Stellan Skarsgard Quotes

My preparation for roles are less about the character‘s profession than who they are, what their dreams are, and in what way are they childish.

I love having 30 shots of every scene.

I’ve got a lot of weaknesses. One of them is that I often get scared and tense when I’m working – and fear is one of the big threats to any good performance, because it closes you down and makes it harder for you to produce life in front of the camera.

Even if you’re the President of the United States, you still act like a little child and think like a little child sometimes. Childish behavior is what I look for in all of my characters because that is what makes them human.

For ‘Avengers,’ in the Albuquerque desert, we shot New York there. And I was standing on a platform, nine feet high… and it was the rooftop of a skyscraper in New York. And it was all desert around me!

Even the most despicable person is still a human being.

I started acting as an amateur when I was a kid, but I wanted to become a diplomat. It was self-centered and weird, but I had this idea of going out in the world and solving conflicts and making the world a better place. But I kept on acting, and eventually, I just dropped out of school and continued acting.

Of course, working with Halle Berry is fantastic. Every day, you’re looking at a performance that you would be prepared to pay to watch. She’s truly great and truthful, and it’s a joy.

When you have kids, you see what’s important.

Lars von Trier is a very good storyteller. He’s like an H. C. Andersen for adults.

I was the eldest of five children, and although I never saw myself as any kind of leader, as the eldest, like it or not, you have some power inherent in that position.

I am indeed a fan of John le Carre’s novels.

The core to what makes Fincher really interesting – all the technique and all that, that is not in the center even if it’s a big big part – what is in the center is the characters, and he really is interested in that.

The way I look at humanity, I don’t think there’s good guys or bad guys. We’re all potentially bad and potentially good.

When you work in Norway, you actually have to have a contract about lunches because Norwegians don’t eat lunch normally, so they just throw out a loaf of bread and some coldcuts.

I grew up in a family where you were allowed to say anything; you were allowed to show weakness… I have no problems talking about anything, basically. But at the same time, I know I’m different than a woman.

I do believe in humanism, and I believe that we should treat each other with respect and care and look after each other. All human beings should have an equal chance to survive in society, and inequality is a big problem in society.

Some directors are interested in acting, and others are only interested in cranes and moving the camera.

If I ever lose a job because I’ve talked about being an atheist, then I don’t want that job.

All male roles are written in a way where you just hide what’s going on inside you, and all female roles are written in a way where they expose everything.

With Fincher, you can take chances and try things. And what happens is that any pretension and preparation you’ve done, all the square, intellectual work, you can’t keep that up for 40 takes. It breaks down, and new things start popping up. This, for me, is the most exciting thing about film-making.

I mean… mankind has for hundreds of years known that torture is not a very smart way to get information. It’s horrible that we’re going back to medieval times.

I still live in Sweden. That’s my base. When I’m not working, I’m there.

Man is such an amazing animal, and the possibilities are infinite for each person.

I played a heap of snow in a school play. I was under a sheet, and crawled out when spring came. I often say I’ll never reach the same artistic level again.

The first time I saw Istvan Szabo’s ‘Mephisto,’ I came out and I was in shock. I was shaking.

I like working with Kenneth Branagh.

When you work with someone you don’t quite know, you have to figure the director out, and you can come up with ideas that are counter-productive.

Norway is a small country, about half the size of Sweden, but it has a very good film climate because they have municipal cinemas, so even in the smallest towns you have a cinema that shows art house films from all over the world.

I think I was 13 years old when my father put in my hands ‘The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.’ It was the first real adult book I ever read, and it opened a new world.

My parents were rather unconventional and did not accept rules unless they thought they were defendable. They were atheists when Sweden was a very Christian country.

It’s a disease we have that we think that everything is explainable. It’s a merchandising idea because you can sell explanations and cures for everything, but it doesn’t work like that. It’s very hard to understand everything.

I go where I think I can enjoy myself. Sometimes it’s on a big movie, and sometimes it’s even on a silly movie.

How many big American films do you see where the heroine has no vanity whatsoever?

I really enjoy being part of the Marvel Universe. It’s a cool bunch of people to work with, and they know what they’re doing.

We have to know that the bad guys are not different from us in the world.

The only respect you should have is the one you earn.

There is no overacting, only untrue acting.

Kenneth Branagh is one of the funniest directors on the set. You laugh a lot. He’s very skillful.

From my second son Gustav, I bought one of his complaints for 200 kroner. He was complaining that he was a middle child – he wasn’t the beloved first child, and he wasn’t the cute little youngest child. So I said, can I use that same wording in a film? And he said yeah. So I bought it from him.

It’s good to pay high taxes – you have free schools, free universities. It’s a much more decent society than those where everybody pays their own way, and some people don’t get anything.

I don’t do sports, really.

I can say yes to some directors without even reading a script. But the first-time directors I’ve worked with, the scripts have not been perfect, but they had something that I liked.

The ethical code of my upbringing was be good to people and try not to hurt them. You don’t need a god to tell you that.