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 am able to play monsters well. I understand monsters. I understand madmen.
I play music - I write my own music, but I play music, just background music really, and just let it happen.
If you're in a successful play and the play is working well - I mean successful because the audiences like it, the audiences respond well - it's a pleasure.
I wanted to be a musician. I just wanted to be famous because I wanted to escape from what I felt was my limitation in life. I wanted to write music and I didn't know what I was doing and I never had the technique or the understanding of it. But I've always played the piano, and I can improvise on the piano. The problem is that I can't write down what I play. I can read music but I can't write it down.
I thought I did play one villain, Hitler, [who is] like Lecter in some ways, but he's a mythical figure, anyway.
I play piano and that's my love. I read and I paint and I compose music, so I've got a pretty full creative life. And it's not because, I'm obsessively creative.
How do you play Hannibal Lector? Well just don't move. Scare people by being still.
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.
I came here in 1974 to do a play, and then I went to L.A. I really like living in America. I feel more at home here than anywhere else.
I always had a knack for improvisation. I can write down the notes I play, but never really had a proper academic musical background. I suppose I'm blessed and cursed by the fact I have that freedom.
We have a Boesendorfer piano that I play every day. It keeps my brain and my fingers active.
I'm just an actor. It's the way the script is written, and it's easy. I don't have think about it. When you receive the script, you know pretty well how to play it, apart from little technicalities like the accent.
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.