Zitat des Tages von Max von Sydow:
I think English is a fantastic, rich and musical language, but of course your mother tongue is the most important for an actor.
I don't believe in devils. Indifference and misunderstandings can create evil situations. Most of the time, people who appear to be evil are really victims of evil deeds.
It's important to me to work in my own language now and then. I love English, but you can never learn to master a foreign language if you're not brought up with it.
In Hollywood they usually cast me as villains or priests.
There are those who want to believe but can't, and there are those who believe as children and it's no problem for them at all.
I'm not in retirement. I just don't want to work so much, and I don't get that many offers any more.
Playing the role of Christ was like being in a prison. It was the hardest part I've ever had to play in my life. I couldn't smoke or drink in public. I couldn't.
I remember those days with Bergman with great nostalgia. We were aware that the films were going to be quite important, and the work felt meaningful.
The more I had to act like a saint, the more I felt like being a sinner.
Bergman has a very special eye for people. His background taught him to listen and to feel.
A vacation spot out of season always has a very special magic.
I accept a role only if it's something I really, really like.
In this country, you have movie actors and theatre actors and television actors.
Perhaps I scare people. I don't know why.
In a theater, the part is mine and I can control it as I want to. In the movies, I don't have direct contact, and I am fighting technical machinery.
Playing Christ, I began to feel shut away from the world. A newspaper became one of my biggest luxuries. I noticed that some of my close friends began treating me with reverence.
The offers I get are for grandfathers, uncles - and they often die very quickly in the script.
The studio rented a house for my wife in Los Angeles under a phony name to keep reporters away. Whenever I wanted to visit her and my children, I would have to sneak in the back door after dark.
Between you and me, odd things happen always on set.
I'm getting too old to play some parts, but I'm still greedy.
Spielberg knows his craft so well, he can also improvise, and that is a lot of fun.
Producers are not gamblers. They want a good return on their investment.
It's very difficult being an actor and being away for a lot of time, but my sons haven't complained too much too often.
The idea of working with Steven Spielberg was very attractive. He's such a master. He knows the language of the camera and of filmmaking, which gives him a great freedom.
Only very rarely are foreigners or first-generation immigrants allowed to be nice people in American films. Those with an accent are bad guys.
When I finished the role of Christ, I felt as though I'd been let out on parole. A man who has served 18 months isn't eager to go back to prison.
I began imagining scenes in public which some drunk would come up to me and slap me in the face. Nothing like that ever happened, but I often wonder if I would have turned the other cheek.
Filming is repetition and many takes.
We should look back now and then. Our politicians should look back every now and then.
I was in such a hurry to be an actor. Now I'm sometimes mad at myself that I didn't stop and study for a couple of years.
It's not a matter of learning lines. It's a matter of getting into the ideas and the will of the person. It's a matter of, 'What does he want to do? What does he want to achieve?'
If Jesus came back today, and saw what was going on in his name, he'd never stop throwing up.
Nobody told me there was any idea for a sequel to 'The Exorcist.' But my agent called me to tell me they were going to do it, and there was a part for me. I said, 'But I died in the first film.' 'Well,' he told me, 'this is from the early days of Father Merrin's life.' I told him I just didn't want to do it again.
When I know what the character I'm supposed to play wants in general terms, and when I know what did the other characters want to do, that's when all these wills collide and the emotions show up.
Bergman was courageous in choosing people to do things that they themselves might not expect to play.
Unfortunately, not all stories end positively.