Anecdotes

For coloring in his films, he uses what he calls a "no-look look" which means he doesn't want it to be warm or cold or especially moody, or light, or anything. He wants it to look as if the viewer were looking through a window.

Notoriously withdrawn from public life, his friends, such as Martin Sheen, have always remarked that he is a very warm and humble man who prefers to work without medial intrusion.

The last press interview he gave was in 1979.

After Les moissons du ciel (1978), it was a full twenty years before he directed his next film, La Ligne rouge (1998).

Once called producer friend Rob Cohen from a highway saying, "I'm walking to Oklahoma!" Cohen asked, "What do you mean, you're walking to Oklahoma? From Texas?" Malick answered, "Yeah, I'm looking at birds.".

His contract stipulates that no photographs are to be taken of him on set.

Ben Stiller, due to Malick's love of Zoolander, once dressed up in character and recorded him a special birthday video message.

One of the most praised aspects of his films are the quality of its cinematography. As of 2014, four of his films have been Oscar-nominated in the Best Cinematography category: Les moissons du ciel (1978), La Ligne rouge (1998), Le nouveau monde (2005) and The Tree of Life (2011). Only Les moissons du ciel (1978) managed to win in the category and still is the only Oscar ever given to a Malick film.

For years he wouldn't allow his mother to read the script of La Ligne rouge (1998) because of the profanity.

He grew up on a farm and worked as a farmhand before studying philosophy at Harvard. After graduating he went to Magdalen College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar but left before finishing his thesis (on Martin Heidegger) after a disagreement with his advisor. He moved back to the United States and taught philosophy at M.I.T. while freelancing as a journalist.

In 2004, during the filming of Le nouveau monde (2005), Malick forced Christopher Plummer to climb a tall oak tree. The task was very difficult for Plummer, who was 74 at the time, and took 3 unsuccessful attempts before Malick was satisfied with his performance. This footage was not used in the final film.

Turned down an offer to direct Elephant Man (1980).

When the American Film Institute set up its conservatory for Advanced Film Studies in 1969, its first round of students included him, Caleb Deschanel, Paul Schrader, and David Lynch.

In his contract for directing La Ligne rouge (1998), he stated that no current pictures of him could be published or shown anywhere.

According to Roger Ebert, a unifying common theme of his films is diminishing of human lives beneath the overarching majesty of the world.

U.S. film critic James Hoberman once said: "Where other movies have fans, Malick's produce disciples.".

Christopher Nolan has cited him as a big inspiration for his own work.

Began his film career at the age of 25.

After forty-three years of film career, he was photographed and caught on film while on set for one of the first times ever during the weekend of September 16, 2011.

Christian Bale calls him 'a great destroyer of vanity'.

His grandfather was an Assyrian Christian immigrant to the USA; "Malick" means "king" in Arabic.

Is an avid bird watcher.

Translated "The Essence of Reasons" by Martin Heidegger from German into English.

Spent most of his twenty-year hiatus in France, where he taught philosophy from 1979-94.

His film À la merveille (2012) was the last film that Roger Ebert reviewed.

Is also said to be a fan of Zoolander (2001).

After meeting in Paris in 1981, Malick recommended to Martin Sheen that he should read The Brothers Karamazov. Sheen credits Malick as being a key to his own spiritual reawakening.

Fluent in French.

Is a big fan of Totò.

Had been in Bolivia as a journalist in 1966 working on a story about Che Guevera.

Wrote an early draft of L'Inspecteur Harry (1971).

Terrence Malick is step-father to actor, producer, and director, Will Wallace.

Until 2017, there was only one publicly available recording of Malick's voice which was his cameo in Badlands.

Worked as a Journalist for Newsweek, Life and the New Yorker before pursuing a career in film.

Originally worked on a screenplay limited to Ernesto 'Che' Guevara's attempts to start a revolution in Bolivia. When financing fell through, he left the project, and subsequently Steven Soderbergh agreed to direct a film inspired by Malick's script that finally became Che - 2ème partie - Guerilla (2008).

When he was in Paris, often went to watch football, supporting Paris Saint-Germain.

Wrote an unused draft of Great Balls of Fire! ou la Légende vivante du rock and roll (1989).

Malick's particular brand of meditative poetic-ism has noticeably and increasingly influenced other movies ( including trailers & commercials) since his return to directing with "The Thin Red Line" (1998). The terms "Malickian" or "Malick-esque" can often be found or heard in reviews and writings to describe similarities in another work.

Magdalen College, Oxford currently (as of December 2014) lists Malick under "lost alumni" on its website.

Emmanuel Lubezki has given him the nickname of "apuntador," the job title of person on Mexican soap operas who tells the cast what happens next in the scene.

When he was eight years old, he wrote a forty-three-page paper on planets.

For 18 months or so, well into 1979, Malick worked on a project based on the life of Joseph Merrick, the 19th-century British sideshow celebrity who suffered from a rare, debilitating disease.

Appeared as unannounced guest on the screening of La Balade sauvage (1973) in the retrospective section of the 54th. Berlin film festival in 2004.

M.F.A. from the American Film Institute.

Wrote a treatment for L'Inspecteur Harry (1971) but none of his work appears in the final version.

He and his three-time composer Hanan Townsend developed a musical approach called 'shadows' which is creating a kind of fragmented versions of the themes from famous compositions in order to establish some continuity between these classical compositions that Malick uses and the musical pieces that Townsend creates.

He has directed two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: La Balade sauvage (1973) and Les moissons du ciel (1978).

According to composer Hanan Townsend who worked with Malick in The Tree of Life, To The Wonder and Knight of Cups, Malick would often tell Townsend when he's recording with the orchestra to hit record 30 seconds or a minute before they start playing so they have these musical moments where no one's being told what to do. They might just be rehearsing or just messing around with something and that could become the base of something really interesting.

He is a fan of the film ''Smokin' Aces (2006)''.

Worked for a short time as a globe-trotting magazine journalist, interviewing Haitian dictator "Papa Doc" Duvalier and spending four months in Bolivia reporting for the New Yorker on the trial of the French philosopher Régis Debray, who had been accused of supporting Che Guevara and his Marxist revolutionary forces.