Rick Okon (34) makes a violent exit in his last appearance as “Tatort” detective Jan Pawlak. Having slipped into corruption through betting debts and with 30,000 euros in the chalk with Dortmund’s biggest underworld boss, he goes on an illegal road trip with his daughter, for whom he has lost custody, to Seville, where he suspects her mother to be. Beforehand, he demonstratively left his badge on the desk of his colleagues Peter Faber (Jörg Hartmann, 54) and Rosa Herzog (Stefanie Reinsperger, 36) at the police station. A later return as a “crime scene” investigator seems unrealistic – but with a few good script tricks it is not completely out of the question.
For now, however, the actor seems quite happy with his decision to say goodbye to the role of Jan Pawlak and clear the way for new projects. As he reported in an interview with “Ruhr24”, his fellow actors and the production team gave him a wonderful farewell after the last day of filming: “We had a very nice final party and it was really sweet that the production and our editor Dora, too “Cash” and many other ‘crime scenes’ and organized a compilation. She made a really nice ten, twelve minute compilation of my character over the years.” For the party, the colleagues rented the bar again, where a beer-filled, conciliatory meeting between inspectors Faber, Herzog and Pawlak was previously filmed for “Tatort: Cash”.
After his departure from the Dortmund investigative team, he will at least remain in contact with his colleague Stefanie Reinsperger, with whom he is also a close personal friend. In a statement to WDR, she summarized this in the following emotional words: “Rosa Herzog is losing a fantastic partner in crime. But I, as Stefanie Reinsperger, have found a friend for life. I appreciate Rick so much as a colleague, as an actor, but The best thing about this encounter is our wonderful friendship that has developed over the years.”
In an interview with “Der Westen”, Okon revealed that he would be taking things a little easier in the near future. The last big thing he filmed last year was a vampire series for ZDFneo called “Love Sucks,” which will be released this year. “It was a lot of fun because I’ve never played a character like this with such character traits before. A great project – from the special effects to the make-up to the costumes,” said the actor.
In the “Berliner Morgenpost” he revealed what he is currently doing with his newfound freedom and free time: “I’m really happy right now that I see a lot of friends in Berlin because I haven’t had a normal everyday life for many years and I’m constantly traveling for work I also got an unlimited card for the cinema, with which I can now watch unlimited films for a year. I’m trying to collect input to get inspired.”
