Jonas Bloquet gives supporting characters a seriousness that makes their troubles matter, even in a routine horror sequel. We like his restraint, though the conventional parts have not always given him enough to work with.
Fi1m perspective
In The Nun II (2023), Jonas Bloquet plays Maurice Theriault as a decent man who does not understand what is wrong with him. Playing him straight is a useful decision in a film whose demon keeps turning up. We felt for Maurice because Bloquet takes his confusion seriously, even when the scares become repetitive. Michael Chaves makes a handsomer, steadier sequel, but Bloquet cannot repair a middle stretch that repeats the same scare in different rooms.
His debut came in Joachim Lafosse’s Private Lessons (2008), with the breakthrough arriving in Paul Verhoeven’s Elle (2016). As Vincent, opposite Isabelle Huppert, he has room for the nuanced dramatic acting that conventional supporting parts can restrict. We rate Elle highly, despite plotting that sometimes tries too hard, and Huppert is the reason to start there. Vincent is a useful part to keep in mind when the horror films threaten to define him.
He first played Maurice in The Nun (2018), returning to the part for Chaves’s sequel. Between those films came Lucien in the mystery series 1899 (2022), while Night Call (2024) casts him as Théo, an enforcer in an action thriller. His work across Belgian, French and international productions makes use of his physicality as well as his quieter dramatic abilities. The reservation is that moving between genres does not necessarily mean escaping conventional supporting parts.
The danger is becoming the dependable man a film calls on when its supporting characters have not been written with much care. Maurice shows how useful he can be in that position, but also how little an actor can do about a film’s repetition. We would like to see him given more room to be awkward or difficult, rather than simply decent under pressure. Start with Elle, provided its brutal sexual violence is something you are prepared to sit through.
Biography
Jonas Bloquet is a Belgian actor and film director. He was born on 10 July 1992 in Brussels. He made his film debut at the age of 15 in the drama Private Lessons (2008), which earned him a Magritte Award nomination for Most Promising Actor.
He has appeared in Belgian, French and American productions, including The Family (2013), 3 Days to Kill (2014), Elle (2016) — for which he received a César Award nomination for Most Promising Actor — Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017), The Nun (2018) and its sequel The Nun II (2023) as Maurice Theriault, and Father & Soldier (2023). On television he has appeared in 1899 (2022) and portrayed Joseph II in Marie Antoinette (2023). In 2025 he won the Magritte Award for Best Supporting Actor for Night Call (2024). He has also directed several short films.
