More than twenty years after the first episode of the television series All Stars the friends soccer team returns to television. Many things have remained the same, because part of the old cast returns, but according to Danny de Munk, among others, a lot has changed to keep up with the times.
“In the past six months, so much has changed, half the world is on fire. Then you also make other choices about what you bring forward or what you make jokes about. But the humor has not diminished” , says De Munk, who takes up his role from the first film in 1997, in conversation with NU.nl.
Over the years, the cast of the series and the films have changed many times. In 1997 director Jean van de Velde brought De Munk, Peter Paul Muller, Daniel Boissevain and Thomas Acda together as footballing friends. Two years later, when the first season appeared on television, De Munk’s character Bram was still there, but Roeland Fernhout had taken over his role. Later the same happened with Boissevain’s character Johnny, which was taken over by Kees Boot.
For the movie All Stars 2: Old Stars the original cast returned and now in 2020 it will again. However, the main roles are for a young guard: the children of the friends’ club. The new team members were largely not yet born when the first film was released in the cinema and so they watched everything again more than twenty years later.
“I got the invitation to audition and the script seemed a lot of fun,” said Samuel Vekeman. “I’m from Belgium and there we had Team spirit, which reminded me a lot. Only later did I understand that All Stars there was the inspiration for that again. When I told Dutch friends that I might play in All Stars they became very enthusiastic. Only then did I understand how big it was. “
Alidtcha Binazon was also not necessarily concerned with the success of the earlier one All Starsseries and movies. “No, sorry. I used to play soccer in the past, for a while really seriously. So I thought that was a very nice aspect, and hoped that I could play soccer.
Jokes with awareness that it is 2020
When watching the older episodes, the younger guard noticed that the jokes are sometimes quite harsh. Thomas Acda agrees. “It’s still in it now, but with the awareness that it is 2020. You don’t change boys, so they are conscious in this time, but also still busy with girls, drugs or drinking.”
“I thought that was exciting, how do you deal with the awareness of today?”, Says Binazon. “I was not in favor of pushing it all aside under the guise ‘you just have to have humor.’ Of course you have to have humor, you can make jokes, but you have to deal with those jokes consciously. the episode you think: oh yes, this makes me think for a moment. I always felt that I could say it when I thought something was not quite appropriate. So just say that someone is Congolese instead of African. “
According to De Munk, this openness on set is due to director Van de Velde. “Jean really is someone who makes everything negotiable. There have been things that we really couldn’t say anymore. We talked about it a lot, talked a lot about it with each other. You have to weigh things up more. For example, I can. laugh at directness, but with all that has changed, it is not always possible anymore. “
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