Entertainment

Age of Adaline's Michiel Huisman talks new film, and Game of Thrones success

Michiel Huisman may play Daario Naharis on HBO's Game of Thrones, but the Dutch actor is taking his skills to the big screen in the movie Age of Adaline.

The 33-year-old Dutch actor stars along side Blake Lively in the new romantic drama

The Age of Adaline's Michiel Huisman

10 years ago
Duration 2:13
Michiel Huisman, Game of Thrones actor and Age of Adaline star, talks about landing his first lead role in 'a proper Hollywood romantic drama.'

You may recognize Michiel Huisman from a long list of top-rated TV series, from Orphan Black, to Nashville, and HBO's biggest draw, Game of Thrones.

But now the 33-year-old actor is taking his skills to the big screen, in the movie The Age of Adaline.

"The idea is the same, it's just the scope is a little bigger," Huisman describing what he calls his "first male lead on a proper Hollywood romantic drama."

"The stage is bigger - or the audience," said the Dutch actor, who got start in the film business as a kid and has been a mainstay in the Netherlands film scene.

"I feel like working on all of these TV shows ... really helped to get me to the point where I am now. I am just so fortunate to be able to do both."

Ageless love

Huisman's North American cinematic breakthrough comes in The Age of Adaline, a sci-fi romance starring Gossip Girl's Blake Lively.

Actors Michiel Huisman and Blake Lively appear in a scene from the new romantic drama The Age of Adaline. (Warner Bros.)
The story follows a young woman named Adaline Bowman (Lively), who stops aging after a freak automotive accident.

She's a 107-year-old woman trapped in a 29-year-old's body, when she meets Huisman's character Ellis—and their love affair derails her mysterious life—one that was led on the run. 

"I thought that the journey that Adaline takes us on ... was a very cool concept," says Huisman, "and lends itself for a very magical movie."

Working with Harrison Ford, who stars as Ellis's father, was such a career highlight that Huisman is willing to toss in the towel.

"If everything ends for me now ... I can still say I worked with Harrison Ford," says Huisman, "and that's pretty good." 

While The Age of Adaline will introduce Huisman to a whole new audience, Game of Thrones fans already know him as Daenerys's mercenary captain, and lover, Daario Naharis.

The actor says he has one of the best jobs in the world, though he never could have anticipated what the HBO show would do for his career when he joined the cast in Season 4. 

"I work on the most amazing show that's on TV right now, Game of Thrones, and [I get to] tell a romantic story about The Age of Adaline." 

"It's exactly what I want to be doing right now."