How a Psychic Changed Michiel Huisman's Life

These Game of Thrones types sure like to keep busy. During a hiatus from playing Daario Naharis, Daenerys' courageous lover, Michiel Huisman found the time to make a new film, 2:22. His role is one that you couldn't find anywhere in Westeros; he plays an air-traffic controller, Dylan Branson, who starts noticing strange recurring patterns after two of the planes he's monitoring have a near-miss.

An air-traffic controller's job is one of precision and attention; in embodying Dylan, Huisman says he had to "endlessly" make lists, "to make sure I never made a mistake." And this had the strange side-effect of making him hyper-aware of recurring patterns in his own life (222 unread emails, 2:22 on the clock), and it definitely freaked him out. The Dutch actor started listening to air-traffic chatter—"You can listen to whatever tower you want in the world"—and tried to learn the lingo so he could speak it as quickly as the real-life controllers. He also visited a tower in person, just to pick up on the vibe, which he found to be surprisingly casual. ("They were barefoot!")

Huisman called ELLE.com from Amsterdam to chat about a psychic who changed his life, his love of old Vespas (and, ahem, their "curves"), and whether or not he's an old soul. (Still no word on whether he'll be in Game of Thrones' seventh season, although he did joke that he remains a Dany/Daario fan even if he "didn't know how to feel about, you know...her basically dumping me.")

Michiel Huisman (as Daario Naharis) and Emilia Clarke (as Daenerys Targaryen) in

Did listening in to air-traffic controllers make you more hesitant to fly?

Yes! Especially in the beginning. And then whenever I was on a plane, and we'd be waiting on the tarmac, I'd start thinking, "Oh, come on. You can line us up quicker." Like I have any idea of what I'm talking about. [Laughs] Usually when I'm on a plane, I try to enjoy the fact that I have to be still for eight hours and read a book. I'm packing the new Zadie Smith novel for my next trip.

This film, as well as a few of your other projects, share supernatural themes. So what do you actually believe, or not believe, in?

[Laughs] I enjoy watching movies that are high concept, or science fiction, or have supernatural elements, like 2:22 has. But when it comes to my regular, day-to-day life, I am not…I don't consider myself a very spiritual person.

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Have you ever seen a psychic?

For fun. As a joke, really. This was about fifteen years ago. I was in my early twenties, and I was still living in Holland, and I was still involved in music, playing in bands, but also starting out as an actor. And it was a constant struggle between the two. I was wondering, Should I take time off from my music? Or is acting a distraction? I didn't know. So here I was, perhaps unwisely, walking around somewhere downtown in New York, on the Lower East Side, and I stumbled on this storefront place. And it completely blew me away, because I don't believe in this stuff, and yet she was really good. [Laughs] The woman read my palm, and she said, "You're juggling two careers." That's the first thing she said. And then I was like, "Whoa. How did you know?" She asked me, "Do you play an instrument or something? Do you do music? And something else in entertainment?"

[Exhales] And I've thought about it a few times. It's probably a generic thing to say, based on the way I came in, or my appearance, or my response to her first question about two careers. But the funny thing was, it really didn't matter to me how she got there, because it was just that nudge, that push that I needed to actually make a decision. It helped me decide whether I wanted to become a musician or an actor. I don't think I made the decision when I walked out of the place, but over the months that followed, I did. And ever since, although I really miss playing with bands, I never regretted the choice. I really am grateful and happy I made that decision. And even though it had such a big impact on me, I never went back.

You still keep up with music, though...

I do. And I also try to get on projects where I can do both things. Treme for me was the ultimate in that sense, because it was so much about music and everything was performed live, which basically never happens. It's not like I'm actively on the lookout for that, but I know it's going to happen again. In the meantime, I keep up with it. I'm really into vinyl right now. I have this old speaker set, with amps and a record player from the 1970s. And I'm slowly collecting vinyl again. We left New Orleans a while ago, and I really miss New Orleans, so I listen to a lot of stuff that reminds me of that place—a lot of Professor Longhair and James Booker.

So you got to run around, and bike around, a lot of New York for this film….

I can't admit most of it, because my wife will be like, "You did what?!" But I love doing that. It's part of my Dutch roots—you just weave through traffic like you own the street. It's pretty dangerous, but exciting to do. I also collect Vespas, or I used to. I don't have time anymore. I guess I just really like old stuff. Old Vespas are very appealing to me. I love the way they feel. I love the way they smell. I love the curves on them. I have one of the earliest Vespas ever made, from the 1950s. And the other thing I love about it—I haven't used it in a year, but I could just start it and take off, and because it's just simple technology, it will run. Knock on wood.

Do you think your interests in older forms of technology and music connect in any way? Do you have an old soul? And does that help you connect with characters in period pieces or characters like the ones in '2:22'?

I don't know, but I love where you're going with that. There's a possible connection…but it's really weird to say, "Yeah, I'm an old soul," even if I sometimes think that. I don't believe in reincarnation. I don't believe in past lives. They make for great films, though!

2:22 is out now.