If Jesus came back today, and saw what was going on in his name, he'd never stop throwing up.
Max von Sydow
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.
I just feel I shouldn't work too much, because there are so many other things to do.
The most difficult part of playing Christ was that I had to keep up the image around the clock. As soon as the picture finished, I returned home to Sweden and tried to find my old self. It took six months to get back to normal.
Sometimes you become friends with the characters you portray.
Mr. Bergman was a man of great working discipline. He forced everyone to concentrate when it was important. No disturbing noise during rehearsal. A code of silence.
Film acting, if you don't play the lead, you come, and you do your scenes in a few days, and you act with a couple of colleagues. All the rest of the actors you never see, and you don't even meet many of them. And you don't know what will happen with what you've done. Maybe it will be in the film, maybe it will not.
Most screenplays I receive are boring, and some are straight-out bad.
I think the film you hear about the most is 'The Exorcist.' When people come up to me and say, 'Oh, you scared me!' I was the good guy in that film!
Ingmar Bergman had a great sense of humor, and he had a very special, characteristic laugh that you always recognized - if he went to watch a theater show, 'Ah! He is here tonight.'
It often disturbs me, when I see a film set in a historical time, that the people are too modern.
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.
If people ask me, 'For you, what is your most important film?' I have a feeling that they all sort of want me to answer with one of the Bergman films. But I cannot choose.
I'm not in retirement. I just don't want to work so much, and I don't get that many offers any more.
I actually know the moment I became known. It was at the Cannes Film Festival, when they showed 'The Virgin Spring.' I walked into that theater as one person, and I walked out as another.
New York is a fascinating city. I think it's a very inspiring city, but it's overpowering when you get older. It tires me now. But it's wonderful for young people - very inspiring and full of surprises and full of ideas.
Human beings are human beings whether they speak or not.
Italians are great improvisers. If something unforeseen happens, they throw up their hands, and they adjust.
I'm getting too old to play some parts, but I'm still greedy.
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.
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.
It was great to watch Orson Welles, not only as an actor but as a director.
I've never been in a barroom brawl in my life. I just don't do such things.
I've been the type of father who tries desperately to be perfect but doesn't succeed all the time.
I don't have a philosophy for choosing roles. Sometimes, it's just, 'This might be interesting; that might be fun to do.' There might be interesting actors or directors in the project, even if the part is not important. And then sometimes, you need the money.
Awards are lovely and always welcome.
I owe Mr. Bergman so much.
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 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.
I admired Stephen Daldry very much; I think he's a brilliant director, and also, I feel close to him because he has a lot of theater behind him. He's also a man of great imagination and a lovely sense of humor.
I find it very hard to take myself seriously.
A vacation spot out of season always has a very special magic.
All my life I've been looking for diversity.
Bergman has a very special eye for people. His background taught him to listen and to feel.
Filming is repetition and many takes.
I accept a role only if it's something I really, really like.
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.
I think English is a fantastic, rich and musical language, but of course your mother tongue is the most important for an actor.
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.
In Hollywood they usually cast me as villains or priests.
In this country, you have movie actors and theatre actors and television actors.
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.
Movies give me an opportunity to go places. I'm not only a Swede but an American, not just a man of my time, but I've been living 2,000 years ago-and not just in a new country, America, but in the Holy Land, too.
Only very rarely are foreigners or first-generation immigrants allowed to be nice people in American films. Those with an accent are bad guys.
Perhaps I scare people. I don't know why.
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.
Producers are not gamblers. They want a good return on their investment.
Spielberg knows his craft so well, he can also improvise, and that is a lot of fun.
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.
The more I had to act like a saint, the more I felt like being a sinner.
