Toompere says slow maturation produces the best results

Actor and director Hendrik Toompere said artistic excellence comes in waves and that works often suffer when they are revised too much, ERR reported after his interview on Vikerraadio, Estonia’s radio station. He said slow maturation produces the best results in both cooking and theatre.

Toompere said that when he began appearing in public, on stage and in films, the suffix “jun.” was quickly added to his name. He disliked it because it sounded odd in Estonian. The suffix remained attached to his name for a long time after his father died, while his son Hendrik was unsure how to identify himself.

Many emails intended for one of them still reach the other, Toompere said. Journalists also frequently contact him when they actually want to speak to his son. His grandfather was also named Hendrik, and he once believed he was the sixth Hendrik in the family, although he was no longer certain. His grandson was named Karl Hendrik.

For several summers, Toompere has arranged his life so that he does not have to work. Film shoots suit him in summer, he said, but he dislikes dividing the season between a few days in the countryside or by the sea and interruptions to perform in theatre.

“The most important thing about a holiday for me is spending a long, meditative stretch of time in one place,” he said.

Toompere said he paints because he has no other outlet at certain times for his artistic urges, which build up during the winter and spring while he is working on theatre rehearsals. He has painted for the past five or six years.

This summer, Pilgrim publishing house head Tiina Ristimets proposed that Toompere create a book based on his writings and paintings. He accepted because he had long been thinking about bringing some of his work together and a deadline was useful.

“It is not a diary or memoirs, but epiphanies, revelations and explosions,” Toompere said. He prefers writing about simple things, such as swimming in a pond or the sun falling on corns, describing the process as an adventure in itself.

At his countryside home, Toompere has maintained what he calls an archaic way of life. There is no running water or indoor toilet, and water must be drawn from a well. After spending more than two weeks there, he swims in the pond and may only realise later that his feet have turned completely black. He then goes to the city and spends four hours in a bath, enjoying the dark water as evidence of how he spent his time in the countryside.

Toompere also said he had recently discovered that he sees sounds as colours, particularly in classical music. He said he could also see massage in colours and believed physical touch was coloured as well, although he did not know what to do with this discovery.