LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? He speaks softly and sometimes strains to hear a question - but at the age of 82, Max von Sydow is still an imposing, even majestic figure. He's tall and upright, full of gravitas but with a twinkle in his eye; after all these years, he is still the face of the knight in "The Seventh Seal," and Jesus in "The Greatest Story Every Told" and Lassefar in "Pelle the Conqueror."
And now he is the Renter in "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," Stephen Daldry's film drawn from the Jonathan Safran Foer novel about a young boy who embarks on a hunt across New York City to make sense of the tragedy of 9/11, in which his father was killed.
In the film, von Sydow is a mysterious man who doesn't speak, and who rents a room in the house of the grandmother to young Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn). The two become unlikely allies, in the process revealing some lost bits of family history.
While in town for recent screenings of the film, von Sydow sat down with TheWrap to talk about his new role.
It's surprising that despite your career, you only have one Oscar nomination.
Awards are important. They are very important, and it's wonderful if you get them. But when I get a project, I don't think, If I do that well, maybe I'll have an award for it. That's not what this is about.
But if you get something, it's great, because then maybe it means that you will reach more people. 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 then, or amuse them, or maybe in some odd moments help them to discover something they hadn't thought of before.
How did you become involved in "Extremely Loud?"
Well, I have a good agent. She called and said, "Stephen Daldry wants you to be in his film." How wonderful, I admire him very much. A very interesting filmmaker. "Oh, and Tom Hanks will be in it, and Sandra Bullock." I had never met Tom Hanks, but I always liked what he did, and I was looking forward to working with him. Then I got the script and realized I had nothing to do with him. And I didn't meet him until the other day in New York.
But nevertheless, I got the script, and my wife and I read it together. We were totally touched by it, moved by the story. And there was no question. I said, "Yes, I have to do this."
Why?
It's a wonderful story about healing after this terrible tragedy. And I think it's a brilliant idea to let the boy sort of invent his own therapy. Which he sticks to fanatically. He is totally convinced that what he's doing will lead to some sort of an answer, some sort of a solution.
Is it limiting in certain ways and freeing in others to play a character who doesn't speak?
It's a new way of being that I hadn't done before. It was not, shall I say, more difficult than a normal speaking part. The only difference between the Renter and normal people is that he does not speak verbally, he speaks by his writing. But he speaks.
And it was very inspiring to work with young Thomas, who is really an unusually bright young man. Very, very impressive. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what he's going to do in the future.
You keep working pretty steadily.
Not really. I really don't want to keep working, in general terms. But every now and then, if something very special shows up, why not?
Are you not driven to act anymore?
Not necessarily. I can live without it.
Was there a time when you couldn't?
I think there was, yes. I think I was a bit intoxicated by it. Now, I'm maybe a little bit more difficult to convince. What is important for me is to find something that I haven't done before. My problem is that in my early career I had parts in important films, of a special sort. I worked with the famous Ingmar Bergman, who apparently, probably from the point of view of casting directors, was very religious and very philosophical, etc. etc. Max von Sydow has played Jesus, so he's probably just as religious and philosophical also. So if we need a cleric, ask him. I don't know how many priests and how many bishops I've been offered. I've done a few, but most of the time reluctantly. Of course, there are interesting priests and bishops and saints and all this. But most of it is not that interesting.
And then, okay, I'm a foreigner. I'm not American, I'm not English. So they come and offer me the foreigner. Who is the foreigner in the story? The foreigner is most of the time the villain. And very often he's the Nazi. And then funnily enough, they also ask me to play Jewish refugees. So it's sort of two poles, in a sense.
Did you ever try to change Hollywood's vision of what you could do?
No. It's not up to me. What can I do? I don't think they read interviews with me when I say what I just told you. There are casting directors with lots of imagination, but also some with not as much imagination.
What was your experience like watching "Extremely Loud?"
Even if I miss a few scenes that there was no time for, apparently, I think it's a wonderful film. I really do. I was very moved by it. I think it's a very positive film, with the boy who invents his own healing process. It's a film of hope, to me. It's not a tragedy. It deals with a tragedy, but the film is not a tragedy.
(Editing by Zorianna Kit)
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