The actor Anthony Hopkins dreaded working with: “Moodiness scares me”
For decades, Anthony Hopkins has been just as renowned for his calm demeanour and professionalism on set as he has his acting prowess, and he’d be the first to admit that change in personality coincided with his decision to go teetotal.
Like many British actors who rose to prominence in the 1960s before going on to become Hollywood mainstays, Hopkins was fond of a tipple. A touch too fond by his recollections or lack thereof, with the star going cold turkey when he woke up in an Arizona hotel room in December 1975 with no idea how he got there.
From then on, he hasn’t touched a drop, and his career has benefitted immeasurably. A two-time Academy Award winner for ‘Best Actor’, Hopkins hasn’t lost a step despite settling into the elder statesman role, evidenced by the fact he’s the oldest person in Oscars history to ever collect an acting prize.
He’s keenly aware of the damage alcohol and aggression can potentially do to a livelihood, with Hopkins wary of Mel Gibson’s self-destructive tendencies as far back as 1984 when they worked together on The Bounty. That wasn’t who he ended up dreading going to work with, though, although the performer in question has been a thorn in the side of many colleagues over the years.
Hitting the nail on the head, Hopkins referred to himself as “quite amiable and affable and quite fair,” and working with people on the opposite side of the spectrum isn’t among his favourite things to do. “Moodiness scares me,” he told Interview. “It’s all controllable, you see. What gets me is unkindness. Madness. Unwarranted cruelty through words. People who scream and shout.”
Hopkins confessed that he’d been that person in the past, “and I don’t want to do it again”. It’s something that he still has to deal with on the odd occasion, with one instance standing out to such a degree it created a working environment that sounded borderline hostile.
“I know actors who play a violent part and are vicious on set,” he continued. “Mickey Rourke was like that a bit. I dreaded going to the set. Every day I went on a wing and a prayer.” Hopkins was hardly the first or last to have their issues working with Rourke, but it may have been worth it even a little were they to produce magic together.
Instead, Michael Cimino’s 1990 crime thriller Desperate Hours was a box office catastrophe and a critical dud, and it sounds like Rourke got a touch too into character. Playing psychotic murderer Michael Bosworth, he flees from prison and goes on the run with his brother and criminal partner, leading to a home invasion that places Hopkins’ Tim Cornell and Mimi Rogers’ wife Nora in a terrifying predicament.
The story being told on-screen was intense, but Hopkins didn’t enjoy his opposite number maintaining that intensity when the cameras weren’t rolling.
