Max von Sydow

All my life I’ve been looking for diversity.

The more I had to act like a saint, the more I felt like being a sinner.

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.

I accept a role only if it’s something I really, really like.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Bergman has a very special eye for people. His background taught him to listen and to feel.

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.

A vacation spot out of season always has a very special magic.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Filming is repetition and many takes.

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.

If Jesus came back today, and saw what was going on in his name, he’d never stop throwing up.

I just feel I shouldn’t work too much, because there are so many other things to do.

I’m not in retirement. I just don’t want to work so much, and I don’t get that many offers any more.

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

I think English is a fantastic, rich and musical language, but of course your mother tongue is the most important for an actor.

In Hollywood they usually cast me as villains or priests.

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

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.

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.

I’ve never been in a barroom brawl in my life. I just don’t do such things.

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

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.