interview Max Von Sydow
chatted with Nathaniel on November 30th, 2007 @ the Pierre Hotel
Max
Von Sydow on Ingmar Bergman, Woody Allen, and his rich history on the stage and in the cinema |
Max Von Sydow: Well, it was --When I wanted to become an actor I wanted to become a stage actor. Films were not really real too me. They were too far away somewhere. I was born in the very south of Sweden, understand, and in order to become an actor in those days it was a question of getting into an acting school somewhere. There was, in those days, several acting schools at the municipal theater --rather small companies but a lot of work for young actors. So it was a matter of auditioning to get into those schools or to the Acting Academy at the National Theater in Stockholm. I was lucky enough to get accepted there which was wonderful because not only would you be allowed to study there but you were also free to watch the professional actors rehearse.
So every moment I was free from my lessons I could sneak out to the balcony in the theater and watch the great actors rehearse and you could follow the development of the characters and—and. You see --and also-- the director who did Miss Julie [Al Sjöberg] and who did my first film, which was called Only a Mother, he was one of the leading directors at the theater.
Nathaniel: So, film and stage.
Max Von Sydow: He knew the students and he also cast us in parts in his films and of course -- also he had, the season before he had made a film, he had done the play -- Strindberg's play at the National so we were all familiar with his interpretation in a way, his concept of it. Do you know the play Miss Julie?
Nathaniel: Yes
MVS: Of course it's three characters. He added a lot of characters for the screenplay.
N: So it was probably an ideal way for you to transition then – like performing for the stage.
MVS: In a way, in a way. My part --I did not play any of the leads. I was one of the added
characters. I was a stableboy.
N: When you started making movies it was the beginning of the 50s, So, you've seen this rich development of acting history. That's when everything was changing with The Method and…
MVS: When I started there was no television which meant that –and you can see that when you watch those films –acting, film acting, was much more theatrical. You behaved as if you were on a stage. Then when television came in and people got used to watching people behave naturally, talking like your next door neighbor, than the acting style changed. And then of course
Marlon Brando mumbled.
N: Montgomery Clift and all of them…
MVS: Suddenly it was legitimate to mumble in films and we all started mumbling. [laughter]
Max Von Sydow in the 50s. From left (clockwise): Ingmar Bergman's The Magician, stage productions
of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Misanthrope, and UrFaust. Pictures from Bergmanorama
N: Do you think naturalism is here to stay or do you think acting will continue develop? Do you think there'll be another movement?
MVS: I'm sure there will be fads. It depends. It will depend on great strong influential directors and, how should I say, charismatic actors. You know, like Marlon Brando. Like Robert DeNiro, Like Pacino. Etcetera.
N: Yep.
MVS: And today, I'm sure there will be Johnny Depp followers.
N: People watching what he's doing and working from that.
MVS: Yes.~BERGMAN~
N: You have this long long history with Ingmar Bergman, one of my favorite filmmakers. I was wondering –you made a dozen movies with him...
MVS: Eleven.
N: Eleven movies with him. I'm wondering what you think about –why don't more actors build those long term relationships with directors? Because, as you say, so much is dependent on the directors in terms of film movements and film history. You're fortunate enough to be in all of these films that are going to last forever.
MVS: Yes.
N: Why don't you think more actors don't pursue those sort of director/muse relationships?
MVS: No but it –it's dependent on --it was a very different situation because Bergman worked in those days as a theater director at a municipal theater in the south of Sweden. And I was at an age –when I started I did two plays with him before we shot The Seventh Seal. And then we worked together on films --for years he continued to work with, in fact, the same actors and he used them in his films. Maybe he did three stage productions and then shot one and then even two films in the summer --and he used, in the films, the actors he was working in the theater.
So it was continuous development. And then –then he moved from the stage to the National Theater in Stockholm. And then started to use actors –started to use, of course, also actors from the National. It was a very special and of course very fruitful period for us all. And for him also.
N: What do you think…
MVS: I mean --so this situation does not exist. I don't believe... I don't know if there is such a thing as someone who works in both theater and film…
N: Well, there are a few of them --but not to that extent where they're a world class filmmaker as well as a stage director. There are stage directors who sometimes dabble in film. We have some of that.
MVS: Yes, I was very lucky to be there during that period.
N: His films are still very much alive in public and critical discussion. What do you think is something about him, either as a filmmaker or as a person, that you think people misunderstand?
part two
perceptions of Bergman, working with Woody Allen and the mysteries of acting
