Interview: Eline Van der Velden, BBC Three Actress + Comedian
Eline Van der Velden is a physicist, and as an actress and comedian, she is the creator of the BBC Three TV shows, Miss Holland and Putting It Out There. In her career, she has asked viewers to challenge their thoughts about women’s daily lives through comedy.
Has comedy changed with the times for you—-are you more afraid these days of offending people who might have laughed at your punchlines a few years ago, or do you try every joke hoping for the best?
Yes of course, there was a time around 2014 when I wanted to make light of the awful war on terrorism, but sometimes you have to realise there are some topics best to stay out of. You’ve got to be extra careful now, because even my friends, who I used to think liked all my jokes, now think some things I say are offensive. I don’t easily get offended, so it’s hard for me to understand all these precious topics, but I’m educating myself. This video about cross-dressing I made definitely got some people fired up, but I think it’s about a harmless girl who likes to dress like a man.
How long do you think this moment in time will last, anyway? It seems some people are offended, and others pretend to be offended because everyone else does. But things that are offensive to me within pop culture: nobody in the press mentions those. This era feels odd.
It’s almost pop-culture to be offended by everything. It’s like a market correction. For years we’ve let things (and jokes) happen that seem unacceptable now. Like making fun of marginalized communities and women. Society is correcting for that now and for a while it’ll be the case that you can’t make jokes about, say women, however when women become properly equal in society, then the doors will be wide open again for jokes. It will take time and the faster we get to an equal society the faster the “offense” will go away. In Miss Holland I address the lengths women pressure each other to go through, in order to be perceived as attractive, we’ll never make progress if we have to waste £500 a month and endless time grooming ourselves.
You have worked on screen in Northern Ireland, the Netherlands, and England. What regional differences in plots and comedy do you notice...and like?
Absolutely. There are huge differences in comedy in every country. You see, something is only ever funny if you resonate with it. I’ll struggle to make you laugh about a joke about the intricacies of Newton’s law if you’ve never studied physics in school. However if you have, when I tell you about how my ex-boyfriend needed me because he was such a scalar quantity and I could give him direction, you might find it funny. Which is why Michael McIntyre is such a hit with parents! The same goes for any cultural differences. Some Dutch comedy, even though the dry style is similar, just will not translate. Partly because of language, but also regarding what is known in normal and accepted in that culture.
Has anything ever gone wrong with your BBC Three street interviews?
All the time. As Miss Holland we did an interview with an MP which was super funny. Unfortunately as it’s the BBC policy to get consent before and after the interview, the person in question didn’t agree to let us use the footage so we lost an episode entirely. That’s the problem sometimes with this type of fake character comedy and dealing with real people. We got a brilliant episode with the Royal butler instead.
Which topic have you covered that has the most truth to the comedy, as in actually a serious issue we need to fix?
I’m very proud of the male versus female abuse clip we made. It really hit home and it actually shocked me that nobody helped my fellow actor Will when he was getting verbally abused and threatened by me, yet when it was the opposite everyone came to my rescue. I’m always keen to show something with my work, otherwise what’s the point.
Did you base your Miss Holland filming in character style on Borat? Notice, for readers, I am not suggesting the character. That creation is 100 percent yours!
The character is technically based on my mother (I hope she doesn’t read this!) and myself, because I was never quite ladylike enough to be an actress in LA. They used to tell me to wear sexy dresses, make up and lose weight, they would ask me if I was sick if I hadn’t had my nails done professionally, it was so sad. You can take the girl out of Curacao, but you can’t take Curacao out of the girl. However, I absolutely love Borat and always wondered why there wasn’t a female version.
What types of projects would make you quit comedy or pause it for the right job? Star Wars? Dramatic flair parts?
I’ve done a lot of drama in my day and I don’t think there should be such a distinct difference between the two. To make real comedy sometimes the scene may be very dramatic and real, in order for the joke to drop. My favourite comedy is something like Succession, where it comes from a real emotional background. Can’t stop myself from doing some real slapstick like the Walk of Shame though, which got over 3.3million views. It’s based on my everyday morning into work I’d say.
What do you want to say about your production company and any material you want to create for yourself or others?
I was forced to start Particle6, because nobody optioned my show ideas when I shopped them around production companies. So then I just got them commissioned myself instead. It means there’s room for new players in the market with young fresh ideas that old school companies are missing, so we now like to work with established companies to make their material more appealing to the new online generation. We are keen to create material that has a truth to them and makes a point or educates. Good comedy usually has a message at the heart of it.