ALL ANTWERP: “In the Dominican Republic I worked for a while as a tourist cowboy” (Antwerp)
Every day our reporter and photographer pick a casual passer-by off the street for a chat. Want everyone has a story. And certainly in Antwerp. Today: Peter Carpentier (65).
“I was born in America. My father there. then at General Motors Not much later we came back. First we lived at the Luchtbal, later in Rotterdam and then in Turnhout. I ended up in Antwerp again when I continued my studies at Studio Herman Teirlinck. I did that for two years until I thought I wanted to do something different. The movie world told me more. And so I enrolled at the Amsterdam film academy. I was able to work on American films and ended up in LA. I acted and worked there until the summer of 1981, when there was a major strike in the film world. Everyone thought it would be over after a few weeks, but no. That strike will last for years. There was no more job to be had. Nothing. I then started working as a driver and at one point even sold roof insulation over the phone. It wasn’t.”
“When I was asked to participate in a film in Berlin, I didn’t hesitate. But then my youngest brother died. That’s how I ended up in Antwerp again. Actually, I didn’t want to go back to Germany much later, but I was 30 and married. My marriage soon didn’t work out as it should. The palms will make us red, we thought. And we went with our backpack to the Caribbean. In the Dominican Republic I worked as a tourist cowboy for a while. I arranged day tours by horse. But not much later we comment that this wasn’t the one before our relationship crisis. When my marriage was finally over, I went to Germany together. I’ve always lived there. But corona has brought me back to Antwerp.” evw