I do believe in humanism, and I believe that we should treat each other with respect and care and look after each other. All human beings should have an equal chance to survive in society, and inequality is a big problem in society.
Stellan Skarsgard
Even the most despicable person is still a human being.
Maybe there is something specifically Scandinavian that comes out of the long, dark winters - you have to learn to laugh at misery, in a way.
I did a guest appearance on 'Entourage.' That was horrible, because I'm used to analysing the characters, working with all the details... and they said, 'No no no, walk and talk, walk and talk! It's energy energy energy!' - so it didn't quite suit me.
People don't want to read subtitles.
Because of ignorance, I wasn't a big fan of Marvel. I hadn't read the magazines. They were not as big in Europe as they are in the United States. They're more a part of modern American mythology. I know more about the original Thor than the Marvel Thor.
We were working under very harsh conditions on 'Zero Kelvin.' We were up there in the Arctic, closer to the North Pole than to a hospital. Sometimes you had to sleep in small Arctic tents with guns to protect yourself from polar bears and stuff.
It's good to pay high taxes - you have free schools, free universities. It's a much more decent society than those where everybody pays their own way, and some people don't get anything.
Even if you're the President of the United States, you still act like a little child and think like a little child sometimes. Childish behavior is what I look for in all of my characters because that is what makes them human.
All directors have their strengths and weaknesses, as all actors have, and all artists. What you try to do is complete the relationship and take care of the stuff that the director won't take care of.
I'm so full of useless information; I'm the kind of person that collects useless information. I like to know everything!
I was the eldest of five children, and although I never saw myself as any kind of leader, as the eldest, like it or not, you have some power inherent in that position.
Even with limited success as an actor, you usually have a more interesting life than in many other professions, so it's not an unreasonable choice.
All directors are control freaks and very obsessive. I get the feeling that directors as kids, they all have had a childhood with not too much contact with other kids. They constructed their own reality and they continue to do it. It's a funny breed, directors.
I am indeed a fan of John le Carre's novels.
I don't do sports, really.
I'm in Stockholm in my office. I just got here after seeing my eighth child on an ultrasound, so I'm in a good mood. It's beautiful: an energetic little skeleton.
One of the beauties of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' is the very delicate and strange relationship between the two main characters.
I still live in Sweden. That's my base. When I'm not working, I'm there.
Any society that starts forbidding certain words or expressions is a society you should be wary about, whether it's the KGB or social consensus that enforces it.
Lars von Trier is a very good storyteller. He's like an H. C. Andersen for adults.
All male roles are written in a way where you just hide what's going on inside you, and all female roles are written in a way where they expose everything.
I think I was 13 years old when my father put in my hands 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.' It was the first real adult book I ever read, and it opened a new world.
The biggest enemy of any actor is fear.
I played a heap of snow in a school play. I was under a sheet, and crawled out when spring came. I often say I'll never reach the same artistic level again.
I've got a lot of weaknesses. One of them is that I often get scared and tense when I'm working - and fear is one of the big threats to any good performance, because it closes you down and makes it harder for you to produce life in front of the camera.
When Lars Von Trier calls me, I say yes without reading the script because often the script hasn't been written yet, and if Fincher called me again, I'd say yes without reading the script, too.
Casting a film, you can have the greatest actors in a film and it doesn't work. It's a combination of all of the elements.
Man is such an amazing animal, and the possibilities are infinite for each person.
It takes a long time to make me beautiful, but it goes fast to make me ugly.
There is no overacting, only untrue acting.
I treat everyone as equals. I can't work if I'm not having fun, and I can't have fun if not everyone is happy.
I never help my kids and I never encourage them and I never give them any advice.
I love having 30 shots of every scene.
There was a Russian director named Elem Klimov, who did his films during the communist days. They were constantly struggling with the authorities and to be allowed to express themselves. But he did one of the best war movies I've ever seen - it's called 'Come and See.'
Norway is a small country, about half the size of Sweden, but it has a very good film climate because they have municipal cinemas, so even in the smallest towns you have a cinema that shows art house films from all over the world.
Norwegian kids, they grow up well educated in film. So they have a lot of good directors there.
The way I look at humanity, I don't think there's good guys or bad guys. We're all potentially bad and potentially good.
Shooting should not be about delivering something I've prepared; it should be a live process of finding things out. When things happen that you haven't planned, that's when the film comes alive.
I've never thought of myself as a professional. I very rarely do something I don't enjoy.
With Fincher, you can take chances and try things. And what happens is that any pretension and preparation you've done, all the square, intellectual work, you can't keep that up for 40 takes. It breaks down, and new things start popping up. This, for me, is the most exciting thing about film-making.
I think Dan Brown is a terribly bad writer, but he has cliff-hangers after every chapter which makes you continue reading.
I only did 'Thor' because it was Kenneth Branagh directing, but I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.
The first time I did a big American film, I was surprised by all the different financiers who came to the set and told the director what to do.
In Europe, the director is the king: it's his vision. It's an auteur tradition.
The distribution systems and the cinemas have adopted to the blockbusters, and they now get their main income from selling popcorn, and if you don't make a film that sells popcorn, it's very hard to get it out there.
Kenneth Branagh is one of the funniest directors on the set. You laugh a lot. He's very skillful.
I really enjoy being part of the Marvel Universe. It's a cool bunch of people to work with, and they know what they're doing.
I've made six films for Disney, and they have a clause in their contracts called the morality clause that I've always refused to sign.
I know how to cut meat, yeah. I know how to cook, basically.
