The character Anthony Hopkins called “the part of a lifetime”
A true icon of the silver screen and the stage, Anthony Hopkins possesses that exceptional kind of relationship with the acting profession that he has forever been immortalised in its long and rich history. After drawing acclaim for his efforts at the Royal National Theatre, Hopkins set his sights on feature film in the late 1960s, a medium in which he truly excelled.
His early performances in the likes of A Bridge Too Far and The Elephant Man were only eclipsed by his later showings in The Father, The Remains of the Day, Amistad, Nixon and The Two Popes, but one ought not to forget his most significant effort as Hannibal Lecter in Jonathan Demme’s 1991 psychological horror thriller The Silence of the Lambs, based on the 1988 Thomas Harris novel of the same name.
Lecter is indeed one of Hopkins’ most remarkable moments on screen, and it’s hard to look beyond his effort as the locked-up serial killer as being ubiquitous throughout his entire career. But that kind of iconic status has invariably tied the actor to his characters, and Hopkins has explained that he feels shackled to the role unlike any of his other performances.
“I have an instinct for those kinds of people,” Hopkins once told AARP of Lecter. “They’re narcissists. I don’t know if that’s in me — I just understand them. I’ll never escape from that guy. When I started reading The Silence of the Lambs script, I told my agent, ‘This is the part of a lifetime.’ It changed everything for me.”
Never being able to escape from Lecter isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though; it just means that Hopkins understands the wild influence his performance has had on the cinema industry. That’s not to mention the intense character that Dr. Lecter is in the first place, the genius creation of author Thomas Harris.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Hopkins had once explained how he wanted to portray Lecter following Jonathan Demme offering him the role. Hopkins noted: “He said, ‘Well, I saw you in The Elephant Man, playing Dr. Treves.’ Which puzzled me. I said, ‘Why would that resonate with you?’ He said, ‘Well, because Treves is a really good man.’ And I said, ‘Okay. Well, what about Hannibal Lecter?’ He said, ‘I think he’s a good man, he’s a very bright man. He’s trapped in an insane brain.’ I thought, ‘Oh.'”
Hopkins added: “I remember the day when Jonathan asked me [how I wanted to be revealed in the prison cell for the first time]. And he said, ‘The camera’s going to be Jodie coming down the corridor. How’d you want to be seen? Do you want to be standing, or reading, or asleep, or something?’ I said, ‘No. I’d like to be standing.’ ‘Where?’ I said, ‘In the centre of the cell.’ ‘Why?’ I said, ‘I can smell her.’ He said, ‘You are crazy’.”
Check out Hopkins in action as Lecter below.
