues to archive past episodes, and segments.

Van Houten recently collaborated with Kees on a new online series, and described herself as being “crazy about” her co-star. Prior to this interview, the two had already begun to develop a rapport through their operate on the series.

In 2016, Van Houten curated a room within the DWDD Pop Up Museum 2, offering visitors a 360-degree view of her selections. Details about the artworks she chose were available on the DWDD Pop Up Museum website.