Romijn Conen (57) from Berlicum is back as an actor after a long struggle. After an accident on stage, Romijn suffered two strokes. Nine years later he is back on stage and we see him acting again in series and commercials. He now sees himself as a ‘disabled actor’. “Someone who was paralyzed and could no longer speak is doing it again. With a disability, but I’ll do it again.”
“I have been a professional actor since 1991,” Romijn Conen begins. You can know him as Frank de Ponti in Flikken Maastricht. Or, for example, Moordvrouw, Baantjer and Het Sinterklaasjournaal. “But I think you know me best from the Amstel commercials. For ten years I was one of Amstel’s three friends.”
“My face was hanging to one side and my arm and leg were acting strange.”
But his acting career ended abruptly nine years ago. On the evening before the premiere of a play, things went horribly wrong. “It was September 3, 2015 when I made a strange jump during the last tryout.” Romijn jumped too hard on a trampoline and ended up on the edge of the stage. “I collapsed in the middle of a clothes rack. I felt a painful twinge in my left carotid artery, but that went away.”
Romijn continued playing, cleaned up after the performance and drove back to the place where they would sleep. “Just before arrival something went wrong. I replied to my wife Nanna, but I didn’t understand what I was saying. She looked at me and was shocked. My face was hanging to one side and my arm and leg were acting strange.”
The next memory is only three days later in an ambulance from the hospital in Almelo to the hospital in Den Bosch. Romijn had suffered two strokes one after the other.
“Someone who could no longer speak and was paralyzed is doing it again.”
The actor from before was suddenly no more. “I now have a semi-paralyzed leg, I cannot move my right arm and I have residual aphasia. I understand everything people say to me, but I can’t always respond properly. Sometimes words get stuck in my head, but nothing comes out of my mouth.”
What is (residual) aphasia?
Aphasia usually occurs due to damage in the left hemisphere of the brain due to a cerebral hemorrhage, cerebral infarction, a traffic accident or a brain tumor.
People with aphasia may have problems speaking, understanding, reading and writing.
Finding words becomes difficult or impossible and putting together sentences is difficult.
How common is aphasia?
About 30 percent of people who have a stroke, the most common cause of acquired brain injury, develop aphasia. This is approximately 14,000 people in the Netherlands and Belgium every year, or 38 per day. At least 54,000 people live with aphasia in these two countries.
Bron: Afasietherapie.nl.
Romijn said he was a ‘text actor’. “I was able to concentrate on an A4 piece of text for half an hour and then I could deliver it like that.” Those days are behind him. But he is now coming back as an actor. In recent years, Romijn has appeared on stage once, in a performance by his wife Nanna. He only had one sentence of text: ‘Would you like a cup of soup?’
But now Romijn is really going back to the theater with his own play. “I tell a story about myself. I tell you what the last nine years have done to me. Someone who could no longer speak and was paralyzed is doing it again. With a disability, but I’ll do it again.”
The 57-year-old actor wants to show that you still have a future with acquired brain damage. “There is a light on the horizon.”
“As a disabled actor, I am now an example.”
Romijn is also making a comeback on TV. He can already be seen in a new beer commercial. From November he will star in the award-winning series Oogappels on NPO1. And Romijn is currently shooting for the series Badgast, which will be shown on NPO Start from next year.
“It’s all starting again, that’s special. I couldn’t have dreamed that, nine years ago. I felt like I was passé. As a disabled actor, I am now an example for other people who suffer from an accident or illness.”
The theater piece Vallicht will premiere on Saturday in Den Bosch. Romijn will perform the performance throughout the Netherlands until 2027.
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