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
What I do is just go over and over and over my lines and learn the script so well that I can just be easy and relaxed. That's the way I always work.
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.
I think the healthy way to live is to make friends with the beast inside oneself, and that means not the beast but the shadow. The dark side of one's nature. Have fun with it and you know, is to accept everything about ourselves.
I don't know what acting is, but I enjoy it. I think we ask too many questions of ourselves. We make too much importance of stuff. But I do say to actors when I have taught in classes, or when I sometimes do a talk to a group. I'll say, "If I never acted again, the world wouldn't stop, nor would it stop if I didn't stop acting. That's how important it is. I know it [seems] important when you're young. But I say, "Lighten up. Don't take it all so seriously." All the gurus and teachers will take your money and run.
I have no interest in Shakespeare and all that British nonsense... I just wanted to get famous and all the rest is hogwash.