The filmmakers Anthony Hopkins despises with a passion: “Those directors, I hate them”
It’s a dangerous game for actors to speak their mind about which directors they can’t stand, especially when filmmaking tends to be a close-knit community where word gets around fast. Then again, Anthony Hopkins literally couldn’t have given less of a shit, which has always been one of his trademarks.
Despite being one of his generation’s finest performers and one of the United Kingdom’s all-time greats, the two-time Academy Award winner has always had a prickly relationship with his profession. Hopkins loves acting and hates actors, which isn’t the ideal position for someone plying their trade in the industry to find themselves in.
Hopkins has been famously outspoken since his early days treading the boards, and it hasn’t always been in his best interests. His temper earned him a reputation for being one of the shortest fuses in stage and screen, and he hardly mellowed with age even after he quit drinking to preserve his livelihood and sanity.
It’s never a good idea for an actor to let everyone know they despise a certain director with every fibre of their being, and not only because it often comes across as unprofessional. Suppose there are filmmakers out there who are friends of the people being dragged over hot coals. In that case, it reasonably stands a chance of immediately ruling Hopkins – or anyone in a similar boat – out of their thinking for future roles.
Still, he didn’t care. Hopkins definitely wouldn’t have gotten along with Alfred Hitchcock, because when he was asked how he felt about Peter Brook, Tony Richardson, and Ken Russell treating actors as little more than puppets, he didn’t hold back in the slightest.
“I have no love for them at all,” he admitted to Playboy. “Richardson was one of the worst. Those directors, I hate them. I don’t understand why actors don’t stand up for themselves when they’re being abused by some directors. Why not stand up and fight against maniacs? I fight it, I don’t put up with. I won’t work. I hate directors who interfere, pass notes. If you have monsters, I don’t care how great they are, it’s not worth getting out of bed in the morning.”
When quizzed on why he had no issues standing up to these directors, challenging their authority, or quitting their productions if they pushed him in a direction he didn’t want to go, Hopkins answered honestly. “Because I don’t give a shit about my career,” he said. “I don’t like anyone bullying other people.”
That’s fair enough, and admirable, too. Hopkins wasn’t interested in the short or long-term effects of making directorial enemies because all he wanted to do was to be treated with respect. Clearly, Brook, Richardson, and Russell didn’t fit that remit, and his hatred for the trio evidently hadn’t subsided when he still detested them decades after they’d worked together.
