It's not a matter of learning lines. It's a matter of getting into the ideas and the will of the person. It's a matter of, 'What does he want to do? What does he want to achieve?'
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes understanding a character's intentions rather than merely memorizing lines.
Max Von Sydow highlights the importance of delving into the deeper motivations and desires of a character in acting. It's not enough to recite lines; an actor must embody the character's goals and will, which brings authenticity and depth to the performance.
In practice
During a theatre workshop, the director quoted this saying to inspire actors to connect more deeply with their roles.
Film acting, if you don't play the lead, you come, and you do your scenes in a few days, and you act with a couple of colleagues. All the rest of the actors you never see, and you don't even meet many of them. And you don't know what will happen with what you've done. Maybe it will be in the film, maybe it will not.
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.
What is important, I think, is to reach as many people as you can and do it as well as you can. Reach them and inspire them or amuse them, or maybe in some odd moments help them to discover something they hadn't thought of before.
The more I had to act like a saint, the more I felt like being a sinner.
People love talking about writers as storytellers, but I hate being called that: it suggests I got it from my grandmother or something, when my writing really comes out of silence. If a storyteller came up to me, I'd run away.
Photography is a brief complicity between foresight and luck.
I am a painter with letters. I want to restore everything, mix everything up and say everything.
I occasionally play works by contemporary composers and for two reasons. First to discourage the composer from writing any more and secondly to remind myself how much I appreciate Beethoven.
I want to see the thirst inside the syllables I want to touch the fire in the sound: I want to feel the darkness of the cry. I want words as rough as virgin rocks.β - Verb.
Today, comics is one of the very few forms of mass communication in which individual voices still have a chance to be heard.
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