Anthony Hopkins’ least favourite kind of actor: “I think that’s a lot of crap”
Anthony Hopkins has been an actor for more than six decades, during which time he has worked with a wide range of performers—from seasoned A-listers to newcomers just starting their careers. Having honed his craft across stage, television, and film, he’s witnessed a vast array of acting styles and approaches. However, there is one type of actor that has always irritated him—and he has never been shy about voicing just how much they annoy him.
In 2012, Hopkins played legendary director Alfred Hitchcock in a movie about the making of his seminal horror movie Psycho. Hopkins knew that Hollywood magic would be involved in making him look as much like Hitch as possible, so that freed him up to pore over episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents to inhabit his voice and mannerisms as much as possible.
Eventually, Hopkins did so much preparation and got himself so thoroughly in the zone that he didn’t want to see himself at any point during the production. The Oscar winner revealed, “I wouldn’t even look at the monitor screens. I didn’t want to see myself or hear myself. I had done enough preparation to do the part.”
One thing Hopkins didn’t do, though, was insist to his co-stars, director, and crew that they should address him as Mr Hitchcock. In fact, when he was asked by HuffPost about the rumour that Daniel Day-Lewis stayed in character at all times on the set of Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, he scoffed, “I think that’s a lot of crap. I just don’t understand that.”
To Hopkins, embracing ‘the method’ the way actors like Day-Lewis have always been known to do is pointless at best and detrimental to a film at worst. “I find it’s a waste of time because it doesn’t add anything to it,” the star told Today. “It’s not a question of becoming a character. I know some actors think they’ve got to become – well, that’s insanity because you can’t. You are you, with your brain.”
Fascinatingly, Hopkins didn’t always feel this way. He confessed that in his younger days, “I would complicate everything, being very method and all that”. However, he soon realised that it was a fool’s game and he only needed to do one basic thing to give himself the foundation for an excellent performance.
“My only preparation is to simply learn the lines,” smiled Hopkins. “Sounds very simplistic, but it is simple because I’ve been doing it for 60-odd years now.”
To be fair, Hopkins’ opinion on method acting is born from hard experience, as opposed to a simple philosophical difference. He has worked with plenty of method actors, and more often than not, he found they made everybody on set miserable. “I’ve been with actors like that, and they’re a pain in the ass,” mused Hopkins. “They really are. They’re unpleasant to work with, and I don’t think they’re always that good either.”
Ultimately, this perspective ties into Hopkins’ overall view of acting: to him, it’s just a job. He shows up on time, delivers his lines to the best of his ability, and goes home. This straightforward, no-fuss approach has earned him two Oscars without requiring any self-inflicted torment. As he succinctly put it, “I’m certainly not going to make my life miserable just to be a character.”
