Anthony Hopkins’ furious reaction to being called a sell-out: “To hell with what they think”
If an actor has been accused of being a sell-out at some point in their career, it has probably come after they’ve found success. The problem is, if you want to grow and progress as an artist, you have to take steps away from your roots, and this will likely result in people calling you nothing more than a cheap old sell-out.
Look at Greta Gerwig, for example. Some might say she has betrayed her roots, having gone from acting in mumblecore indie movies to directing blockbusters like Barbie and signing deals with Netflix, but others are quick to praise the fact that she has risen to become the most commercially successful female filmmaker of all time. People are always going to have differing opinions on what constitutes selling out, and whether it’s necessarily even a bad thing, so you’re best off just making decisions for yourself and no one else.
Legendary actor Anthony Hopkins has always followed his own path, which has allowed him to become one of the most acclaimed actors of his generation. The Oscar-winning star is perhaps most widely recognised for his chilling performance as Hannibal Lecter in Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs – a role he reprised in the 2001 film Hannibal – but he started his career several decades before in the theatre.
Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, Hopkins could be seen in various performances at The Old Vic theatre in London, including William Shakespeare plays such as As You Like It, Coriolanus, The Taming of the Shrew, and Macbeth. Hopkins cut his teeth on the stage, refining his skills by studying the art of the Bard, which subsequently paved the way for his varied and impressive career on the silver screen.
When Hopkins began his career in film, roles were sporadic until the mid-1970s, with one of his early movies being yet another Shakespeare adaptation, Hamlet, directed by Tony Richardson (although the actor called the filmmaker a “phony” and a “fake”). Within a few years, however, Hopkins was ready to branch out, and in 1971 he landed a leading role in When Eight Bells Toll, which also starred Robert Morley, Nathalie Delon, and Jack Hawkins.
The action film marked a change for Hopkins, who was so far best acquainted with period dramas, and some of his contemporaries had a few things to say about the actor supposedly becoming a sell-out.
He told the journalist Jack Bentley, “To hell with what they think. I’d never be ashamed of breaking away from the Shakespeare set. The actors who say they are not in this game for money are either liars or they are off their head. Look, I’ll go on playing Calvert [his character in When Eight Bells Toll] as long as I’m required and be damned grateful. Nobody makes money playing Shakespeare. Now I can pay off the mortgage on my house, buy my wife some extras, and give my daughter a good education.”
Hopkins continued to ‘sell-out’ by appearing in more sizable productions over the years, eventually hitting the jackpot in Hollywood and coming away with six Oscar nominations and two wins in the process.
