Max von Sydow, extremely quiet in ‘Extremely Loud,’ has a lot to say

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Max von Sydow plays an old man who communicates with a notepad in “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.”

Updated: February 20, 2012 8:58AM

Max von Sydow doesn’t speak a word in his new film “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.”

But in real life, the 82-year-old screen legend is a warm-hearted, boisterous storyteller.

“I’ll never forget visiting Chicago on my way to work in Minnesota,” says von Sydow, best known for playing Jesus in “The Greatest Story Ever Told” and trying to get rid of the devil in “The Exorcist.”

“I spent only two days in your great city, but I will never forget that despite the wind and cold, a colleague of mine from Sweden insisted that we go to the Field Museum: ‘I know about this grand place.’ Boy, did we have a lot of fun there.”

At an age when many actors would have retired, von Sydow is still having a lot of fun. He has a crucial role in “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” (opening Friday), about a young boy’s quest to make sense of the father he lost during 9/11.

Von Sydow plays a mysterious man who shows up suddenly after the tragedy and starts to live with the boy’s grandmother in a building across the street. The boy (Thomas Horn) and his mother (Sandra Bullock) dub him “The Renter.”

Is The Renter the young man’s grandfather? That fact unravels while the older man and the boy criss-cross the city trying to solve a mystery.

“It was just a wonderful, wonderful story,” says Von Sydow of why he signed on for a role that might just earn him a Best Supporting Actor nomination. “The key for me is that this is a very unusual character and it’s something I had never done before, which is important when you’ve been in the business for a long time. Casting directors still want you to do what worked in the past, which I find so boring.”

The old man remains mute and scribbles his thoughts on a notepad.

“Playing a character that doesn’t speak is not in any way different from playing one that does speak,” von Sydow reasons. “The only difference is you communicate differently. Apart from that, he’s a total human being with problems.”

“This man just talks through his writing. The way I approached it is he would be the same man if he spoke. His feelings would have been the same. His actions would have been the same.”

He began his career onstage in Sweden and made 13 films with Ingmar Bergman, including “Wild Strawberries” (1957), “The Seventh Seal” (1957) and “Through a Glass Darkly” (1961).

His other films include “Hawaii” (1966), “Flash Gordon” (1980), “Never Say Never Again” (1983), “Dune” (1984), “Needful Things” (1993), “Minority Report” (2002), “Shutter Island” (2010) and “Robin Hood” (2010).

Will he ever retire?

“I often retire … and then I come back,” he says with a laugh.

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