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 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 was called 'Dumbo,' like the elephant, as a child because I couldn't understand things at school.
Years ago I met Richard Burton in Port Talbot, my home town, and afterwards he passed in his car with his wife, and I thought, 'I want to get out and become like him'. Not because of Wales, because I love Wales, but because I was so limited as a child at school and so bereft and lonely, and I thought becoming an actor would do that.
Most of my last 30 years have been like that. Results and manifestations of things I'd dreamed of as a young kid and wanted as a child and as a young man. I realized it maybe 30 years ago. I thought, "This is unreal. This has happened as I expected it to, as I'd pictured it." My whole life has been like that and I'm fascinated by that power that we all have. That we create our lives as we go.
The World's Fastest Indian? Oh, that's not for me. I've done enough with that role.
Well, it's mission impossible, Mr. Hunt -- not mission difficult.
When I became an actor my dream was ... to come here to Hollywood. You know Hollywood is a state of mind ... it's synonymous with a dream factory.
We all dream. We dream vividly, depending on our nature. Our existence is beyond our explanation, whether we believe in God or we have religion or we're atheist.
I am young! Being creative and keeping your brain occupied is very sensible because if you don't you die, slowly.
I'm glad I'm not young anymore. I don't want to start all over again.
If you have high expectations you're going to get resentments and all kinds of tension.
Certainty is the enemy of mankind. If you're certain about everything, you have the Inquisition, you have Nazis and you have - that certainty is something to be guarded about.
I believe I am quite amiable and affable and quite fair, and I've rarely worked with people who are the opposite. Moodiness scares me. What gets to me is unkindness. Madness. Unwarranted cruelty through words. People who scream and shout at work. I hate confrontation and violence. I've done it in the past and I don't want to do it again. I guess I want a perfect world.
That's what happens if you don't address the darkness in you. You become repressed and depressed and suicidal.