Monique Sluyter

About Monique Sluyter

Monique Sluyter is a Dutch glamour model, television presenter and fashion entrepreneur. She runs nowadays a model agency.

In the glory days of soft-erotic TV, the eighties and nineties, there was no greater boy idol than Monique Sluyter, the ultimate playmate of her time. With her sober, Frisian appearance, she first enchanted viewers in Italy, where she co-presented the erotic program Colpo Grosso. Then she conquered Germany with Tutti Frutti and eventually she also got her own program in the Netherlands: Erotica, with Veronica. Do you fondly remember your good old television days? 'Certainly! When I meet people from that time, it's a big, warm bath. The programs I made in Italy are still broadcast there, as well as in thirty-five other countries. I'm still a celebrity there. It's cult. When I get off the plane in Rome, everyone rushes at me. How did you ever end up on TV? 'When I was eight I said to my mother: 'Mom, in ten years I'll be in Italy, I'll work in TV, I'll be in a house with all kinds of models and I'll be seen all over the world!' While I had never been to Italy at all! I was very firm about that. Ten years later I stood in Friesland at a Miss pageant. Not to participate, but just in the audience, to watch, in my jeans. And a scout came up to me. There was a casting in Krasnapolski, he said, for an Italian TV program. I had no idea if I should go there. But then my mother said, "You said it when you were eight!" Three months later I was in Milan: fantastic, great with the girls, and I really liked life there. But hard work, huh? The blood in my shoes. Eventually I went there to make the program Colpo Grosso. They saw that in Germany, and that's where we started doing Tutti Frutti, the German version.' After you broke through in Italy, you also started working for Veronica. 'Together with Alfred Lagarde I made Erotica. I laughed so much with him, what a nice man. DJ, whoops. That program was actually the predecessor of Spraying and Swallowing: I saw it as a tool to tell about eroticism. So I'm not one to go to erotic parties myself, but I do read a lot about it, hear a lot about it and talk about it a lot.' Were you a wild type at all? 'Not at all! That's what people always think, but I'm not wild at all. Like a bartender who doesn't drink himself, I was in the world of eroticism.' You weren't a prude, but you weren't an unhinged nymphomaniac either? 'Definitely not, no! Eroticism also meant something completely different to me. I grew up with magical realistic painting, my father was also a painter. As a teenager I posed naked. I saw nudity more as something artistic than something erotic or horny.' Didn't you find it confusing that you suddenly became a sex symbol? 'It just depends on what people have on their reading table. Look, if that's just Playboy, fine. But if people also have the Paravision lying around, or one of the books I have written, then their field of vision is already a lot wider. People like boxes. In the Netherlands, when it comes to me, you only hear about that eroticism, while I've done so many more things. There was a song of mine in Quentin Tarantino's film True Romance, but you don't often hear about it here. ' The program Erotica, what was that about? 'About everything, but with a comical approach. Not vulgar. “Do you ever do it with fruit?” – those kinds of questions. Other shows that were around at the time, such as the Pin Up Club, were meticulous as well. Not hard, like in this day and age. We tried to make it aesthetically pleasing while also providing some information.” You were the wet dream of many boys and men. Was it a crazy time for you? 'In the Netherlands that wasn't too bad, in Italy I was really followed. Everyone here is so down to earth. When Brad Pitt cycles through the Vondelpark, it's also: 'Hey Brad, how are you doing?' Was the world of erotic TV different than it is now? 'There was no internet! It was much less harsh! People are now just posting things anonymously. There are young girls who send a picture to their boyfriend, he puts it back on the internet later. All kinds of free material is distributed. People are poorly paid and therefore start to do more and more extreme things, because they want an extra penny.' While in the past everyone was already upset if you were in a babydoll on a bearskin. 'If some kind of nipple came into view, it was already o-la-la! That was shocking! Now you just have to type something on the internet and you will find the craziest things.' If you were twenty now, would you still function in the world of eroticism? 'No. It wouldn't be my world. Then I was more drawn to art. I don't say 'no' to eroticism, not even in this day and age, but I do say no to a lot of rubbish that is being made nowadays.' You have also always worked a lot with artists such as Erwin Olaf and Herman Brood. “Herman painted me all over from head to toe for a Playboy shoot. The then editor-in-chief of the magazine, Jan Heemskerk Sr., a super nice man, said: 'Well Monique, actually not one photo of you is naked, you did that beautifully again!' I could only agree with him on that.' Have you never felt embarrassed or uncomfortable when you had to go naked on camera? 'Look, I once started out as a painter's model, when I was still a teenager. Then you sit there, naked, and all kinds of sketches are made of you, so then you learn: about composition, posture, balance. I also saw eroticism as a way to go a little deeper with people. I wanted people's attention, I wanted to get people's ears open.' And what did you want their attention for? “To say that people need to be more aware of the moment. Everyone always lives in tomorrow, yesterday or in ten minutes, but never in now. I also give private training to business people to coach them in this.' All that eroticism was a means to spread a message? 'It was fun to do too! I also like to shake people loose: don't all be so good while you're doing all sorts of things at home. Say who you are, be your true self – that's important to me. Do not lie. Answer questions honestly. It all has to do with eroticism. Why do people always have to be so secretive about it?' Why did you quit TV? 'I acted in Gold Coast, but I still wanted to break away from eroticism because the tone hardened so much. Moreover, I always want to keep developing. At one point I started a modeling and casting agency, and I still do.' Did you mind when the internet came on and the tone changed so much? 'No, I went along with it for a while. I was one of the first celebrities to put her Playboy photos online. That was then filmed by Sony, I made gold money with it. One of the first SMS services was also mine. It's not wrong at all what happened. But those were different times then.' You have been happily in love with the same man for twenty years. Have you always been such a loyal dog? “I've had a few relationships in my life, with very big gaps in between. And then it was: nothing for years. Messing around, I don't like that. One night stands are not for me, I want to feel at home with someone, only then can you give yourself, I think.' Sex before sex, don't you like that? 'Oh no, I see that as a kind of escape. An anesthetic. People are always looking for anesthesia, aren't they? But why?' Do you see a role for yourself in educating people erotically? 'Yes, maybe.' And would you be willing to sit in a baby doll again? 'Well, maybe I'd put it on someone else. I'm almost fifty, huh? Although, I put it on again for this shoot. If there's something that I think will benefit the world, then yes, I want to do it.' I put it on again for this shoot. If there's something that I think will benefit the world, then yes, I want to do it.' I put it on again for this shoot. If there's something that I think will benefit the world, then yes, I want to do it.' (Interview Veronica Magazine NL)

She was protagonist in the erotic TV program "Colpo Grosso".