Biografia

Often works with Michaël R. Roskam

Often plays characters with boxing skills

Polyglotism

Often plays characters who are mentally or emotionally unstable (Dennis van Rita (2006), Loft (2008), Bullhead - La vincente ascesa di Jacky (2011), La banda di Oss (2011), Blood Ties - La legge del sangue (2013), Chi è senza colpa (2014), Disorder - La guardia del corpo (2015), A Bigger Splash (2015))

Often plays soldiers (De smaak van De Keyser (2008), Tunnelrat (2008), Dood van een schaduw (2012), Suite Francese (2014), Disorder - La guardia del corpo (2015))

Was approached for the role of Christian Grey in Cinquanta sfumature di grigio (2015). Schoenaerts said that he fell asleep while reading the script and his agent told him to stay out of it.

Has appeared in Belgian, Dutch, French, American, British, and Italian films, in which he speaks Dutch, French, English, and German.

Marion Cotillard revealed that her her scenes with Matthias in Un sapore di ruggine e ossa (2012) were the first and only time that she liked filming sex scenes.

Is a graffiti artist under the pseudonym "Zenith".

Turned down the role of Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). During an interview on the Dutch TV show "24 uur met" in February 2016, Schoenaerts said that he felt he was too young to play Batman in his mid-40's. Schoenaerts was 35 years old when he was offered the role.

[on Bullhead - La vincente ascesa di Jacky (2011)] We all get damned in our lives, and there are ripple effects. One thing can determine a life, and it's hard to overcome that if the event is really traumatic. Your life is completely condemned by it.

[on being a Hollywood man of the moment, with a string of movies on the docket - The New York Times, 2013] It's been exciting, but at some point it drives me nuts. I haven't been here [in Antwerp] a lot this year. Next year I want to do two projects and not more. Four or five a year starts feeling like a grab-the-money-and-run show.

[re family history] It's complicated. But when I was playing soccer, everything was fine.

I boxed a little when I was a teenager in Belgium, but I was pretty bad. I got punched a lot. For Un sapore di ruggine e ossa (2012), I hit the boxing gym for five months on a daily basis. I just wanted to be believable. Yes, I did break my nose-but that's from something else. A friend kicked me in the face when we were teenagers. Twenty years later, I'm making a documentary about him-which proves that friendship can last forever.

[on being considered for the lead role in RoboCop (2014)] They [Belgian magazine Focus Knack] blew it out of proportion. In the sense that, they were interested, but to me, it didn't feel like the right thing to do at that specific time. I thought it was too big, I thought I needed something else, to get more confidence, and not jump into this huge budget thing. But yes, they blew it out of proportion, I wasn't really happy with that. It feels disrespectful to José Padilha, who's a great director.