Quotes

[on The Square (2017)]. The way in which this came about is I didn't actually read the script until I got the part. So at the first casting I was asked to do the speech I give in the museum to the audience. I was asked to write that and perform it. I did that and we kept almost everything that I wrote in the film. And then Ruben (Ruben Östlund) sat me down and he talked me through the whole film. We did improvs of five or six different scenes and that's how I got to know the story.

[on being cast in The Square (2017)] I went to a regular casting. Well, not that regular because Ruben (Ruben Östlund) is really thorough, so we did three castings for this one - and they were all two or three hours long. The casting director in Denmark is a personal friend of mine, and she told me that she got the task to find an actor for the film. I was like, "Oh my God, that sounds amazing," but I was dead sure that after Ruben's previous film (Force Majeure (2014)), he could get any actor in the world he wanted. I thought it was such a long-shot.

[on Bond rumors] I really love Daniel Craig in that part. I actually have been talking to Barbara Broccoli, but about another project. I think, if she was thinking along those lines, she probably would have said it. But I don't know. She has said absolutely nothing, so it's just a rumor. I think what started the rumor was this hashtag that started trending '#BangforBond' which does have a ring to it.

My favorite actor in the world is Richard Burton. I just think he just had everything. I probably couldn't play him, because he's got this insane quality that's like a wild animal and still sort of frail, fragile. But he's my idol.

I'm not a method actor. I like to think of myself as an instrument - like a piano you can play. That's in an ideal world but sometimes I'm a bit too opinionated, so I'm not a totally neutral instrument, but I try to be. I have the feeling that if I lose myself too much, I won't be able to take direction. You have to keep a distance in a way and I don't go home devastated.