Christoph Waltz
Christoph Waltz
Christoph Waltzis an Austrian-German actor. He is best known for his works with American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, receiving acclaim for portraying SS-Standartenführer Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterdsand bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz in Django Unchained. For each performance, he won an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. Additionally, he received the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his portrayal of Landa...
NationalityAustrian
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth4 October 1956
CityVienna, Austria
CountryAustria
I'm not really all that familiar with comic book culture. Not because I'm such a high brow intellectual and bloody European. But it's just something that I was never into. Not because of any superiority. I don't know why.
It's the economics, that's why opera is not dying but gets more and more difficult to put on.
There's the beauty of the stage. I don't like filmed theater or opera because you're kind of playing soccer in a hockey game. Either or, they don't do justice to the media and you end up with a hybrid that is purely sensationalistic. Opera is a very theatrical medium that should be seen on a stage with the musicians in the pit in the audience.
I worked next to an elephant. And considering that she could step on your toes, it's a good idea to keep a certain distance. It's also a good idea to befriend the trainer.
One does not contradict the other.Straight-faced is the basis of all decent comedy.
There is quite an important director in Germany who I think in the early fifties over here, and then went back, and he said something that's absolutely true. And it's more important to repeat that today than it ever was. Not for you, but for us over there it is important. He said, 'In America they make movies like art, and sell it like commodities. We make make movies like commodities and sell them like art.'
There are plenty of people over there who understand the difference. And there are plenty of people over here who understand the difference. It's still one world and it has been for a long time.
I have my brain switched on and I might be thinking something else but we've come to an arrangement. That sort of play is maybe easier with someone who also thinks that way. But that is not necessarily a national thing, but maybe a little bit of a cultural thing.
I don't like to read novelizations of movies.
I have nothing to do with comics. I know nothing about comics. I am aware of the importance of comics, but they're not within my world. Not because I feel that I'm above it, but just that micro-surgery is not in my world either. Is that a deficit or is that an advantage?
I'm not into weapons. I'm not into cars. I'm not into explosions. I'm scared of all of that.
That's exactly what I'm driving at. 'Basterds' was interesting because it was, in a way, unfamiliar. I thought well, OK. Let's leave the comfort zone and just risk it. Why not? Because, exactly as you said, in a way, by taking that risk, I make up a little bit for my ignorance in the subject, or rather, the genre.
A silly comedy needs a straight guy, and that guy needs to be as straight as possible. The moment you start playing straight you're not straight anymore, you're bent straight, so it really requires the usual serious, straight-forward analysis and research, looking into it and finding the dramatic function, all of what you do until you feel you've collected enough points to safely and securely play the part.
By looking into more details of American history, we can make more sense of what's happening today.