Max von Sydow Quotes
"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."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Love, Work, English, Language, Now)
"Producers are not gamblers. They want a good return on their investment."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Investment, Want)
"The more I had to act like a saint, the more I felt like being a sinner."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Act, Being)
"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."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Home, Christ, Months, Old, Self)
"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."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Christ, Friends, World)
"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."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Life, Being, Christ, Play, Prison, Public)
"Spielberg knows his craft so well, he can also improvise, and that is a lot of fun."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Fun)
"The offers I get are for grandfathers, uncles - and they often die very quickly in the script."
- Max von Sydow
"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."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Idea, Freedom, Language)
"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."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Children, Want)
"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."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Wife, Children, Name, Visit)
"In this country, you have movie actors and theatre actors and television actors."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Actors, Country, Television, Theatre)
"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."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Movies, Time, Opportunity, America, American, Country, Land, Living, Man, Years)
"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."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Christ, Man, Months, Prison)
"All my life I've been looking for diversity."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Life, Diversity)
"Perhaps I scare people. I don't know why."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: People)
"In Hollywood they usually cast me as villains or priests."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Hollywood)
"Bergman has a very special eye for people. His background taught him to listen and to feel."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: People, Eye)
"A vacation spot out of season always has a very special magic."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Magic, Vacation)
"If Jesus came back today, and saw what was going on in his name, he'd never stop throwing up."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Name, Today)
"Filming is repetition and many takes."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Repetition)
"I accept a role only if it's something I really, really like."
- Max von Sydow
"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."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Nothing, Public, Wonder)
"I just feel I shouldn't work too much, because there are so many other things to do."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Work)
"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."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Work, Nostalgia)
"I think English is a fantastic, rich and musical language, but of course your mother tongue is the most important for an actor."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Mother, Actor, English, Language, Tongue)
"I'm getting too old to play some parts, but I'm still greedy."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Old, Play)
"I'm not in retirement. I just don't want to work so much, and I don't get that many offers any more."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Work, Retirement, Want)
"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."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Time, People, Deeds, Evil, Indifference, Victims)
"I've never been in a barroom brawl in my life. I just don't do such things."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Life)
"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."
- Max von Sydow
(Related: Movies, Control, Fighting, Theater, Want)