“As a hero, you have to play it straight. The audience is going to live through you, so you have to be more neutral. They will be projecting their thoughts and their actions onto the main character.”

I think mortality makes you live a fuller existence. When I was a kid I was scared of death, and maybe that’s what made me desperate to get the most out of life.

I’m not going to freeze my body. One life is enough for me. Some people take this gamble. That someone will be able to bring them back in the future. I’m not going to do it.

Jackie Chan, I’ve known him, he’s a great guy. I know he’s very watchable and fun. He’s perfect, actually.

In the normal life of an actor or director, running around, there’s not much time to go to church. But there’s other ways to be spiritual, too.

I wanted to become an engineer, or get a masters in business. But I had the opportunity to do films when I was about 25 and it was a great way to express myself.

I do a little bit of yoga-style meditation. Relaxing and breathing even just one minute a day makes a big difference.

Film is about what you are thinking. It’s about what’s inside.

First the movie, the actual playing of the role and trying to deliver what everybody wanted. Then, when the film came out, there was instant fame. I was just a kid from Sweden, I didn’t know what was going on.

I think the energy I give off is quite non-confrontational. That’s something you learn from karate. Once you try to be a tough guy, you’ve got to pay up. You’ve got to prove yourself. And that’s exhausting.

I prefer to channel my problems and inner demons through a character. Another persona. That protects me and my family. I can get my frustrations out that way.

My problem is that people get intimidated by someone big and beautiful like me. They hate to think I can be smart as well.

Your body’s made to run, to walk, to trek long distances and carry things, work in a forest, and hunt animals. You have to keep it alive to function.

I used to play drums when I was a kid, play the trombone.

I discovered martial arts, first judo and then karate.

If I need to bulk up for a role, I will do more weights. If I need to slim down for something, I will do more cardio. That’s usually how it goes.

I think by planning an exercise regime, your diet follows to some extent.

I am still very surprised that I managed to make that film [Close Up]. When I actually look back on that film, I really feel that I was not the director but instead just a member of the audience.

I prefer the films that put their audience to sleep in the theater. Some films have made me doze off in the theater, but the same films have made me stay up at night, wake up thinking about them in the morning, and keep on thinking about them for weeks.

Being onstage is just a feeling that you cannot duplicate anywhere else because the energy that the audience is giving you forces you to give more energy. It’s such an output and exchange of energy. You can’t do that anywhere else.

As an audience member, I like the sound of something that’s been written – I like it to sound written. And then, of course, you can’t do it without the musicians who can play it.

Trying to guess what the (mass) audience wants and then trying to satisfy that is usually a bad recipe for getting something good.

The main thing is to be satisfied with your work yourself. It’s useless to have an audience happy if you are not happy.

I think there are two ways to depict a family. One is what it’s really like, and one is what the audience would like it to be. Between you and me, I think the second one is what I would prefer.

There’s that process of writing it – then you come out of your room into the sunlight, and you now have to complete the circuit and make the connection finally with the audience.