Max von Sydow Quotes

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Max von Sydow

Profession : Actor

Birth : April 10, 1929

I'm getting too old to play some parts, but I'm still greedy.

Max von Sydow

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

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

In Hollywood they usually cast me as villains or priests.

Max von Sydow

In this country, you have movie actors and theatre actors and television actors.

Max von Sydow

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

Only very rarely are foreigners or first-generation immigrants allowed to be nice people in American films. Those with an accent are bad guys.

Max von Sydow

Perhaps I scare people. I don't know why.

Max von Sydow

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

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

Producers are not gamblers. They want a good return on their investment.

Max von Sydow

Spielberg knows his craft so well, he can also improvise, and that is a lot of fun.

Max von Sydow

The offers I get are for grandfathers, uncles - and they often die very quickly in the script.

Max von Sydow

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

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

I would love to do parts I have never done before, but unfortunately, if you have had success in a particular type of character, the casting agents think, 'Oh! We'll have something exactly like that.' It's very boring.

Max von Sydow

My parents were brought up in families which believed theatre people weren't to be trusted. But they were nice people.

Max von Sydow

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!'

Max von Sydow

I owe Mr. Bergman so much.

Max von Sydow

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.

Max von Sydow