Runway royalty usually does not need a second act. But Rianne Van Rompaey has never been content with just the catwalk. After years of gliding through campaigns for houses like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Prada, those cathedral-like fashion empires where a single glance can sell a season, she has quietly built the kind of legend that editors whisper about during Paris fittings. Apparently, that was not enough. 

Models are trained to communicate without dialogue, to tell stories through stillness. Now, Van Rompaey is stepping into a medium where silence can be just as powerful as speech, on Netflix, no less, the global stage where European thrillers have found a cult following.

Rianne Van Rompaey is set to star in the Dutch series The Silence, known locally as De Stilte. It marks Van Rompaey’s acting debut in a Netflix Original Dutch thriller. The five-episode series comes from the mind of Nico Moolenaar, the creator behind Undercover and its spin-off film Ferry. Netflix has continued its long-standing collaboration with Moolenaar, who operates under a multi-year deal with the streamer and was also behind Amsterdam Empire in 2025. Filming is set to begin next month.

Leading the cast alongside Van Rompaey is Marwan Kenzari, bringing Hollywood gravitas to the production. The supporting ensemble reads like a who’s who of Dutch screen talent:

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And if the runway was about spectacle, this next chapter is about psychology. As part of Netflix's growing thriller slate for 2026, The Silence is a slow burn of a story that refuses easy answers.

The Silence is about absence, of answers, of certainty, of truth. A man searches desperately for his missing wife. What he discovers unravels him completely, plunging him into a psychological labyrinth where nothing feels stable.

Rianne Van Rompaey plays Sara, a woman shaped as much by what she withholds as by what she reveals. 

“I was immediately drawn to the complexity of the script and how it doesn’t shy away from difficult subjects. The psychology of my character, Sara, and the way she deals with the past, present and future touches me deeply. She keeps certain things to herself, and it’s precisely that tension between what you share and what you keep hidden that makes her such an interesting character to play..” Van Rompaey shared, as per Netflix.

Marwan Kenzari, who portrays Tarik, described the narrative succinctly too. No further detail has been revealed about the plot so far. The release date is speculated to be in 2027. 

With fashion’s stillness meeting thriller’s unease, The Silence feels like a calculated evolution for Van Rompaey. The runway taught her restraint, Netflix may just reveal her voice.

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Will you be tuning in when The Silence drops? Share your thoughts.