In a silent film, you speak but the audience does not hear you.
— Max von Sydow
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.
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!
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 Devil, of course, must have been or must be a very charming person.
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.
Bergman was courageous in choosing people to do things that they themselves might not expect to play.
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.
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.
Film work can be very interesting, but it also can be awfully boring because who creates the film? The actors? No. It is the director. It's his piece of work.
To me, part of the fascinating profession of acting is to participate in all these strange situations, to try to understand all these interesting characters, fictitious or real, their human nature... It's extraordinarily fascinating.
I think it's good that we're sometimes reminded of important events in history.
It often disturbs me, when I see a film set in a historical time, that the people are too modern.
Sometimes you become friends with the characters you portray.
No doubt, the most important thing in my career was my time with Mr. Bergman, with whom I worked in so many films and also in so many stage productions, so it was a continuous working relationship and also a friendship, of course, that lasted for so many years.
When I was brought up in Sweden, there was a great opportunity for young people to learn how to act in our municipal theaters with their small companies. You would be under contract for eight months and have the summer free to take other opportunities.
I owe Mr. Bergman so much.
Sometimes you remember more about the location where you shot the film than the film itself.
I find it very hard to take myself seriously.
All of us, we deserve to survive.
I've been the type of father who tries desperately to be perfect but doesn't succeed all the time.
Between you and me, odd things happen always on set.
I could never learn to be totally fluent in any other language.
France is, for me, the country of happiness.
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.
What is important, I think, is to reach as many people as you can and do it as well as you can. Reach them and inspire them or amuse them, or maybe in some odd moments help them to discover something they hadn't thought of before.
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.
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.
I would like to do 'King Lear.' But I would like to do it in Swedish.
Italians are great improvisers. If something unforeseen happens, they throw up their hands, and they adjust.
Unfortunately, not all stories end positively.
I'm an actor; I'm not a director.
Most screenplays I receive are boring, and some are straight-out bad.
During my military service, I performed a sketch in which I played a flea called Max. So when critics kept misspelling my name, I decided to change it and thought, 'Ah! Max!'
It was great to watch Orson Welles, not only as an actor but as a director.
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.
We should look back now and then. Our politicians should look back every now and then.
Human beings are human beings whether they speak or not.
Mr. Bergman had a great imagination and saw the possibilities within every one of his actors, and he gave us great challenges. It was very inspiring.
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.
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.'
There are casting directors with lots of imagination, but also some with not as much imagination.
I understand German; I can read German.
You cannot study acting in books. Do it, do it, do it. And watch good actors. See what they are doing and how they are doing it. You have to practically participate, I think, in order to develop yourself.
Hiroshima has become a metaphor not just for nuclear war but for war and destruction and violence toward civilians. It's not just the idea we should not use nuclear arms. We should not start another war because it's madness.
My father was a professor of folklore, and my mother was a teacher until she was married. I had a good relationship with them, and the only argument we had was when I went to university and wanted to go into the theater instead of studying to be a lawyer.
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?'
There are many documentary filmmakers who have a tough time because they don't really get what they need to do what they want. There are so many people with good visions that should be encouraged and helped. And they will deliver, I'm sure.
Awards are lovely and always welcome.
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.
