Spielberg knows his craft so well, he can also improvise, and that is a lot of fun.
Filming is repetition and many takes
I accept a role only if it's something I really, really like
I've never been in a barroom brawl in my life. I just don't do such things
I think English is a fantastic, rich and musical language, but of course your mother tongue is the most important for an actor
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
I'm getting too old to play some parts, but I'm still greedy
I'm not in retirement. I just don't want to work so much, and I don't get that many offers any more.
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.
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.
Only very rarely are foreigners or first-generation immigrants allowed to be nice people in American films. Those with an accent are bad guys
In this country, you have movie actors and theatre actors and television actors
In Hollywood they usually cast me as villains or priests
The power of Christ compels you!
If Jesus came back today, and saw what was going on in his name, he'd never stop throwing up.
There comes a time, thief, when the jewels cease to sparkle, when the gold loses its luster, when the throne room becomes a prison, and all that is left is a father's love for his child.
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
All my life I've been looking for diversity
A vacation spot out of season always has a very special magic
I like to play with things a while before annihilation.
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
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.
I just feel I shouldn't work too much, because there are so many other things to do
The more I had to act like a saint, the more I felt like being a sinner.
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
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.
Producers are not gamblers. They want a good return on their investment.
