Top 127 Quotes & Sayings by Stellan Skarsgard
Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard.
Last updated on December 23, 2024.
Shooting should not be about delivering something I've prepared; it should be a live process of finding things out. When things happen that you haven't planned, that's when the film comes alive.
There is no overacting, only untrue acting.
I don't know if I am a good cook, but I am a dedicated cook.
I love having 30 shots of every scene.
I'm not always happy when Hollywood does remakes of films, but that's usually when they have a very, very, very good film, and they take away anything controversial from it and make flatter.
Even the most despicable person is still a human being.
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 did a guest appearance on 'Entourage.' That was horrible, because I'm used to analysing the characters, working with all the details... and they said, 'No no no, walk and talk, walk and talk! It's energy energy energy!' - so it didn't quite suit me.
I've made six films for Disney, and they have a clause in their contracts called the morality clause that I've always refused to sign.
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.
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.
The Sermon on the Mount is a very nice piece about being good, but most of the Bible is a very revengeful, childish, brutal God.
In Europe, the director is the king: it's his vision. It's an auteur tradition.
Acting is such a strange, vague profession, but my kids know it's hard labour.
The biggest enemy of any actor is fear.
I'm so full of useless information; I'm the kind of person that collects useless information. I like to know everything!
The distribution systems and the cinemas have adopted to the blockbusters, and they now get their main income from selling popcorn, and if you don't make a film that sells popcorn, it's very hard to get it out there.
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.
How many big American films do you see where the heroine has no vanity whatsoever?
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.
Norwegian kids, they grow up well educated in film. So they have a lot of good directors there.
My performance is totally dependent on what the other actors are doing.
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.
Any society that starts forbidding certain words or expressions is a society you should be wary about, whether it's the KGB or social consensus that enforces it.
I'm not lazy on set. I'm lazy in the rest of my life.
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.
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.
Very often, it's the director that I'm attracted to. If it's a really good director, I don't even have to read the script to say yes.
I like working with Kenneth Branagh.
When Lars Von Trier calls me, I say yes without reading the script because often the script hasn't been written yet, and if Fincher called me again, I'd say yes without reading the script, too.
I'm in Stockholm in my office. I just got here after seeing my eighth child on an ultrasound, so I'm in a good mood. It's beautiful: an energetic little skeleton.
I treat everyone as equals. I can't work if I'm not having fun, and I can't have fun if not everyone is happy.
Kenneth Branagh is one of the funniest directors on the set. You laugh a lot. He's very skillful.
All directors are control freaks and very obsessive. I get the feeling that directors as kids, they all have had a childhood with not too much contact with other kids. They constructed their own reality and they continue to do it. It's a funny breed, directors.
I never help my kids and I never encourage them and I never give them any advice.
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.
I've never thought of myself as a professional. I very rarely do something I don't enjoy.
I think Dan Brown is a terribly bad writer, but he has cliff-hangers after every chapter which makes you continue reading.
The only respect you should have is the one you earn.
I only did 'Thor' because it was Kenneth Branagh directing, but I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.
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.
Lars von Trier is a very good storyteller. He's like an H. C. Andersen for adults.
When we did 'Breaking the Waves,' he had a sign on the wall that said, 'Make mistakes.'
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.
People don't want to read subtitles.
One of the beauties of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' is the very delicate and strange relationship between the two main characters.
I am indeed a fan of John le Carre's novels.
Even with limited success as an actor, you usually have a more interesting life than in many other professions, so it's not an unreasonable choice.
I've been offered a lot of police series, but I'm very good at staying away from them. They're usually based on such a boring formula.
I wanted to be a man who travelled the world to make peace. I didn't realise that most diplomats are megaphones for their governments.
The first time I did a big American film, I was surprised by all the different financiers who came to the set and told the director what to do.
There was a Russian director named Elem Klimov, who did his films during the communist days. They were constantly struggling with the authorities and to be allowed to express themselves. But he did one of the best war movies I've ever seen - it's called 'Come and See.'
Casting a film, you can have the greatest actors in a film and it doesn't work. It's a combination of all of the elements.
I reflect over my actions; I don't dwell on them.
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.
If I ever lose a job because I've talked about being an atheist, then I don't want that job.
When you have kids, you see what's important.
It takes a long time to make me beautiful, but it goes fast to make me ugly.
I know how to cut meat, yeah. I know how to cook, basically.
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