Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, CBE, is a Welsh actor of film, stage, and television. After graduating from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in 1957, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and was then spotted by Laurence Olivier who invited him to join the Royal National Theatre. In 1968, he got his break in film in The Lion in Winter, playing King Richard the Lionheart...
NationalityWelsh
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth31 December 1937
CityMargam, Wales
I wanted revenge; I wanted to dance on the graves of a few people who made me unhappy. It's a pretty infantile way to go through life - I'll show them - but I've done it, and I've got more than I ever dreamed of.
Relish everything that's inside of you, the imperfections, the darkness, the richness and light and everything. And that makes for a full life.
Shakespeare's so bloody difficult, and I don't like failure. You can fail on film, but there's nobody actually there in the flesh to watch you failing.
My life is not my own business.
I'm more and more convinced that life is a dream. What has happened to me is surely a dream.
I don't have many friends; I'm very much a loner. As a child I was very isolated, and I've never been really close to anyone.
I still don't know what the film was about because all I remember is a whole lot of technical dialogue about a body in a suitcase.
When you are at the right age to play Hamlet you are still to young and immature to play it. It is much later, when you get the life experience and the emotional power, that you understand Hamlet or Macbeth.
You relax within the verse. You realize the structure of the verse and relax into it. It's like swimming. Or riding a bike. You can't make it sound real if you are thinking it through as you go. You can't think through Shakespeare, you have to speak it. And listen to the rhythm of it and then it takes you over. And to make it sound real you speak as if you believe it. Don't act it. Just be it.
I'm one of the slowest drivers on the road. I mosey along. If you're doing anything too fast, including living life too fast, that creates sudden death. If I have to be somewhere on time, I make sure I leave early enough.
It was a challenge, to work with Oliver Stone.
Every time I try to retire, or even think of retiring from acting, my agent comes up with a script.
I know that the arts are important. I'm not denying that, but I can't associate myself with all the claptrap that goes on around it.
On his Hannibal Lector mask: I've got it at home. I wear it to bed every night.