Waltz is from Vienna, once was an opera singer, is extensively trained in the theatre, and speaks English, French, and German, language skills that came in handy playing Col. Hans Landa. Waltz is pretty much prepared to tackle any role, but he admits that after his first read-through of the Inglourious Basterds script, he thought the film could not be done.
"The first time I read the script I thought that it's too much," confessed Waltz. "And then I watched all the movies again and kind of tried to ease my way into understanding where it is and where it comes from, and sort of tried to work my way around it a little bit. If you take it full brunt, then it's too much. Just like seeing it for the first time, it's too much. You have to switch off certain channels in order not to get this sensory overload. But once you get that out of the way, it's really interesting and it's very parallel to seeing the movie. Once you get that whole thing out of the way and know what's happening and all that, seeing it a second time you can actually then start to really enjoy the details. And that's what reading [the script was like] - exactly the same thing."
"So the first reading was too much. It's impossible. But reviewing all the movies and then sort of continuing into the script and sticking with the first chapter for a while and re-reading the first chapter, then trying to understand. And you know how you start working on things, it's a little bit like how you befriend a person."
Overwhelmed with the first reading, Waltz says it was his second read-through of the first scene in the script that actually hooked him on the project. "The first scene alone is...it's not all that difficult to understand reading this first scene what I meant initially about one of the greatest dramatic writings because you can see that in that first scene alone. Also these chapters kind of constitute, in a way, an entity, almost classical, especially the first scene, that is Aristotelian principles, the unity of time, the unity of place, the unity of action. You could perform this as a play onstage, and I wouldn't be surprised if it actually happened. So, all these qualities apart from that brilliant and unparalleled dialogue and these linguistic quirks and turns and unexpected leaps, so yeah, it's an actor's dream. Something that you normally do not get to play," said Waltz.
Perhaps one of the most frightening aspects of Waltz' character Hans Landa is that he does evil while outwardly expressing friendliness. "Well, that's a very interesting element, along those lines. Why would evil and friendliness contradict each other? Not at all. Why would evil and a sense of humor contradict each other? Not at all. We just like to see it that way because it makes it easier for us to recognize. So, you know, easy storytelling, easy characterization, cliche stereotypical so that we know exactly the guy with the black hat is the bad guy and the guy with the beige hat is the good guy. Happens so that the guy with the beige hat has a brown horse and the guy with the black hat has a black horse, so now we don't even have to think because we know exactly what's happening. Everything can develop according to our expectations," explained Waltz. "Well, not really in the real world."
"What makes evil evil? Not the raving beast. The raving beast is not evil. The raving beast is ridiculous. The friendly and accommodating and charming and solicitous person who then uses this what he has established trust, for example, or amicability, for a different outcome, and then the outcome might be... So how does one or how do I approach an evil character like that? By discarding the fact that it's evil, by not judging. It's difficult, especially in this context, you know, because this is probably the most evil period of human history."
Waltz also had this to say about his character: "I was a bit offended in Germany. A journalist said, 'Well, this is a man who likens Jews to rats without a blink of an eye.' No, no, no, this is missing the point entirely. Entirely. He says, 'The Germans are like the hawk, the Jew is like the rat,' and then Goebbels says the same thing. But then where our conclusions differ is that I do not consider the comparison an insult. And that's the key, not the rat comparison, that he doesn't consider it an insult. And that actually is the most valuable clue to this character of all. That he does evaluate, he does not judge, he follows what it is. So this is, if you want, a truly modern character."
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Inglourious Basterds hits theaters on August 21, 2009 and is rated R for strong graphic violence, language and brief sexuality.
