Udo Kier

I don't like to work with directors who have taken an adoption from another script writer, because it's too much: one of them writes it and then has to explain it to the other, or maybe the director sees it in a way the writer doesn't want it.

All of these great directors I've worked with, they've all come to me. I never go after it.

I've done more than 65 films. I don't count them anymore. The first 10 you count and then you stop.

In America as a foreign actor it's very difficult to get into main roles.

I collect furniture and modern art. And I never go to any parties. I rather prefer to go around in nature.

In my real life I'm a very normal person.

When I have a part that isn't the leading part, I want to act in a way that people remember. Otherwise, what is the point?

I'm drawn to people who are free in their way of making films.

When you don't have a family, you create one.

I'm a totally desert person.

Sometimes, you can also have a big impact in a film just by doing something unexpected.

Anybody can act.

There are many things, as an actor, where you find that a production just wants you for your name. I am not a big, big, big name, but maybe they can sell the movie if I am in it. This I don't like.

Warhol took outcasts and made them into stars. There will never be another artist like him.

Sometimes I get a script that says, 'Only you can play it.' But I like roles in films with little moments - a hand movement in 'Melancholia.' I don't like the big speeches - the 'Oscar speech.' I like to do unusual things on screen.

If I hadn't been an actor, I'd be a gardener.

In 'House of Boys,' I wanted to be in drag. It was amazing to be in the middle of all these drag queens. They did my makeup. I hardly recognized myself! That was very funny.

The good thing about films is, you never know how good they will be. If there was a formula, there would only be good films!

If you have a smaller role, but if you work with a great director, they make it unforgettable.

I think it's important for a filmmaker to know his actors, because you have to work so closely together and you have to like them or you'll have a horrible time.

If David Lynch wants me to audition I will do it. But a young filmmaker, no. I won't.

It's logical when you become known to the industry with 'Dracula' and 'Frankenstein' that they typecast you and want you in their horror movies. That's how I got 'Blade,' of course, because they were fans.

I made so many films I thought were great and they turned out horrible, and I made films I did not believe in at all, and 'Shadow Of The Vampire' was one of these films I did not believe in during the shooting. And then when I saw it I was surprised what they had made out of it. They edited for quite a long time.

There are certain people who I worked with, Pamela Anderson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, they are figures. And they know this. They don't pretend to be good actors. They were made by the industry into figures.

If you make horror movies, you always have to think what's photogenic and what's not.

You know, I don't want to waste my time by being in a movie where nobody remembers my part. That's not interesting at all!

Nobody of us has ever seen ourselves! We see a reflection in the mirror.

I'm a very quiet person actually.

I never wanted to be an actor. I just wanted to learn languages and travel and see the world.

I like Palm Springs because of the sunshine. It's a little city surrounded by mountains.

People often say to me, especially people from the press: 'Oh, you are so evil.' But I'm a gardener. I rescue animals in Palm Springs where I live.

I love the smell of the Earth. I'm a good cook my friends say. I love cooking for my friends. So I'm totally the opposite of being evil. I think only if you're a good person can you be very evil onscreen.

If everybody would love each other, there would be no war.

I get nervous when I'm sitting in an airplane at 10,000 feet and then the sign comes on: 'Please fasten your seatbelt for turbulence.'

I've made over 220 films. Of these 220 films, 100 films are not good, 50 are okay, and 50 are very good.

The best compliment for a director is that an audience hates their films.

The interesting part about 'Iron Sky' was crowdfunding. It was financed in a very special new way. Timo Vuorensola is an amazing, concentrated person who was able to make this comedy. When I saw the film for the first time, I liked it very much.

I was in 'Iron Sky,' the first one, and I liked it very much. I liked the technology being used. The technology has such power.

Rob Zombie's very intellectual-crazy, and I like people like that. No stupid craziness.

It is fun to play evil parts... especially vampires.

As an actor it gets boring to play always the villain.

I'm very lucky to say that I worked with a lot of directors who cannot make a bad film. Like when Wim Wenders, they cannot make a bad film. They can make a film people don't like, or it's the wrong moment.

I mean, if you are director like Lars Von Trier who is able to get actors on a table like Lauren Bacall, Ben Gazzara, James Caan, Nicole Kidman, Chloe Sevigny, Stellan Skarsgard, Udo Kier, all in the self-service situation in the same room, the same trailer, no money, then you must have something that everybody accepts.

I don't consider myself funny.

I have no time for real horses, so I have a plastic horse. Large size. Called Max Von Sydow. For photographs it looks real. If I do a photo shoot and it stands in the background, you think it's a horse. A horse is a horse.

Gus van Sant I met at the Berlin film festival, and he came up to me. He had a little film in the festival called 'Mala Noche' that he had made for $20,000. He said: 'You are one of my favourite actors. I'm doing 'My Own Private Idaho' with River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves. You should be in it!' Then I started working with Gus.

When you get older time moves faster - much faster.

I always wanted to make music but I cannot play any instrument.

I'm not very career-driven, never was.

In Hollywood, they make movies like they make washing machines. It's a business. In Europe, the films are considered art. No producer would ever tell a director where to cut a film or how to re-write the script. I love Hollywood, but all of the time I have to go back to Europe.