Oubaas lifts the lid on why he quit ‘7de Laan’
ACTOR Pierre van Pletzen has lifted the lid on how his journey with 7de Laan took a turn for the worse and was marred by boring and repetitive storylines over the past three years.
Van Pletzen, who played Oubaas on the Afrikaans soapie for 17 years, announced his exit from the show on Friday.
The actor said the first 14 years on the show had been complete bliss. However, things had changed drastically in the last three.
“The first 14 years were fantastic. We worked hard and had a lot of fun.
“You could hear laughter throughout the building. We were one large, happy family‚” he said.
After new management took over the production, he said, things started unravelling.
“It became a situation of the bad leading the bad‚ and the bad telling the other bad that they’re actually not bad. They fell into a dwindling spiral that was hard to observe and be part of‚” he said.
Van Pletzen described his last three years on the soapie as a dark haze.
“The new management had the writers and storyliners write stories for me and Hilda [his character’s wife] that were boring and repetitive‚ [rehashing] old storylines in a way that definitely did not push the production forward in any way.”
Despite the challenges, he said he would miss the cast and crew‚ with whom he had made many memories. “I will miss working with the crew‚ the actors‚ and Annelisa Weiland‚ who plays Hilda.”
While loyal 7de Laan viewers have been left saddened by Van Pletzen’s exit from the show, he is optimistic about the future.
7de Laan declined to comment on claims made about the production.