Top 80 Stellan Skarsgard Quotes

I’ve worked with Lars von Trier on many films, and there’s always a female character that’s like an open wound – everything just pours out of this person.

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.

If you understand each other’s way of thinking, you understand what kind of film someone is trying to make, and all the ideas that I come up with will fit into that film.

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 don’t do sports, really.

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.

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.

I’m not lazy on set. I’m lazy in the rest of my life.

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.

I like working with Kenneth Branagh.

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.

There is no overacting, only untrue acting.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.’

I reflect over my actions; I don’t dwell on them.

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.

Norwegian kids, they grow up well educated in film. So they have a lot of good directors there.

It takes a long time to make me beautiful, but it goes fast to make me ugly.

I wanted to get the opportunity to do what actresses do: play the inside of a person.

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.

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

I am not only lucky to be an actor, but I am lucky to be one of the most privileged actors in the world because I can do all kinds of films and genres and everything.

A film doesn’t exist until it meets its audience.

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

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.

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.

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

You always have to figure out what the director is good at before you work with them; then you can fill in if need be.

The difference between an experienced director and a new director is not as big as the difference between individual directors, the temperament they have, and the things they’re interested in.

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

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.

It’s not in the tradition: not even the schoolkids have hot lunches in Norway. They bring a couple of sandwiches from home.

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.

Everybody thinks I’m so serious and the dark side is very accessible to me, so of course it’s a challenge to do something funny.

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 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 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.

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

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 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.

There will always be storytelling, whether it’s on the big silver screen, or it’s your television or your iPhone or whatever, people will keep on telling stories.

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 only did ‘Thor’ because it was Kenneth Branagh directing, but I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.

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

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

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.

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 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.

One of the beauties of ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ is the very delicate and strange relationship between the two main characters.

I love having 30 shots of every scene.

I said yes to ‘Nymphomaniac’ before it was written.

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.

Even the most despicable person is still a human being.

If you look at Kirsten Dunst’s performance in ‘Melancholia,’ which I think is absolutely wonderful – it’s not even in the text, because she doesn’t say much; it’s all in her eyes. She doesn’t have to explain what she’s feeling. You just feel it.

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.

Because of ignorance, I wasn’t a big fan of Marvel. I hadn’t read the magazines. They were not as big in Europe as they are in the United States. They’re more a part of modern American mythology. I know more about the original Thor than the Marvel Thor.

I don’t feel ashamed or humiliated when I am naked, but I definitely feel it when I am playing games.

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 am not a nationalist in any way, and I hate flag waving, and I don’t think much good has come out of nationalism. I am proud of Scandinavia in the sense that we have actually managed to create a very tolerant and human society, which is very livable.

I’ve never thought of myself as a professional. I very rarely do something I don’t enjoy.